Module 4: Chapter 18.3: Social Movements and Social Change

Reformist Principal Aims:

To bring about change within the existing economic and political system.

Rebellious Principal Aims:

To fundamentally alter the existing political and/or economic system without a detailed alternative vision.

Revolutionary Principal Aims:

To fundamentally change the existing social, political, and/or economic system in light of an alternative vision.

New Social Movements Principal Aims:

To make fundamental changes in values, culture, and private life.

Reactionary Principal Aims:

To restore an earlier social system—often based on a mythical vision of the past.

Utopian Principal Aims:

To withdraw from society and create a utopian community.

The success or failure of SMOs also depends on their ability to influence the mass media. During the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam War organizations became very effective in commanding the television spotlight, although this effectiveness proved a mixed blessing: Media coverage frequently sensationalized demonstrations rather than presenting the underlying issues, thus contributing to rivalries and tensions within the antiwar movement.

Today, arguably, social media exercises even greater influence on movement success.

In a sense, the new social movements reflect the sociological imagination,...

which calls for us to understand the relationship between our personal experiences and larger social forces.

Revolutionary Examples:

-1776 U.S. Revolutionary War -1905 and 1917 Russian Revolutions -1991 South African antiapartheid movement -2010 Arab Spring

New Social Movements Examples:

-Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights movements -Disability rights movement -Body acceptance movement -Mindfulness movements

Rebellious Examples:

-Nat Turner slave rebellion -Urban riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Utopian Examples:

-Religious communities such as the Quakers, Shakers, and Mennonites -1960s communes in the United States

Reformist Examples:

-U.S. civil rights movement -March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control movement -Climate change activism, like that practiced by Greta Thunberg -Teacher activism seeking better pay and funding for public education

Reactionary Examples:

-White supremacist organizations in the United States -European skinheads and neofascist movements

Sociology generally explains activism in such terms as having had prior contact with movement members, belonging to social networks that support movement activity, and having a history of activism. Coming from a family background of social activism may also be important. One study, for example, found that many white male activists during the early 1960s social movements had parents who themselves had been activists 30 years earlier.

A lack of personal constraints may also be a partial explanation; it is obviously easier for individuals to engage in political activity if work or family circumstances afford them the necessary time and resources. Finally, a sense of moral rightness may provide a powerful motivation to become active, even when the work is difficult and the monetary rewards are small or nonexistent.

Social Movement

A large number of people who come together in a continuing and organized effort to bring about (or resist) social change and who rely at least partially on noninstitutionalized forms of political action.

SMOs range from informal volunteer groups to professional organizations with full-time leadership and staff. A single social movement may sustain numerous such organizations:

A partial list associated with the 1960s civil rights movement includes the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the Black Panther Party. As social movements grow, so too do the number of SMOs associated with them, each vying for members, financial support, and media attention.

Resources Mobilization Theory

A theory that focuses on the ability of social movement organizations to generate money, membership, and political support to achieve their objectives.

Why do social movements arise? Part 1:

Although social movements have existed throughout history, modern society has created conditions in which they thrive and multiply. The rise of the modern democratic nation-state, along with the development of capitalism, has fueled their growth. Democratic forms of governance, which emphasize social equality and rights of political participation, legitimate the belief that people should organize themselves politically to achieve their goals. Democratic nation-states give rise to social movements—and often protect them as well. Capitalism, which raises universal economic expectations while producing some inequality, further spurs the formation of such movements.

Revolutionary social movements sometimes, although by no means always, include violence. In South Africa, for example, the movements that were most successful in bringing about an end to apartheid were largely nonviolent. Those that defeated socialism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe did so with a minimal amount of bloodshed. Nevertheless, revolutionary movements associated with the Arab Spring, which began in 2010 in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, resulted in considerable violence, most often perpetrated against the protesters by those already in power or their allies. It is unclear, however, whether the...

Arab Spring movements were truly revolutionary; most new governments are not radically more democratic than their predecessors. It takes time for political and economic conditions to change within any given country, however, and although some dictators have been removed from power, it remains to be seen whether these changes in political office will result in the changes desired by constituents.

Social movements often include some degree of formal organization oriented toward achieving longer-term goals, along with supporting sets of beliefs and opinions, but their strength often derives from their ability to disrupt the status quo by means of spontaneous, relatively unorganized political actions.

As part of its support for the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) advocated the disruption of normal business activities, such as boycotting buses and restaurants, to force integration. The people who participate in social movements typically are outside the existing set of power relationships in society; such movements provide one of the few forms of political voice available to the relatively powerless.

Finally, even the spatial organization of society may have an impact on social movements. Dense, concentrated neighborhoods or workplaces facilitate social interaction and spur the growth of social movements. A century and a half ago, Karl Marx recognized that cities and factories were powerful breeding grounds for revolutionary insurgency against capitalism, since they brought previously isolated workers together in single locations. Subsequent research has sustained his conclusion. The concentration of students on college campuses contributed to the rise of student activism in the 1960s.

As we saw in our opening story, some students (and this time at the level of high school as well as college) are actively engaged in activism today.

Grassroots Organizing

Attempts to mobilize support among the ordinary members of a community.

Why not let others join the social movement and do the hard work, since if the movement succeeds then everyone will benefit, regardless of degree of participation?

Clearly, it takes a great deal of motivation and commitment, as well as a conviction that their efforts may make a difference, for people to devote their time to mailing leaflets or organizing marches; building such motivation and commitment is a major challenge faced by all social movements.

Finally, the sociologically significant processes of globalization and technological change provide both resources and constraints for people everywhere. A globalized economy has both positive and negative effects. It opens up the possibility of an increase in the standard of living for people worldwide as assisted by its increases in global productive capacity, technological advances, and global cooperation. It may also lead to lowered wages and to job losses in high-wage industrial countries, as well as to exploitative labor conditions in the low-wage countries of the world.

Concerns about such problems have given rise to labor and environmental groups that operate across national borders and, as a result, social movements themselves are increasingly internationalized.

Regardless of the efforts particular SMOs make, large-scale economic, political, and cultural conditions ultimately determine a movement's success or failure. For a social movement to arise and succeed, conditions must be such that people feel it is necessary and are willing to support it. Therefore, social movements emerge and flourish in times of other social change, particularly if people experience that change as disruptive of their daily lives.

For example, the labor movement arose with the emergence of industrial capitalism, which brought harsh conditions to the lives of many people, and the women's movement reemerged in the 1960s, when expanded educational opportunities for women left many female college graduates feeling marginalized and alienated as full-time homemakers and workplace discrimination threw obstacles in the way of their workplace aspirations.

Social-Movement Organizations (SMOs)

Formal organizations that seek to achieve social change through noninstitutionalized forms of political action.

Why do social movements arise? Part 2:

Given these general historical circumstances, sociologists have advanced several theories to explain why people sometimes come together to create or resist social change. Some focus on the micro level, looking at the characteristics and motivations of the people who join social movements. Some focus on the organizational level, looking at the characteristics that result in successful social-movement organizations. Some focus on the macro level, examining the societal conditions that give rise to social movements. More recently, theories have emphasized cultural dimensions of social movements, stressing the extent to which social movements reflect—as well as shape—larger cultural understandings. An ideal theory would bridge all these levels, and some efforts have been made to develop one.

Conscience constituents are motivated by strong ethical convictions rather than by direct self-interest in achieving the social movement's goals. The National Coalition for the Homeless, for example, consists primarily of public interest lawyers, shelter operators, and others who advocate on behalf of homeless people; only a relatively small number of homeless people are directly involved in the organization.

Homeless advocacy groups raise money from numerous sources, including media celebrities and direct mailings to ordinary citizens.

Social movements have often served as a means to an end: People come together to achieve specific objectives, such as improving the conditions of workers, gaining equality for the disadvantaged, or protesting a war. In the past, participation in such social movements was often separate from members' personal lives. Since the 1960s, however, many social movements have sought to break the boundary between politics and personal life.

In addition to serving as a means for changing the world, the SMO has come to be seen as a vehicle for personal change and growth.

Finally, an SMO may seek to build support by attempting to change the way people think entirely. Revolutionary SMOs, for example, urge people to stop thinking of themselves as victims of bad luck, focusing attention instead on the faults of the political or economic system, which presumably requires a drastic overhaul.

In sum, SMOs are competing for the hearts and minds of their constituents, with whom they must somehow bring their own beliefs and analyses into alignment if they are to succeed.

Whether a social movement is viewed as reactionary or revolutionary depends, to some extent, on the observer's perspective. In Iran, for example, a social movement led by the Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the nation's pro-U.S. leader in 1979 and created an Islamic republic that quickly reestablished traditional Muslim laws. In the pronouncements of U.S. policy makers and the mass media, the new Iranian regime was reactionary:

It required women to be veiled, turned its back on democratic institutions, and levied death sentences on those who violated key Islamic values or otherwise threatened the Islamic state. Yet from the point of view of the clerics who led the upheaval, the movement overthrew a corrupt and brutal dictator who had enriched his family at the expense of the Iranian people and had fostered an alien way of life offensive to traditional Iranian values. From this standpoint, the movement claimed to be revolutionary, promising to provide a better life for Iranians.

Some political systems encourage social movements, while others repress them. When a government is in crisis, it may respond by becoming more repressive, or it may create a space for social movements to flourish. The former action occurred in China in 1989, when thousands of students and workers, frustrated by deteriorating economic conditions and rigid government controls, took to the streets to demand greater economic and political freedom. The brutal crackdown at Beijing's Tiananmen Square, televised live to a global audience, ended the nascent social movement for democracy.

Likewise, government crackdowns on demonstrators and social-movement participants have been widespread throughout the Middle East and North Africa as a second wave of Arab Spring movements continued into 2020 in countries such as Jordan, Sudan, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Iraq, and Morocco.

Free-Rider Problem

Many people avoid the costs of social-movement activism (such as time, energy, and other personal resources) and still benefit from its success.

New Social Movements

Movements that have arisen since the 1960s and are fundamentally concerned with the quality of private life, often advocating large-scale cultural changes in how people think and act.

New social movements may be formally organized, with clearly defined roles (leadership, recruiting, and so on), or they may be informal and loosely organized, preferring spontaneous and confrontational methods to more bureaucratic approaches.

Part of the purpose of new social movements in protesting, in fact, is not to force a distinction between "them" and "us" but to draw attention to the movement's own right to exist as equals with other groups in society.

The new social movements aim to improve life in a wide range of areas subject to governmental, business, or other large-scale institutional control, from the workplace to sexuality, health, education, and interpersonal relationships. Four characteristics set these movements apart from earlier ones #2

People join new SMOs not purely to achieve specific goals but also because they value participation for its own sake. For instance, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and more) movements have provided safe havens for members in addition to pursuing social change.

Conscience Constituents

People who provide resources for a social-movement organization but who are not themselves members of the aggrieved group that the organization champions.

Just as economic and political collapse may facilitate the rise of social movements, so too may prosperity. Resources for social activism are more abundant, mass media and other means of communication are more likely to be readily available, and activists are more likely to have independent means of supporting themselves.

Prosperous societies are also more likely to have large classes of well-educated people, a group that has historically provided the leadership in many social movements.

The new social movements aim to improve life in a wide range of areas subject to governmental, business, or other large-scale institutional control, from the workplace to sexuality, health, education, and interpersonal relationships. Four characteristics set these movements apart from earlier ones #3

Rather than large, bureaucratically run, top-down organizations, the new social movements are often networks of people engaged in routine daily activities. For example, a small online movement was begun by a woman who objected to an unannounced $5 charge on her credit card bill; her protest was joined by thousands of others, and the bank rescinded the charge. Groups trying to raise awareness of climate change and threats to the environment often are loosely organized and register their concerns online and through other media, such as newspapers and television talk shows.

Reformist Social Movements

Seek to bring about social change within the existing economic and political system (and usually address institutions such as the courts and lawmaking bodies and/or public officials).

Revolutionary Social Movements

Seek to fundamentally alter the existing social, political, and economic system, in keeping with a vision of a new social order.

Rebellions

Seek to overthrow the existing social, political, and economic systems but lack detailed plans for a new social order.

Reactionary Social Movements

Seek to restore an earlier social system—often based on a mythical past—along with the traditional norms and values that once presumably accompanied it.

Utopian Social Movements

Seek to withdraw from the dominant society by creating their own ideal communities.

The #MeToo movement in the United States is an awareness campaign against sexual harassment and assault, first started in 2006. In 2017, following the surfacing of sexual-violence accusations of prominent film producer Harvey Weinstein, actress Alyssa Milano took to Twitter encouraging survivors of sexual violence to spread the hashtag #MeToo, to give the world "a sense of the magnitude of the problem."

Since then, #MeToo has become an international movement, bringing awareness to the fact that millions of women (and men) have been victims of sexual assault and/or harassment in many spheres (MeToo, n.d.). The movement calls for action against perpetrators and has shown survivors that they have an entire community to which to turn for support. The #MeToo movement has manifested as both online activism and live protest actions.

Much early civil rights activism was oriented toward registering southern Blacks to vote, so that by exercising their legal franchise, they could achieve a measure of political power. Within the civil rights movement, however, there were activists who concluded that the rights of Black Americans would never be achieved through reformist activities alone. Like many social movements, the civil rights movement was marked by internal struggles and debates regarding the degree to which purely reformist activities were adequate to the movement's objectives.

The Black Panther Party, for example, argued for more radical changes in U.S. society, advocating for "Black Power" instead of merely fighting for an end to racial segregation. The Black Panthers often engaged in reformist activities, such as establishing community centers and calling for the establishment and support of more Black-owned businesses. At the same time, they also engaged in revolutionary activities, such as arming themselves against what they viewed to be a hostile police presence within Black neighborhoods.

In one common situation, people already share the social movement's concerns and understandings but lack the means to bring about the desired changes. In this case, there is no need for the SMO to get people to change their thinking about the problem; rather, the task is to get people to support the movement's efforts to do something about it.

The SMO must get the word out, whether through informal networks, direct-mail campaigns, or (more recently) social media.

A related problem is goal displacement, which occurs when an SMO's original goals become redirected toward enhancing the organization and its leadership.

The U.S. labor movement is an example: Once labor unions became successful, many of them became large and prosperous bureaucracies that were perceived as distanced from the needs of their rank-and-file members.

The new social movements aim to improve life in a wide range of areas subject to governmental, business, or other large-scale institutional control, from the workplace to sexuality, health, education, and interpersonal relationships. Four characteristics set these movements apart from earlier ones #1

The new social movements focus not only on the distribution of material goods but also on the control of symbols and information—an appropriate goal for an "information society" in which the production and ownership of knowledge are increasingly valuable.

The new social movements aim to improve life in a wide range of areas subject to governmental, business, or other large-scale institutional control, from the workplace to sexuality, health, education, and interpersonal relationships. Four characteristics set these movements apart from earlier ones #4

The new social movements strongly emphasize the interconnectedness of planetary life and may see their actions as tied to a vision of the planet as a whole, rather than centering on narrow self-interest. "Think globally, act locally" is the watchword, and includes, but is not limited to, an awareness of environmental issues.

Frame Alignment

The process by which the interests, understandings, and values of a social-movement organization are shaped to match those in the wider society.

Some recent research has been devoted to understanding how social movements are consciously and deliberately organized to create social change.

The study of SMOs represents a major sociological step away from regarding social change as resulting from unorganized individuals and crowds. Instead, it places the study of social change within the framework of the sociology of organizations.

Much of the research we have discussed emphasizes the political, economic, and organizational conditions that either help or hinder the rise of social movements. Sociologists have often regarded social movements as by-products of favorable social circumstances rather than as the active accomplishments of their members. Today, however, instead of stressing how important it is for conditions to be ripe for social movements to thrive, many sociologists are thinking about how SMOs themselves are continually interpreting events so as to align themselves better with the cultural understanding of the wider society. The 21st-century Tea Party movement is a good example. Although it had a long list of political goals it wanted to achieve, it succeeded in rallying people around the idea that "big government" and taxation were threats to freedom and liberty.

These are ideas that resonate with those who have some suspicion of intrusive government. The movement sought to create a good fit between itself and people who were its likely constituents.

An ongoing example is the Dreamer movement of Dreamers and their supporters, which has supported passage of the Dream Initiative (DACA). The Dreamers are undocumented individuals, arriving before the age of 16, mostly from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. They were "younger than 31 on 15 June 2012, when the DACA program began" (The Guardian, n.d.).

This immigration reform legislation allows undocumented young people who migrated to the United States with their families when they were children to have access to higher education and, over time, permanent residency or citizenship. An executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2012 allowed Dreamers to apply for deferred action permits and avoid deportation under certain conditions. In 2017, the Donald J. Trump administration rescinded the 2012 memo that allowed for the Dream Initiative, seeking to wind down the program. This move was challenged by U.S. district courts in California, New York, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had unlawfully attempted to terminate the program but "also recognized that the federal government ultimately retains the legal authority to end the DACA initiative if it were to do so in compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA)."

The free-rider problem can also be connected to "activism" on social media. For instance, Christensen (2011) identifies a phenomenon he calls slacktivism or "political activities that have no impact on real-life political outcomes, but only serve to increase the feel-good factor of the participants."

We can apply the idea of slacktivism to social media and free-riding, because social media can allow users to click from the distance of their homes while avoiding other in-person costs including, as mentioned above, time, energy, and resources. However, in a thoughtful article about student activism, Cabrera et al. show that activism is not a zero-sum game, writing of the importance of social media along with in-person social interactions.

Grassroots organizing may range from door-to-door canvassing to leafleting to get people to attend massive demonstrations. Most social movements emerge from...

a group that has some grievance, and their active members consist largely of people who will directly benefit from any social change that occurs.

Revolutionary social movements frequently result from the...

belief that reformist approaches are unlikely to succeed because the political or economic system is too resistant. In fact, whether a social movement becomes predominantly reformist or revolutionary may well hinge on the degree to which its objectives can be achieved within the system.

Although some religious utopian movements have endured, those based on social philosophy have not. Some utopian socialist communities were founded in the United States during the 19th century; some provided models for the socialist collectives of the 1960s. Few lasted for any length of time. The old ways of thinking and acting proved remarkably tenacious, and the presence of the larger society—which remained largely unchanged by the experimentation—was a constant temptation. Alternative institutions such as...

communally run newspapers and health clinics found they had to contend with well-funded mainstream competitors. Most folded or reverted to mainstream forms.

Much like businesses, then, SMOs rise or fall on their ability to be competitive in a resource-scarce environment. Some scholars have even written of social-movement "industries," with...

competing organizations engaging in "social marketing" to promote their particular "brands" of social change.

The youth movements of the 1960s had a strong utopian impulse; many young (and a few older) people "dropped out" of conventional society and formed their own communities, starting alternative newspapers, health clinics, and schools, and in general, seeking to live according to their own value systems outside the established social institutions. Some sought to live communally as well, pooling their resources and sharing tasks and responsibilities. They saw these efforts to...

create intentional communities, based on cooperation rather than competition, as the seeds of a revolutionary new society.

In the end, SMOs have to motivate people to support their causes, often with...

dollars as well as votes.

Rebellions are particularly common in societies where...

effective mobilization against existing structures is difficult or impossible because of the structures' repressive nature. The histories of European feudalism and U.S. slavery are punctuated by examples of rebellions. Nat Turner, an enslaved Black American, led other enslaved people in an 1831 uprising against their white enslavers in the state of Virginia. Before the uprising was suppressed, 55 whites were killed, and subsequently, Turner and 16 of his followers were hanged.

Resources mobilization theory argues that since discontent and social strain are always present among some members of any society, these factors cannot explain the rise or the relative success of social movements. Rather, what matters are differences in the resources available to different groups and how effectively they use them. The task for sociologists, then, is to...

explain why some SMOs are better able to deploy scarce resources than others. Among the most important resources are tangible assets, such as money, facilities, and means of communication, as well as such intangibles as a central core of dedicated, skilled, hardworking members.

Reformist social movements are most often found in societies where democratic institutions make it possible to achieve social change within the established political processes. Yet even reformist social movements can include...

factions that advocate more sweeping, revolutionary social changes. Sometimes, the government fails to respond, or it responds very slowly, raising frustrations. At other times, the government may actively repress a movement, arresting its leaders, breaking up its demonstrations, and even outlawing its activities.

The Disability Rights Movement, a local, national, and global movement, could be seen as an example of a new social movement. In the United States, members of the movement fought for civil rights for people with disabilities for many years, finally achieving the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. The law put into place safeguards regarding employment and accommodations in public places, removing legal discrimination against those with disabilities. Such discriminations were profound, including denial of services and educational opportunities, lack of accessibility for wheelchairs, lack of housing, medical discrimination, and many more. The 2020 documentary Crip Camp reveals how Camp Jened, a summer camp for those with disabilities located in the Catskill Mountains in New York, "fostered a sense of community and creativity that fed directly into the American disability rights movement in the 1970s."

he movement continues today, targeting perceptions about people with disabilities, as well as drawing attention to and addressing continuing gaps in accessibility such as inadequacies in public school disability accommodations.

Theories of collective behavior generally emphasize the passive, reactive side of human behavior. Social movement theory, in contrast, regards...

human beings as agents of their own history—actors who have visions and goals, analyze existing conditions, weigh alternative courses of action, and organize themselves as best they can to achieve success.

Revolutionary movements call for basic changes in economics, politics, norms, and values, offering a blueprint for a new social order that can be achieved only through mass action, usually by fostering conflict between those who favor change and those who favor the status quo. They are directed at clearly identifiable targets, such as a system of government believed to be unjust or an economy believed to be based on exploitation. Yet even the most revolutionary of social movements are likely to have reformist elements:...

members or factions who believe some change is possible within the established institutions. In most social movements, members debate the relative importance of reformist and revolutionary activities. Although the rhetoric may favor revolution, most day-to-day activities are likely to support reform. Only when a social movement is suppressed and avenues to reform are closed off will its methods call for outright revolution.

If their members' understandings align with the understandings of others in a community or society, social movements are likely to be successful; otherwise, they are likely to fail. SMOs achieve frame alignment in a variety of ways, ranging from...

modifying the beliefs of members to attempting to change the beliefs of the entire society.

Social movements thus have one foot outside the political establishment, and this is what distinguishes them from other efforts aimed at bringing about social change. Their political activities are not limited to such routine efforts as lobbying or campaigning; they include...

noninstitutionalized political actions such as boycotts, marches, and other demonstrations and civil disobedience.

The civil rights movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s called for social changes that would enforce the constitutionally mandated civil rights of African Americans; it often included...

nonviolent civil disobedience directed at breaking unjust laws. The ultimate aim of the civil rights movement was to change those laws, rather than to change society as a whole. Thus, for example, when Rosa Parks violated the laws of Montgomery, Alabama, by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person, she was challenging the city ordinance, not the government itself.

Although some scholars have argued that larger, more bureaucratic SMOs are likely to be successful in the long run, others have claimed that mass defiance, rather than formal organization, is the key to success.Paradoxically, too much success may undermine social movements, since their strength derives partly from their being outside society's power structures as they make highly visible demands for social change. Once a group's demands are met, the participants are...

often drawn inside the very power structures they once sought to change. Movement leaders become bureaucrats, their fights are conducted by lawyers and government officials, and rank-and-file members disappear; the militant thrust of the organization is then blunted.

Much research has focused on what motivates individuals to become active members of social movements. Psychological factors turn out to be poor predictors. Neither personality nor personal alienation adequately accounts for activist leanings. Rather,...

participation seems motivated more by psychological identification with others who are similarly afflicted.

Governmental policies are important determinants of the success or failure of SMOs. The government may repress an organization, driving it underground so that it has difficulty operating. Or the government may favor more moderate organizations (for example, Martin Luther King Jr.'s SCLC) over other, more radical ones (such as the Black Panther Party). Other ways in which the government affects SMOs are through regulating them,...

providing favorable tax treatment for those that qualify, and refraining from excessive surveillance or harassment.

Because SMOs constitute a type of formal organization, sociologists use the same concepts and tools to study civil rights organizations and revolutionary groups as they do to study business firms and government bureaucracies. Researchers conceptualize SMOs' actions as...

rational, their goals as more or less clearly defined, and their organizational structures as bureaucratically oriented toward specific measurable goals.

For these groups, a mythical past is often the starting point for pursuing goals aimed at transforming the present. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the White Aryan Resistance, and other white supremacist organizations have long sought to return to a United States where whites held exclusive political and economic power. Their methods have ranged from...

spreading discredited social and biological theories that expound the superiority of the "white race" to acts of violence against Black, Asian, Hispanic/Latinx, Jewish, gay and lesbian, and other Americans deemed to be inferior or otherwise a threat to the "American way of life."

The experience of U.S. labor unions, another example of a reformist social movement, shows the limits of the reformist approach to social change. Organized labor's principal demands have been for fewer hours, higher wages and benefits, job security, and safer working conditions. (In Europe, similar demands have been made, although workers there have sought political power as well.) Labor unions within the United States seldom appeal to a broad constituency beyond the workers themselves, and as a result,...

their success has depended largely on workers' economic power. U.S. workers have lost much of that power since the early 1970s, as economic globalization has meant the loss of many jobs to low-wage areas. Threats of strikes are no longer quite as menacing, as corporations can close factories down and reopen them elsewhere in the world.

Reactionary social movements are termed reactionary because

they arise in reaction to recent social changes that threaten or have replaced the old order. They are also sometimes referred to as countermovements or resistance movements for the same reason.

Social movements are typically classified according to the direction and degree of change they seek. For the purposes of our discussion, we will distinguish five different kinds: reformist, revolutionary, rebellious, reactionary, and utopian. In fact, these distinctions are not clear-cut, and the categories are not mutually exclusive. Rather,...

they represent ideal types.

As globalization threatens traditional ways of life around the world, we might expect to see an increase in reactionary social movements. This is especially likely to be the case if threats to long-standing traditional values are accompanied by declines in standards of living. In Germany, for example, a decline in living standards for many working-class people has spawned a small but significant resurgence of Nazi ideology and a group named the Alternative for Germany party (AFG), which has also worked its way into the state military. White supremacist groups often blame immigrants for their economic woes. The result has been a...

vocal campaign by skinhead groups against immigrants, particularly in the states that made up the former East Germany, which have seen greater economic upheavals than other parts of the country. It has also resulted in violence including the assassination of a politician, attack on a synagogue, and killing of nine immigrants.

The body of research on social movements in the United States is partially the result of movements that began in the late 1950s and gained attention and support in the 1960s and early 1970s. Theories of collective behavior, with their emphasis on the seemingly irrational actions of unorganized crowds,...

were ill equipped to explain the rise of well-organized efforts by hundreds of thousands of people to change government policies toward the Vietnam War and civil rights for African Americans. As these two social movements spawned others, including the second-wave feminist movement, which saw women demanding greater rights and opportunities in the workplace, sociologists had to rethink their basic assumptions and develop new theoretical perspectives.

The American Woman Suffrage Association, formed in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was a reformist organization that resulted in significant social changes. During the latter part of the 19th century, it became one of the most powerful political forces in the United States, seeking to liberate women from oppression and ensure them the right to vote,...

which precipitated the first wave of the women's movement. In 1872, Victoria Woodhull helped to organize the Equal Rights Party, which nominated her for the U.S. presidency (even though, by law, no woman could vote for her); she campaigned on the issues of voting rights for women, the right of women to earn and control their own money, and free love.

After a half century of struggle by numerous social movement activists,...

women finally won the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.