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Lecture notes of 47 pages for the course Organizations & social movements at EUR (.)
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Hoorcollege 1Foundations of social movements: characteristics and concepts
Examples social movements
Black lives matter
Rainbow flags
#MeToo
Why should we care?
- The development of human history is party contingent on the influence of social movements
- A lot of things that happened in society are formed by social movements
Social movements have fundamentally reshaped societies and are thus seen as a driving force of social
change
Examining social movements thus can lead to a more profound understanding of the social world
around us (incl. understanding how organizations and markets behave)
Some scholars argue that we live in a so-called ‘movement society’ (Meyer & Tarrow, 1998)
→ So much have been influenced by social movements
How can we think about and characterize social movements?
What are social movements?
→ 5 characteristics
,Challengers of systems of authority
- Examples: What do we consider as a system of authority?
- State; national government; for-profit/non-profit/non-governmental organizations;
religious denominations; cultural beliefs and behaviors
- What do they have in common?
- They are recognized as makers of decisions, regulations, procedures and guidelines
influencing some aspect of individuals’ lives
- People who are influenced by these authorities
- These people are called ‘constituents’
Saying that systems of authority are recognized makers of decisions means that constituents typically
act in accordance with the rules and procedures associated with that system of authority.
In doing so they are granting the systems and its actions legitimacy, this does not mean that
constituents agree with the rules, procedures or decisions.
We verlenen de systemen legitimiteit maar dit zegt niet dat constituents het eens zijn met de regels
Why do we care about the systems of authority?
- The are often the targets of social movements
Example → BLM targeted nationals governments
Collective enterprise
- The action taken by social movements is collective as it involves a variety of individuals,
groups, or organizations engaged in joint efforts (between individuals and
groups/organizations)
- Collectively efforts to challenge the systems of authority can vary in nature
Challenges →
- Direct: Include direct and open demands
- The targeted systems of authority is aware of both the claims and who is making the
claims
- Indirect: Do not focus directly on systems of authority
- Rather they focus on changing individuals, ultimately hoping that a mass
individual-level change will lead to a change in the system of authority
Act outside institutional arrangements
- Social movements are only one of many types of joint, collective action
- Others; general crowd behavior (e.g. panics; sports fans cheering); riots; interest
groups
There are many types of collectives that can challenge the systems of authority so →
What sets social movements apart?
Two aspects:
- General collective action is more spontaneous and more emotionally driven, with less
structured roles
- Social movements operate outside institutional channels
,Example of how social movements operate outside institutional channels →
Are organized
Challenges by social movements require joint action in pursuit of a common objective
Joint action of any kind implies some degree of coordination and thus efforts of organization
In many movements we see the interest and objectives of a particular group being represented by one
or move individuals associated with the movements
In other words: Movements need to be organized to do something effectively
Operate with some continuity
Social movements are not fads or brief emotional reactions by groups
→ they have some element of continuity/ or sustaining over time
Life courses of social movements vary:
- Some last for a short while
- Some last for decades
- some persist across generations
Definition of social movements
Social movements are collectivities acting with some degree of organizations and continuity, partly
outside institutional or organizational channels, for the purpose of challenging extant systems of
authority, or resisting change in such systems, in the organization, society, culture or world system in
which they are embedded. (Snow & Soule, 2010)
, Alternatively → a social movement is an organized effort by some group of human beings to affect
change in the face of resistance by other human beings. (aberle, 1966)
What are grievances
When people collectively challenge systems of authority through social movements, they do so over
issues that they deeply care about. These issues and the feelings associated with them are referred to
as grievances
Grievances provide the primary motivation for engaging is social movements activities
- None of the conditions necessary for the emergence and operation of social movements is
more important than the generation of deeply felt, shared grievances
- Difficult to imagine individuals engaging in social movement activity without feeling deeply
aggrieved about some issues that feel contrary to their interests, moral principles, or
well-being (Snow, 2013)
- Of course, other motivations (e.g. curiosity, desire for approval, peer pressure), also come into
play; but they are usually irrelevant in the absence of deeply felt grievances
In other words → when people really care about something we call it grievances and this feeling is a
big motive for engaging in all the activities. Without this feeling people do not feel connected
Mobilizing grievances
To emphasize that these grievances mobilize individuals to work together for a cause, they are very
often called mobilizing grievances
Important to note that:
- The grievances are shared among actors
- The grievances felt to be sufficiently serious to warrant not only collective complaint but also
some kind of collective action
But, how do mobilizing grievances emerge in the first place? What are the drivers of such mobilizing
grievances? →
What drives us to feel about certain things in a particularly deep way?
Grievances as a function of structural and material conditions
1. Mobilizing grievances as an outgrowth of ‘group conflict and inequality’
Argument → Mobilizing grievances and social movements come about as a result of unequal
distribution of rewards (money, status, power) and opportunities in society
Door een ongelijke verdeling in de maatschappij zijn deze gevoelens ontstaan
→ unequal distribution leads to conflict among different groups (e.g. social classes, racial, ethnic,
religious groups) over claims to those rewards and can result in mobilizing grievances
Die ongelijkheid veroorzaakt gevoelens en meerdere mensen ervaren deze gevoelens
Central advocate of this idea: Karl Marx
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