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Social Movements: Long-term conscious
effort to promote or prevent social change
◦ May develop around any issue of public concern
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Factors that distinguish social movements
from other forms of collective behavior are
that social movements:
◦ Are long-lasting
◦ Possess a highly structured organization with
formally recognized leaders
◦ Make a deliberate attempt to institute or block
societal change
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Reactionary: Main goal is to reverse current social trends
(turn back the clock)
◦ Members are suspicious of and hostile toward social change
◦ Ex: Ku Klux Klan
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Conservative: Attempt to protect what they see as society’s
prevailing values from change that they consider to be a
threat to those values
◦ Ex: Religious Right seeks to uphold traditional family and social
values

Revisionary: Goal is to improve, or revise, some part of
society through social change
◦ Usually use legal channels to seek change
◦ Ex: Women’s suffrage

Revolutionary: Goal is a total and radical change of the
existing social structure
◦ Ultimate aim is to overthrow existing government and replace it
◦ Ex: American Revolution
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Agitation
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Legitimation

Bureaucratization
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Institutionalization
◦ Small group of people attempts to stir up public awareness
of the issue, often with the intention of gaining widespread
support for the social movement
◦ Social movement becomes more respectable as it gains
increasing acceptance among the population
◦ Leaders are now seen as legitimate spokespeople of a just
cause (and not radicals)
◦ Movement will often begin to attract media attention
◦ Movement has developed a ranked structure of authority,
official policies, and efficient strategies for the future
◦ Movement has become an established part of society

Agitation
◦ Low pay and harsh conditions led many workers to seek
support for unions

Legitimation
◦ After years of violent confrontations and resistance, labor
unions finally received official governmental recognition

Bureaucratization
◦ Over the years, labor unions grew in size and number.
Today they are firmly established and powerful
organizations

Institutionalization
◦ Labor unions are now so well established in society that
they resist attempts to change their operating procedures

Relative Deprivation Theory: People join
social movements because they feel deprived
relative to other people or groups with whom
they identify
◦ Social movements arise when large numbers of
people feel economically or socially deprived of
what they think they deserve
◦ Through movements, people seek to gain access to
things they lack but others have
◦ Often used to explain revolutionary social
movements

Resource-Mobilization Theory : States that even the
most ill-treated group with the most just cause will
not be able to bring about change without resources
◦ Resources necessary to generate a social movement include
a body of supporters, financial resources, and access to the
media
 Body of supporters must include talented people who have the
time and skills necessary to work toward change
 Social movements must also be able to mobilize financial
resources
 Media coverage is the surest way to bring the movement to the
attention of the most people possible
◦ Has been criticizing for minimizing the importance of
deprivation and dissatisfaction (both of which are necessary
for the creation of social movements)
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Since sociology grew out of the social turmoil of
the 1700s and 1800s, it is not surprising that
sociologists devote much attention to the study
of social change
Social Change: Alterations in various aspects of a
society over time
Sociologists have suggested theories to explain
the process of social change
Most significant theories are:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Cyclical Theory
Evolutionary Theory
Equilibrium Theory
Conflict Theory

Cyclical Theory of Social Change: Views change from a
historical perspective
◦ Societies arise, go through various stages of development, and
then decline.
◦ Social change is a result of the natural tendency for societies to
pass through stages of development
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They view change as part of a continuing process
In some theories, societies are seen as passing through
stages of development that mirror human life cycle
◦ Societies are born, grow to maturity, decline in old age, and
eventually die
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Other theories hold that societies develop to a certain
point and then reverse their development and will
advance again in the future
Oswald Spengler and Pitrim Sorokin are the most notable
theorists

Evolutionary Theory of Social Change: Views
change as a process that moves in one
direction, toward increasing complexity
◦ As members of society attempt to adapt to social
and physical conditions in their environment, they
push society forward in development

Each new adaptation serves as the basis for
future adaptations and change is seen as an
additive process

Equilibrium Theory of Social Change: A change in
one part of the system produces changes in all of
the other parts of the system
◦ This occurs because a social system attempts to maintain
stability
◦ When stability is disrupted by change in one part of the
system, the other parts adjust to the degree needed to bring
the system back into balance (equilibrium)
◦ Although order has been restored, the new system is
different from the old system which is social change

Critics argue that the emphasis on social order
makes it difficult for equilibrium theory to explain
widespread social change within or between
societies

Conflict Theory of Social Change: Change
results from conflicts between groups with
opposing interests.
◦ In most cases, conflicts arise from disputes over
access to power and wealth

Social change is inevitable and therefore
societies are in a constant state of change or
potential change
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Modernization: Process by which a society’s
social institutions become increasingly complex
as the society moves toward industrialization
Social scientists divide countries into 2 groups
◦ More Developed: US, Canada, Japan, Australia
◦ Less Developed: Nations in Latin America, Africa, and
Asia

More developed countries have modernized
more rapidly that less-developed nations and 2
theories help to explain why:
◦ Modernization Theory
◦ World-System Theory

Modernization Theory: The more-developed nations
modernized because they were the first to industrialize
◦ Modernized countries serve as a model and a source for technology and
information for those undergoing modernization
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It is believed that modernization will produce the same social
changes in less-developed nations that it produced in moredeveloped nations
To help speed up the process, many industrialized nations
established assistance programs, but they had little effect
Critics argue that the theory was doomed to failure because it
did not take into account that less-developed nations face
conditions that are different from those faced by moredeveloped nations such as:
◦ Population differences
◦ Economic dependence on the West
◦ Antimodernization sentiments that view modernization as a threat to
values

World-System Theory: Views modernization in
terms of the world economy
◦ World system comprises of 3 types of nations
 Core Nations: Most powerful developed nations that form the
center of the world economy and control most of the world’s
resources
 US, Canada, Japan
 Semiperipheral Nations: Between core and peripheral; they may
be industrialized but may not play a central role in the world
economy
 Smaller Western European countries (Spain, Portugal) and newly
developed Asian countries (South Korea, Taiwan)
 Peripheral Nations: Control few productive resources and
depend on the core nations for goods and to buy their main
products
 Poor countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
 Lack of economic growth in peripheral nations is a problem
because it slows economic growth
Positive
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An increase in a country’s
standard of living
Longer life expectancies,
lower birthrates, higher
rates of literacy, decrease
in economic and social
inequality, and more
personal comforts
Growth of industry and
expansion of technology
Often accompanied by the
arrival of electricity and
communication
technology
Establishment of
education institutions
Negative
 Family and religion lose
some of their traditional
authority
 Government takes a
larger role in directing
people’s lives
 Social relationships are
likely to be weakened
causing feelings of
social isolation
 Conflicting norms and
role expectations
 Soil, water, and air
pollution