collective action and social movements. chapter outline the study of collective action and social...

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.