Social Movements Towards Social Change

Credits to Sarah Reich

          Social change is large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizations which focus on specific political or social issues. As society redevelops itself and progresses to keep up with the ever changing dynamics of its citizens, social movements are an outlet available to bring about change within the law. 

          Social movement is a broad term and often can have specific goals and targets in mind, when trying to mobilize the law. "Social movements are collective actors or groups that seek a common goal or express a common identity; targets may include states, society, corporations, and/or social norms and values. May be conservative or progressive" (Hilson, 2002). We must accept that social movements may not always be seeking a goal but expressing an identity. Social movements make claims in relation to law or based on law. 

Credits to Kleier

          Social movements deliberately and proactively litigate when they bring a case with a number of different goals in mind. An example of legal mobilization through a social movement would be the assertion of women's rights in regard to abortion. Women have a right to choose whether or not they want to reproduce and  through the use of social movements we have seen laws progressively change. The effects of social movements can resonate on individuals, institutions, cultures or political systems. While political impacts have been studied the most by the researchers, effects on other levels can be counted at least as important as the others. Because Impact Theory has many methodological issues, it is the last studies of the major branches of Social Movement Theory.

While technology, population, environment factors, and racial inequality can prompt social change, only when members of a society organize into social movements does true social change occur. Social movements refers to collective activities designed to bring about or resist primary changes in an existing society or group. Wherever they occur, social movements can dramatically shape the direction of society. When individuals and groups of people—civil rights activists and other visionaries, for instance—transcend traditional bounds, they may bring about major shifts in social policy and structures.

Social movements are purposeful, organized groups striving to work toward a common goal. These groups might be attempting to create change, to resist change, or to provide a political voice to those otherwise disenfranchised. Social movements, along with technology, social institutions, population, and environmental changes, create social change.

The functionalist perspective, focusing on the way that all aspects of society are integral to the continued health and viability of the whole. When studying social movements, a functionalist might focus on why social movements develop, why they continue to exist, and what social purposes they serve.

The conflict perspective focuses on the creation and reproduction of inequality. Someone applying the conflict perspective would likely be interested in how social movements are generated through systematic inequality, and how social change is constant, speedy, and unavoidable.

The symbolic interaction perspective studies the day-to-day interaction of social movements, the meanings individuals attach to involvement in such movements, and the individual experience of social change. An interactionist studying social movements might address social movement norms and tactics as well as individual motivations.

- Zabala Jeanella Shaine C. & Vergara, Carla Erika D.C