What is a social movement?
A social movement is a large, organized effort by people to bring about, or resist, change. Social movements have won voting rights, ended legal segregation, improved working conditions, protected the environment and expanded human rights.
Social movements use collective action: people working together to achieve a shared goal, especially when they lack power through ordinary channels.
Types of social movements
| Type | Goal | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Reform | change specific laws or policies | women’s suffrage; disability rights |
| Revolutionary | completely transform society or government | the Russian Revolution |
| Resistance (countermovement) | stop or reverse change | opposition to civil rights or to same-sex marriage |
| Alternative or redemptive | change individuals’ lives or beliefs | religious revival movements; temperance |
Why movements form
Sociologists offer several explanations:
- Deprivation theory: people organize when they feel deprived compared with others.
- Resource mobilization: movements succeed when they can gather money, people, leaders and organizations.
- Political opportunity: movements grow when political conditions open up, such as sympathetic leaders, divided elites or new laws.
- Framing: movements must present issues in ways that resonate. The U.S. civil rights movement framed its goals in terms of American ideals of freedom and equality.
- Identity: shared identity and solidarity motivate participation.
Stages of a movement
- Emergence: discontent spreads; people recognize a shared problem.
- Coalescence: groups organize, leaders emerge, strategies develop.
- Bureaucratization: formal organizations with paid staff and resources form.
- Decline: the movement may succeed, be co-opted, be repressed, split, or become mainstream.
Strategies and tactics
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Institutional | lobbying, lawsuits, petitions, running candidates |
| Protest | marches, rallies, strikes, boycotts, sit-ins |
| Civil disobedience | lunch counter sit-ins; blockades |
| Cultural | music, art, slogans, storytelling, symbols |
| Digital | hashtags, online organizing, crowdfunding |
Mobilization means gathering people and resources. Nonviolent movements have often been more successful at winning broad public support than violent ones, according to research by Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan.
Movements that changed North America
| Movement | Key moments | Achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Labour | Winnipeg General Strike (1919); U.S. labour laws of the 1930s | collective bargaining, minimum wages, safer workplaces, weekends |
| Women’s | suffrage; second-wave feminism | voting rights, legal equality, workplace protections |
| Civil Rights | Montgomery Bus Boycott; March on Washington | Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965) |
| Indigenous rights | Red Power (1960s–70s); Oka (1990); Idle No More (2012) | constitutional recognition of rights; land claims; UNDRIP legislation |
| Environmental | Greenpeace, founded in Vancouver (1971); youth climate strikes (2018–19) | environmental laws, protected areas, climate policy |
| LGBTQ+ rights | Stonewall uprising (1969); Toronto bathhouse raid protests (1981) | decriminalization; same-sex marriage (Canada 2005, U.S. 2015) |
| Disability rights | independent living movement; "Nothing about us without us" | Americans with Disabilities Act (1990); Accessible Canada Act (2019) |
| Racial justice | Black Lives Matter (from 2013) | debates on policing and systemic racism |
Movements in the digital age
Social media helps movements spread quickly, reach young people and organize without large budgets. Grassroots movements such as Idle No More, #MeToo and Fridays for Future grew partly online. Critics warn of "slacktivism" (online support without real action), misinformation and the difficulty of sustaining leaderless movements.
Evaluating success
Ask:
- Did the movement achieve its stated goals?
- Did it change laws, public opinion or culture?
- Who benefited, and who was left out?
- Did it provoke a countermovement?
- Are the gains lasting?
Try it yourself
- Choose a social movement and analyze it using the stages and the theories above.
- Compare the tactics of two movements. Which were most effective, and why?
- Examine how a movement used framing, symbols and media.
- Design a campaign for a cause you care about: goals, framing, tactics and how you’d measure success.
Quick recap
- Social movements are organized collective efforts for or against change.
- They can be reform, revolutionary, resistance or alternative movements.
- Resources, opportunities, framing and identity help explain their success.
- Tactics include lobbying, protest, civil disobedience and digital organizing.
- Social movements have transformed rights and society in North America.