Week 11: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

“Why study social movements? Depending on your interests, there are a variety of answers. According to Goodwin and Jasper (2003: 4–5), studying social movements
• helps one understand why people protest and what they want to accomplish;
• helps one to learn more about politics, including existing public policies;
• sheds light on major sources of change and conflict in society;
• aids one in finding out more about human action or social theory about human behavior and beliefs;
• provides information about technical changes and their advantages and disadvantages;
•promotes changes in values and fosters new visions of society;
• helps one recognize that certain movements may want to restrict social change because they believe it would disrupt society or be harmful to certain members of society;
• aids in understanding the moral basis of society or the “moral sensibilities” that guide our actions.
Perhaps you have participated in a social movement and you have your own beliefs about those who also participated and about the success of the movement.
In this chapter, we argue that social movements are a key part of the study of politics and of the relationship between society and politics even though some have maintained that movements are part 

“of irrational, non-political behavior. In their book on political participation, Milbrath and Goel (1977) followed the traditional political science usage of categories at that time and placed social movements under the label of unconventional political behavior. Conventional activities were regarded as normal or legitimate. Today most political sociologists’ views of social movement participants have changed, as political sociologists emphasize the rational elements of social movements.”