Chapter 14 Overview

In this chapter, you learn about one of those most significant non-state actors for social change: social movements. Social movements are sustained challenges to existing power holders in the name of a wronged population. Social movements are like electoral politics in that both attempt to gain public support for their cause. They do so in different ways with social movements relying on tactics such as protesting in the streets or boycotting products. According to Charles Tilly, social movements are comprised of five main elements: offering a sustained challenge; engaging power holders; acting on behalf of a wronged population; working to demonstrate worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment; and, finally, participating in an unauthorized action.

You then learned about the explanations for why individuals participate in social movements, starting with the collective action problem theorized by Mancur Olson. According Olson, people tend to avoid participating in collective action because they still benefit from whatever is gained through the action even if they don’t participate. This might prevent collective action from occurring despite the existence of large numbers of people with common interests who feel wronged. Social movement participation by individuals requires four main elements: ideology, resources, biographical availability, and social ties and identity. Context also determines social movement participation, as some contexts are more favourable for social movement activity than others. Finally, you learn how participating in movements has transformative potential across the individual’s life course, how the media’s coverage of movements varies according to organizational or ideological dimensions, and how movements succeed.