Social Movement Theory

Social movement theory addresses the nature and dynamics of sustained, collective challenges to national and international systems of governance. It seeks to characterize the factors that compel individuals to join movements; the conditions under which movements emerge, flourish, and dissolve; the mobilization and utilization of material, organizational, symbolic, and tactical resources; and the impact of movements on participants, public policies, and society at large. Variants of social movement theory differ in their emphasis of explanatory variables and levels of analysis. Structure-oriented perspectives explain movement emergence and outcomes as a result of macrochanges in the political, economic, and sociocultural organization of society. Agency-oriented perspectives emphasize microcontexts, including resource mobilization, organization, and strategy. In addition, different cultural dimensions of meaning construction have played an increasingly important role. Social movement theory has traditionally focused on national movements in Western Europe and North America; however, the last ten years have witnessed a rapidly growing scholarship of movements in developing and transition countries, as well as transnational social movements.

A social movement is the persistent convergence of disputatious action by formally and informally linked groups and individuals with a common set of beliefs and a commitment to change political or cultural forms (or both) of order sustained by powerful social entities such as the state. While social movement theorists in the 1970s and 1980s focused on frequently hostile protest in support of civil rights, free speech, peace, or the environment, more recent writing acknowledges that social movement activity is not confined to unconventional forms but includes the use of institutionalized political tools, such as lobbying, voter mobilization, and education. Moreover, Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow, and others have urged students of social movements to view them as only one of many forms of “contentious action” characterized by a similar array of causal mechanisms.

The relevance of social movement theory to contemporary governance has multiple dimensions. Social movements have historically shaped and been shaped by the evolution of the nation state. As evidenced by movements for abolition, civil rights, [Page 889]peace, women's rights, the environment, and other causes, social movement organizations have successfully challenged public policies and the role of the state itself; in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, movements played a key role in dismantling communist regimes. Governments, in turn, have influenced the dynamics of contention through various instruments of control. Hence, the gradual transfer of state powers, rights, and functions to civil society, the private sector, and international bodies witnessed during the last quarter century has created new opportunities and led to the professionalization and transnational expansion of social movements. In many cases, social movement organizations alone or in cooperation with others have created new forms of governance above and beyond the state. At the same time, social movement challenges to systems of governance have continuously forced contemporary societies to reflect on the meaning of their trajectories.