Defining Social Movements

SOCIAL MOVEMENT?

As a matter of house keeping, there are a few phrases I've been using which need some good, working definitions to go along with them. I've referred to both "collective action" and to "social movements" several times without properly defining either.

My friends over at Wikipedia tell me that "Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change." Meanwhile, Princeton's Wordnet dictionary takes a much broader approach saying, a social movement is "a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals."

Finally, the Encyclopedia Britannica gets props for the most formal definition of a social movement as a:

loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society’s structure or values. Although social movements differ in size, they are all essentially collective. That is, they result from the more or less spontaneous coming together of people whose relationships are not defined by rules and procedures but who merely share a common outlook on society.

While I would respectfully disagree with the Britannica's take that social movements are "more or less spontaneous," all three definitions emphasize two critical points. Social movements:

1. Aim to implement or prevent a change in society’s structure or values
2. Are accomplished through collective action

Collective action can be defined in one of two basic ways:

1. Action taken as part of a group
2. Action taken for the good of the group

Both definitions are accurate, and the two often overlap. In many social movements, the "collective action" is something designed to influence decision makers. If you and a hundred of your closest friends call your representative about an issue, your individual phone call is part of the larger collective action. Furthermore, since you are taking the action for the good of the group (society at large) this fits into the second definition as well.

In fact, the collective actions we will look at will all fit into both definitions. While a single social movement might not be universally seen as "good," the people taking action on its behalf act believing that they are doing what is in the best interest of society.

Collective actions are often utilized by social movements because the uniformity build the strength of the movement. 100 people being angry on their own accomplishes nothing. 100 people acting strategically to achieve a goal can accomplish a lot.