collective action and social movements. chapter outline the study of collective action and social...
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Collective Action andSocial Movements
Chapter OutlineThe Study of Collective Action and Social
MovementsNonroutine Collective ActionSocial MovementsFraming Discontent: A Symbolic
Interactionist ApproachThe Future of Social Movemetns
Collective ActionWhen people act in unison to bring about or
resist social, political, and economic change. Routine collective actions follow established
patterns of behavior in existing social structures.
Nonroutine collective actions take place when usual conventions cease to guide social action and people bypass established structures.
Social MovementsEnduring collective attempts to change part
or all of the social order by means of rioting, petitioning, striking, demonstrating, and establishing lobbies, unions, and political parties.
Breakdown Theory: Functional AnalysisThree Factors: A group of people must be economically
deprived or socially rootless. Their norms must be strained or disrupted. They must lose the capacity to act rationally
by getting caught up in the madness of crowds.
Deprivation, Crowds, and the Breakdown of Norms Most pre-1970 sociologists would have said
lynchings were caused by: Economic deprivation experienced by
impoverished and marginal members of the community.
The inherent irrationality of crowd behavior. The serious violation of norms.
Deprivation and PovertyAbsolute deprivation is a condition of
extreme poverty.Relative deprivation is an intolerable gap
between the social rewards people feel they deserve and the social rewards they actually receive.
Polling Question Civil disobedience is better to use than
militant activity for groups to get their point across for social change.
a. Strongly agreeb. Agree somewhatc. Unsured. Disagree somewhat
Assessing Breakdown Theory: Lynchings Deprivation
Research shows no association between fluctuations in economic well-being and lynchings that took place between the 1880s and the 1930s.
Assessing Breakdown Theory: LynchingsContagion is the process by which extreme
passions supposedly spread rapidly through a crowd like a contagious disease.Many lynchings were neither spontaneous or
unorganized.
Assessing Breakdown Theory: LynchingsStrain refers to breakdowns in traditional
norms that precede collective action.Lynching was a means by which black farm
workers were kept tied to the southern cotton industry after the abolition of slavery threatened to disrupt the industry’s traditional, captive labor supply.
Frequency of Lynching, United States, 1882–1935
Social Disorganization Example: Prison riots
– Government officials make demands of administrators without providing resources.
– Corrections staff oppose the reforms. – Administrators take actions that inmates
perceive as unjust. – Inmates decide rioting will draw attention to
the unjust conditions.
RumorsClaims about the world that are not
supported by authenticated information.They are a form of communication that takes
place when people try to construct a meaningful interpretation of an ambiguous situation.
While rumor transmission is a form of collective action, it typically intensifies just before and during riots.
The Social Determinantsof Rumors
Polling Question Have you ever participated in an
organized protest?a. Yesb. No
Solidarity Theory: Conflict AnalysisHolds that social movements are social
organizations that emerge when potential members:mobilize resourcestake advantage of new political opportunitiesavoid high levels of social control by
authorities.
Resource MobilizationRefers to the process by which social
movements crystallize due to increasing organizational, material, and other resources of movement members.
Political OpportunitiesPolitical opportunities for collective action
and social movement growth occur during election campaigns, when influential allies offer insurgents support, when ruling political alignments become unstable, and when elite groups become divided and conflict with one another.
Social ControlRefers to the means by which authorities
seek to contain collective action, including co-optation, concessions, and coercion.
Union DensityThe number of union members in a given
location and time as a percentage of nonfarm workers.
It measures the organizational power of unions.
Strikes and Resource MobilizationThe industrial working class has been
weakened by globalization and employer hostility to unions
Many American employers began to contest unionization elections legally, running anti-union campaigns
Decline in organizational resources available to workers matched an increase in anti-union resources mobilized by employers
Strikes and Resource Mobilization, cont.Social organization usually facilitates
collective action and less social organization means less protests
Strikes have been more frequent during economic booms and less frequent during economic busts
Frequency of Strikes with1000+ Workers
Strikes and Political OpportunitiesGovernment action has limited opportunities
for union growthEven in good times, workers avoid striking
because the government has so weakened the opportunity, they are unable to use the strike as a means of improving their wages and benefits
Unemployment and Frequency of Big Strikes, 1948–2004
Frame AlignmentThe process by which social-movement
leaders make their activities, ideas, and goals congruent with the interests, beliefs, and values of potential new recruits to their movement - or fail to do so.
Encouraging Frame Alignment1. Social-movement leaders reach out to
organizations that contain people who are sympathetic to the cause.
2. Movement activists stress popular values that have not been prominent in the thinking of potential recruits.
3. Social movements can stretch their objectives to win recruits who aren’t initially sympathetic to their aims.
How Social Factors Influence Collective Action and Social Movements
INSERT CONCEPT SUMMARY 14.1 HERE (PG. 353)
New Social MovementsNew movements do not promote the rights of
specific groups but of humanity as a whole, for peace, security, and a clean environment
Attract disproportionately large number of highly educated, relatively well-to-do people from the social, educational, and cultural fields
Increased the scope of protest beyond the national level to global efforts
1. Forms of collective action that are usually nonviolent and follow established patterns of behavior in bureaucratic social structures are called:
a. social movementsb. routinec. petition drivesd. lobby formatione. party formation
Answer: bForms of collective action that are usually
nonviolent and follow established patterns of behavior in bureaucratic social structures are called routine.
2. According to breakdown theory, collective action and social movements result from:
a. economic deprivationb. the irrationality of crowd behaviorc. instigation on the part of political leadersd. all of these choicese. economic deprivation and the irrationality of
crowd behavior
Answer: eAccording to breakdown theory, collective
action and social movements result from economic deprivation and the irrationality of crowd behavior.
3. What flaws have sociologists uncovered in breakdown theory?
a. Elected leaders generally do not play a part in mob actions.
b. Levels of deprivation are not commonly associated with the frequency or intensity of outbursts of collective action.
c. Even nonroutine collective action is usually structured.
d. b. and c. only
Answer: dSociologists uncovered the following flaws in
breakdown theory: Levels of deprivation are not commonly
associated with the frequency or intensity of outbursts of collective action.
Even nonroutine collective action is usually structured.
4. According to solidarity theory, which of the following factors is not among those that influence collective action and the emergence of social movements?
a. social breakdownb. resource mobilizationc. political opportunityd. social control
Answer: aAccording to solidarity theory, social
breakdown is not among the factors that influence collective action and the emergence of social movements.
5. Frame alignment is the process by which individual interests, beliefs, and values either become congruent with the activities, ideas, and goals of the movement or fail to do so.
a. Trueb. False
Answer: aFrame alignment is the process by which
individual interests, beliefs, and values either become congruent with the activities, ideas, and goals of the movement or fail to do so.
6. Examples of old and new social movements are, respectively:
a. the labor movement and peasant movements
b. peasant movements and the environmental movement
c. the women’s movement and the environmental movement
d. the environmental movement and the women’s movement
Answer: bExamples of old and new social movements
are, respectively peasant movements and the environmental movement.