Lesson 21: Social Movements and Social Change

Attention

 

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Discuss different kinds of social movements through history and identify the type of movement they represent.
  • Discuss the value of Service-Learning as a Social Change agent at KVCC.

Teaching

Changing Society

We have studied many factors that define, sustain, and teach culture in different societies, but how does society itself change?

We know that some factors are important in changing our culture:

  • Technology
  • Urbanization
  • Industrialization
  • Social Institutions
  • Population
  • Environment

But there are many other factors as well...changes that can occur because people who care get together or are bound by a unified experience.

Collective Behavior

First we need to define the different ways in Sociology defines collective behaviors. Some entail a certain connection among the members and some don't.

This part is not included in the book:

  • Category - This includes things like "males and females", "immigrants and non-immigrants", etc. These individuals share a characteristic with one another but that is about it. This is why we refer to the term "racial category" to define race.
  • Aggregate - This is a collection of people that are in the same place experiencing a similar experience. This could include people at a concert and people at the beach.

However, we know from Social Psychology that an aggregate can sometimes act in ways that influence each member and they may seem like a group. Consider the "wave" that can occur among fans in a stadium or everyone singing along with the band at a concert.

Theories of Crowd Behavior

When people are in crowds they may act in accord with one another based on a number of theories:

  • Emergent Norm Theory - People respond to the crowd experience based on their own norms at first but then new norms shared by many in the crowd become evident and people "play along"
  • Value Added Theory - This is the emerging perception that there is a shared crisis or problem that everyone can now act on. The shared experience creates a shared identity even among people who may be far away from one another.
  • Assembling Perspective - This one is best exemplified on p. 816 in our textbook. Specific behaviors become collective and convergent.

Social Movements

Social Movements are purposeful groups that strive to bring about a change. They fall in to one of these categories:

  • Reform Movements
  • Revolutionary Movements
  • Religious/Redemptive Movements
  • Alternative Movements
  • Resistive Movements

Assessment

Lesson 21 Discussion

Look up social movements through history and find at least two examples of different categories of social movements. Discuss what characteristics of the movement make you consider it in the identified category. Was the movement successful?

Lesson 21 Quiz

  1. Reflect on the course requirement for Service-Learning. How is this sort of effort valuable as a source of Social Change?