Old and New Social Movements Essay Sample

Social movements have arisen during the last two centuries in response to genuine and perceived injustices to groups of people. There are many instances where large numbers of individuals have more than time bonded together inside a popular belief and come together to jointly press for their cause, sometimes with startling results. In most cases these movements were geographically localised and have taken significant time to evolve into cohesive and powerful social improve agents. Nevertheless, they've been instrumental in bringing about crucial and frequent change and have been used to reduce inequality, diminish oppression and radically enhance the social conditions of unfortunate people. Charismatic leaders have usually played key roles in organizing quite a few of these movements, though others were collectively led and were in a position to further their objectives, even with changing leadership. Numerous of these movements, which originated in the second half in the nineteenth century, dealt with modern difficulties like the working problems of labor, and freedom from colonial rule.

The Indian independence movement, which commenced inside the late 1800s consolidated itself only after Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1910 and took more than its control. The non violent movement for India’s independence took almost forty years to achieve its objective of freeing India within the British. To a certain extent, the labor movement as well as the socialist movement with the late nineteenth century served to act as prototypes of social movements and set the trend for many this sort of collective claim based campaigns; which were to flourish later, inside early twentieth century.
Post war industrialisation and the advent of capitalism, as well as far more efficient long distance communication almost freed social movements from geographic localisation. Several of these movements, e.g., the many ecology movements, the feminist movement, and of course the Islamic movement which arose following the mid sixties, became pan global in their spread and appeal, The emergence of new social movements also initiated a debate among social scientists on the several facets of old and new social movements, as also their spread and effectiveness as vehicles of social and political change.
It will be the objective of this essay to examine the tenets of the old and new social movements, try to realize the things of difference and the challenges which the new movements are placing upon the old. The researcher has tried to entry the whole lot of literature accessible on a subject utilizing on the net libraries like Questia and other offered sources.
2. Social Movements, Sorts and Theories
A social movement can be described like a combination of shared ideas, visions and thoughts which bring about collective and democratized action to trigger adjust in patterns of social life, much more always via informal and non-governmental methods. Charles Tilly, (2004) in his book contends that a social movement must have 3 essential elements.
• Campaigns, which consist of sustained and organised public work and make collective claims on specified authorities
• Social Movement Repertoire, which include a combination of several types of confrontative political action like public meetings, processions, rallies, demonstrations, media awareness and others
• WUNC Displays, namely the public portrayal on the participants’ worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment
Most social movements do have a tendency for getting all of the above items in sufficient measure. Social movements are of comparatively recent origin along with a scouring with the histories on the globe doesn't give evidence of this kind of movements even in late medieval or post medieval times. Almost certainly the peasants revolution in England of 1384 could qualify being named a social movement, specially as a result of its cause of social justice.
The principal call from the peasant rebels was to your abolition of serfdom. This was because, mainly because the middle from the century, their lords had prevented them from doing probably the most on the changing economic conditions. Visitations in the plague due to the fact 1348/9 had reduced the population by between a third along with a half. Like a result, labour became additional scarce, wages rose and also the economy started out to suit the peasant over it suited the landowner. However, the landowners of Parliament legislated to hold wages low and to restrict the free movement of serfs. (Hobbs, 2000)
Nevertheless, social movements started globally only from the late nineteenth century as the program of urbanisation led to social interaction on very big scales among individuals who had similar objectives and goals, which in turn led to corporation as well as the genesis of collective effort. The spread of education as well as the creation of universities brought quite a few young people together and enabled them to meet and collectively form opinion groups, which helped from the creation of social movements. The system of democratization provided an environment of freedom of expression, and contentious issues have been taken up for discussion and action, as persons observed that they could keep their individual opinions and speak about them with no fear.
Social scientists speak of several forms of social movement. Movements can differ in scope as well as the type of transform they would like to usher in, have diverse target audiences in addition to a variety of ways of work. Each reform and radical movements have ushered in change, and although some movements have tried to bring in innovation, others have tried to preserve old value systems intact. Some movements like Mohandas Gandhi’s movement for Indian independence, despite getting entirely non-violent, have achieved tremendous success, whereas violent movements like the ones sponsored by Hezbollah have small to show after years of effort, apart from heavy casualties.
Social scientists also refer to a number of theories for social movements. In this respect Sergey Mamay specified four significant ones, which nonetheless appear being incredibly relevant. They may be the collective behaviour theory, the resource mobilisation theory, the action identity method as well as the new social movement.
The collective behaviour theory works on the basic premise that social movements arise only in sick societies. “In general, based on the collective behaviour approach, social movements are the symptom and manifestation of the sick society. A healthy society does not have social movements; it includes a conditional type of political and social participation. (Mamay, 1990) The theory of collective behaviour treats social responses as strains arising out of semi rational responses to abnormal situations, which arise from unhealthy societies. The supporters of this theory feel that healthy societies will not result in problems which will foster social movements; instead they will jobs out mechanisms for participation and corrective action to eliminate social problems. In this kind of societies, strong class or group solidarities prevent manipulation of people.
The resource mobilisation theory is quite positive in its method and postulates that social movements are part of the political program and are “rational and novel responses to new situations and new opportunities in society” (Mamay, 1990) and arise from new opportunities and political resources out there in democratic societies. The Action-Identity theory propounded by Touraine suggests that social movements are natural occurrences and will often serve to renew society, destroy social stagnation and lead to social emancipation. Action-Identity

theorists propound that “class-related social forms of domination are challenged by social movements, which are the main class counter-actors” (Mamay, 1990)
The theory and procedure of new and social movements requirements much more detailed discussion, being central on the principal theme of this essay, and is thus taken up separately.
3. New and Old Social Movements
The old social movements arose many years back, long prior to the modernization of communication as well as the invention from the internet, along with just before the notion in the global village took place. These movements have been typically limited geographically and focused on local issues. Some of these issues, of course, arose from much more universal concerns and it's more than probably that similar movements, unknown to every other had been growing in various parts from the world. These movements worked via forging local alliances that would result in political advantage and had collective political objectives. Examples of old social movements are the trade unions, the suffragists and the like.
Reverting on the Indian war of independence, 1 from the best examples with the old social movement, it is evident that all three of Tilly’s elements, campaigns, social movement repertoire and WUNC displays have been there in full measure. The movement was in a position to gather enormous support, due in large measure for the charisma of Gandhi and grew into a pan Indian movement. It's important to retain in mind that India, then, was an enormously fragmented society with poor communication, several languages, a variety of religions and several political affiliations on the centuries old caste method keeping 25 % in the population out from the pale of humanity.
Despite all these constraints, Gandhi was in a position to build a movement, which drew all these several peoples into one collective force, forge political alliances with several focus groups, organize myriad campaigns and display WUNC on hundreds of occasions. Gandhi’s movement lasted for forty years. It was in a position to generate sufficient pressure over a British to force them to grant India its independence, this in spite of their knowing how the loss of their Indian territories would end their pre-eminent position in the world.
Despite its spectacular success, and the introduction of non-violence and civil disobedience like a unique techniques of protest and an immensely potent political tool, the Indian independence movement stayed restricted from the Indian sub continent. It did not spread to other countries, even even though it strengthened and consolidated in India. Most in the nations in Asia and Africa were then under colonial domination and it would had been regular in today’s post-industrialized society to assume that similar movements would spread all more than Africa and Asia, in line with hat was happening in India.
In India, strong local leaders with Gandhian values and ideology were springing up all more than the country and collectively producing the movement additional formidable with every passing day. Despite the capacity to be utilized elsewhere the movement, however, remained essentially local. Restricted towards Indian sub continent, it did not spread to other countries in Asia and Africa.
The new social movements are basically “post industrialization” in their time frame and refer to several movements that came up in numerous societies, very first within the west and then all more than the globe during the last forty years. They're also significantly several from conventional social movements. Whereas several from the old social movements focused on economic or political issues, like the labor movement or localized freedom movements, the new social movements of these days tend to jobs on the achieving social improve in a a lot more universal context, examples becoming the ecology movements, the feminist movement and the Islamic movement. Most of these movements concentrate on social and lifestyle issues, rather than on public policy or economic advancement.
The main feature of social movements, according to `new social movements' theorists is their anti-state, anti-apparat turn of mind and action. New social movements, as opposed to old social movements, are created by new contradictions of society, contradictions among person and state. `New values' theorists also stress that the condition of economic prosperity and political stability experienced by the post-1945 cohorts inside the West, enable them to de-emphasise material values and lead them to embrace post-materialist values, reflecting `higher' aesthetic, self-realisation, and creative needs. Inglehart's new values are essentially the anti-state contradictions recognized by Habermas. These techniques alter class interests (or transform them) into non-class but `universal human' interests (Mamay, 1990)
The Islamic movement is a stark illustration of the new social movement. The Islamic movement has now spread virtually all over the globe and is fiercely in evidence in almost every nation using a Muslim population, nevertheless large or

 it may perhaps glimpse in a local context. The movement may perhaps have its origins from the nations of west and central Asia and could have arisen due to the Israel factor in the Middle East but is now evident from the USA, most countries of Europe, Africa and Asia. The movement has come to be really global and Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia, Kerala, Afghanistan, the Gulf countries, the countries with the erstwhile Soviet Union and also the nations of Europe in addition to in UK as well as the USA find well-liked result in in their movement for Islamic solidarity and their perceived wants from the non-Muslim states.

The Islamic movement is thus starkly various from Gandhi’s independence movement. It has been able to transcend local boundaries and smaller national concerns and grow to be a actually global movement, working over a transcontinental basis for your perceived rewards of a very critical portion in the earth’s population.

The old social movements concentrated on economic or political issues. The new social movements nevertheless challenge the old because they seem to transcend localized issues, that are pertinent only tu a specific men and women and numerous of them, e.g., the movements that consume up difficulties of race, gender, ecology and nuclear disaster, preoccupy themselves with areas that deal of the collective great of humanity. Quite obviously, compared to these new developments, the old social movements look being rather limited in scope and appeal along with in their capacity being powerful and universal adjust agents. In fact, the old social movements have in no way taken up the issues mentioned, most likely on a assumption that they have been less crucial than the difficulties at hand.

4. Conclusion

While, prima facie, the new social movements glimpse for getting far more capacity to create frequent and universal social alter than the old movements, this is most likely a quite simplistic way of seeking at things. At the risk of appearing facile, it would be similar to comparing apples and oranges. Social movements have arisen out of the requirements with the times and also the peculiar problems of society, as they did exist, once specific movements gained ground. As Unongo (2003) says,

My argument is that there's a critical trouble in maintaining the old/new distinction as up against considerable analysis, it looks rather tenuous. New social movements have not occurred out of the historical or political vacuum. They are the result of a perceived need to adjust existing social structures, which it need to be remembered have antecedents. Thus problems of racial discrimination in the post-1960s were close to prior to that period, and challenged in numerous forms for example on the ANC against Apartheid in South Africa.

Moreover, the goals that are lobbied for from the ‘new’ model are also predicated on universally applicable values. Thus, environmentalists would like to save the entire world from human destruction; not just their local neighborhood, feminists want equal rights for women globally, not just in their individual nation. And people who are against the proliferation of nuclear weapons seek multilateral, international disarmament, not only the decommissioning of one or 2 nation states. Issues of ‘individualization’ are inexorably connected towards the ‘holistic’ concerns with the old social movements.

It would thus be appropriate to contemplate each the old and new social movements inside a historical and social perspective and acknowledge, using a certain degree of humility, how the world would not have been quite dissimilar during the ages of medievalism, slavery and colonialism, if the old social movements had not taken place.

It is since the old social movements have caused far-reaching social changes and brought in an era of universality that the new social movements are becoming accepted and gaining ground. 

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