HVEC activism workshop : social
movements and the roles of
activists
© A Ricketts 2012
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Action groups, social movements,
environment centres?

The term can refer to the individual
organisations that make up a movement
but mostly it refers to the wider organic
movement toward a particular ideal
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The life and life cycle of social
movements

Social movements are like other living
things, the movement and the people in
and around it go through cycles of
change
 these include:
 eight stages of a successful social
movement
 the four roles of activism,
(Moyer 2001)
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Some terminology

Social Movements are collective actions in which
the populace is
 alerted,
 educated and
 mobilised…
sometimes over years and decades to challenge the
powerholders

Powerholders are the elite group of people in
whose hands decision making power has been
concentrated, they are usually governments and
corporations
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The life cycle of a social
movement
Author Bill Moyer presents a theoretical
map of the eight stages of a successful
social movement
 It is right to be skeptical of theoretical
models but I applied this model to an
historic analysis of the NSW Old growth
campaign and it is uncanny how closely
NEFA’s lifecycle corresponded to Moyer’s
description

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The eight stages of social movements
1. Normal
times
8
Continuing
the
struggle
2. Prove the failure of
official institutions
Moyer’s
MAP model of
social movements
(adapted)
7. Success
6. Majority public opinion
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3. Ripening
conditions
4. Takeoff
5. Perceptions
of failure
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Stage 1: Normal Times

Conditions exist that violate widely held
values in the community (ancient forests
being destroyed)

However, the majority is unaware of the
nature or frequency of such events

The majority feels comfortable with official
explanations
(Moyer 2001 p43)
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Stage 2: Prove the failure
of existing institutions



Activists must demonstrate that a
problem exists (logging continues
despite ‘moratorium’)
Conduct research to gather more
evidence
Utilise available opportunities (political,
legal, media) to highlight and publicise
the issue
(Moyer 2001, p p48)
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Stage 3: Ripening conditions

This may be a slow moving process
 Growing numbers of people are
discontent with the status quo
 People stop relying on established
organisations to effect change (TWS)
 New small autonomous local action
groups begin to form (anyone you
know?)
(Moyer 2001, p 51)
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Stage 4: Take off



New social movements burst into the
public spotlight
Usually propelled by a shocking or
graphic trigger event (Franklin dam was
an example of this for the Hydro issue)
Followed by a non-violent action
campaign (marches rallies, blockades)
(Moyer 2001, p 54)
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Stage 5: Perceptions of failure



Hopes of an early victory are frustrated
as the powerholders dig in and resist
change
Many activists despair, burn out or
become internally divisive
Ironically the movement is usually
progressing to stage 6, but activists are
too close to the action to see it
(Moyer 2001, p 59)
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Stage 6: Majority
public opinion

The beginning of a long term grassroots struggle
with the powerholders

The movement wins the backing of a larger
proportion of the public

The movement moves utilises all available means
to educate and the public, tactics often change
(Moyer 2001, p64)
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Subcycles within the cycle

At times movements need to temporarily
return to other stages
 Not all aspects of a campaign are at the
same point at the same time
 Usually even after a major victory there
remains new campaigns to be fought
afresh
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Subcycles and Tassie forests

The subcycles aspect is very import for
SWST type campaigns, because there
have been prior cycles of partial success
(SW wilderness, RFA) and the work of
modern movements is to expose the fact
that ‘moratoriums have not stopped old
growth logging.
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Stage 7: success

The movement reaches a new plateau (another
subcycle of success perhaps)

Public opinion turns the tide against the powerholders

Powerholders scramble to realign themsleves (e.g.
whaling)

Significant goals are achieved (usually not all goals)
(Moyer 2001, p75)
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Stage 8: continuing
the struggle

The success attained in stage 7 is not the
end of the struggle
 The particular campaign was only a part of
the wider struggle for a sustainable
participatory democracy
 The movement and the individuals have an
opportunity to refocus and renew
 New groups may focus on unfinished
business
(Moyer 2001, p 80)
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Where is the Tassie forest
campaign up to?



It is clearly beyond stages 1-3 generally
but there is unfinished business
There have been very significant gains
made in the past, there is broad public
awareness and broad public support yet
there is frustration that old growth
logging continues
This suggests that it is currently stalled
in perceptions of failure and struggling to
convert public support into success
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The eight stages of social movements
1. Normal
times
8
Continuing
the struggle
2. Prove the failure of
official institutions
You are
Here (probabaly)
7. Success
6. Majority public opinion
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3. Ripening
conditions
4. Takeoff
5. Perceptions
of failure
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Why does this life cycle
matter?



It is important to know when you are in
‘perception of failure’ because it’s a
challenging stage and can affect how
people behave (to your detriment)
Because its closer to success than most
people think
Having a bigger picture helps your
campaign planning
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Now lets risk yet another
theoretical model


I am probabaly just as cautious of
‘theory’ as anyone, but these models are
based on experience and they do have
things to teach us
There are a number of familiar
personality types that we find in
campaign groups, they all have a role
but they don’t always like each other
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The four
activist roles
Reformer
Citizen
All four roles must be
played effectively in a
successful social movement
(Moyer 2001)
Rebel
Change agent
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The importance of
understanding the roles
Often there is conflict between the different
roles, for instance the front line rebel and
the reformer
 Sometimes within whole movements
different groups perform different roles (eg
TWS and SWST)
 Each role has a different significance
depending on where the movement is up to
in its life cycle

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Citizens


Citizens locate their actions squarely in
society’s mainstream.
Sometimes these people may not realise
that they have just crossed the line from
passive citizenship to activism
“I’m only an
average person but I
want this situation
to change”
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The Rebel
rebel

These are the people that build the
conflict… they help focus society’s
attention on the problem

Rebel individuals or organisations have a
wide range of tools for their work
including: mass demonstrations, sit ins,
blockades, stunts
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Negative rebels

The rebel is a very useful role, especially
early in a movements life cycle or at trigger
points (Iraq war)

Some individuals identify too strongly with
this role and may not see when they should
move to another role or worse…

Turn their rebellion against other roleplayers in the movement
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Change agent
Change agents can be difficult to detect.
 Change agents are involved in
community education around issues
 Change agents are the people and
organisations that aim to change the
entrenched attitudes of society

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The reformer
The reformer is a role often played by
professional organisations (TWS?)
 Reformers are often least in touch with the
grass roots and may risk being seduced by
the powerholders (TWS)
 Reformers are nonetheless very useful
once movements reach a tertiary stage in
their life cycle (the deal making
stage)(except they like to take the credit for
all that hard work of the frontline activists)

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Do you have to be one of
these roles?

Remember these are roles not
personalities as such (but can be)
 Any one person or organisation may play
combinations of these roles at the same or
different times
 Some people are more oriented toward
one role, others are more flexible
 Ideally each person and organisation
understands its own role and respects the
role of others
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The roles and the cycle

It was mentioned previously that the four
roles have different significance at different
stages of a movements life cycle. The
citizen role is most involved in stages 1 and
2
 The rebel role is most involved in stages 3
and 4 and to some extent stage 5
 The change agent role comes to the fore in
stages 5 and 6
 The reformer is predominant in stages 7and
8
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Making use of Moyer’s model

It is easy to be skeptical about theoretical
models and for good reason
 Of course the map is not the territory
 You can use it to gain perspective, avoid
despair and to diagnose problems in your
campaign
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Conflict mapping


Having examined the idea that social
movements and activists display some
common aspects, we can move on to
the idea of forward planning of
campaigns
Conflict mapping is a powerful technique
for gathering information and
perspective and focussing these in the
most strategic ways
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Whats coming next…

In the next sessions we will have a go at
doing some conflict mapping for the
campaigns you are working on.

We will attempt:
 Allies and foes maps
 Powerholders maps
 Campaign strategy maps
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