Confronting Authority:

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Confronting Authority

• An introduction to Social Movements in the late
  20th early 21st Century

ACTUp/PETA demonstration in DC, 1996
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What are social movements?

• Sustained, collective, public challenges by
  ordinary people to elites, authorities, and/or
  the established social order

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Key elements of social movements

• The collective activity is a challenge to the
  pre-existing political, economic, or social
  status quo
• Challenge is sustained over a lengthy period of
  time
• Collective activity is primarily but not
  exclusively fueled by ordinary people (not
  elites)
• The collective challenge is public

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Soc. Movements Challenge
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Soc. Movemts sustained
AntiAbortion/Pro-Life Demonstrators Fighting Roe
V Wade since 1973
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Social Movements collective
Bangladeshi Opponents of the U.S.-led war in
Iraq, 2002.
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Soc. Movements ordinary people (mostly)
The March on Washington, 1963
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Soc. Movemts public
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Whats the difference between a social movement
and a .

• Revolution?
• Insurrection?
• Terrorist attack?
• Electoral campaign?
• Civil war?
• coup detat?

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Remember!
Social Movements Always Include
1- participants

• 2- power holders who are the objects of the
  claims

• 3- subject populations on whose behalf activists
  are making claims

(Charles Tilly)
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A female demonstrator offers a flower to military
police on guard at the Pentagon during an
anti-Vietnam demonstration in 1967.National
Archives and Records Administration
Two soldiers silently await the helicopter which
will evacuate their fallen comrade from the
jungle covered hills in Long Khanh Province."By
Pfc. L. Paul Epley, 1966National Archives and
Records Administration.
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What are the Building Blocks of Social Movements?
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• Who has ever participated
• in a social movement?

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Uses of social movement theory

• Explanatory and predictive value
• Encourages us to include informal politics and
  ordinary people in political analysis
• Encourages cross-national comparisons
• Provides common vocabulary set of concepts

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Problems with current social movement theory?

• Grounded in mostly non-violent western case
  studies
• Focus on good social movements
• Excludes ethnic and national movements
• Overly descriptive not predictive enough?

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Social Movements as Studied in the Social Sciences