scholarly journals The paradox of victory: social movement fields, adverse outcomes, and social movement success

Author(s):  
Bert Useem ◽  
Jack A. Goldstone

AbstractRecent work on social movement fields has expanded our view of the dynamics of social movements; it should also expand our thinking about social movement success. Such a broader view reveals a paradox: social movements often snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by narrowly targeting authorities with their actions instead of targeting the broader social movement field. Negative impacts from the wider social movement field can then reverse or overshadow initial victories. We distinguish between a social movement’s victory over the immediate target, and more lasting success that arises from shifting alignments in the broader social movement field. To test the predictive value of the distinction, we compare two very similar student-led social movements, both of which targeted university policies regarding sensitivity to race issues and changes in university personnel. One built a broad coalition of support that extended across its social movement field and was thereby able to institute durable change. The other did not, and despite its clear initial success, this protest movement produced consequences mainly adverse to its preferred outcomes. We demonstrate how pervasive this paradox is with examples from other U.S. protest outcomes and studies of revolutions. The paradox is resolved by focusing on changes in the entire social movement field. We thus argue that achieving, and understanding, lasting social movement success requires attention to the entire social movement field.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-29
Author(s):  
Dwi Retno Hapsari ◽  
Rilus A Kinseng ◽  
Sarwititi Sarwoprasodjo ◽  
Asnika Putri Simanjuntak ◽  
Khairil Anam ◽  
...  

The objectives of this study are to examine the main issue that provoke social movement of fishermen in West Sumatra, to identify the related actors, and to analyze the advocacy strategy carried out by fishermen. This research was conducted in July 2019 and took place in two locations, namely the City of Padang and West Pasaman Regency. The study used qualitative approach. From this study, it is revealed that the main issue that provoke social movements in West Sumatra was the issue of Regulation No. 71 of 2016 by the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries related to the prohibition of certain fishing gear. This regulation prohibits the use of 4 mm mesh size of the net and the use of lamps in operating the liftnet which reaches up to 25-30 thousand watts of power. This regulation has created a huge burden to fisherman’s work. The Other issue that is also triggering the movement was the arrestment of 6 fishing boats on June 11, 2016. Meanwhile, the main actors who are directly related to this movement are fishermen who are using liftnet (bagan). These actors can be divided into two main categories, namely movers and "participants". The main tactic used in social movements was demonstration.


1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 453-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hank Johnston ◽  
Shoon Lio

This article specifies several ways in which the collective behavior portion of Collective Behavior/Social Movement (CBSM) studies may be revitalized in the near future. The revitalization will occur because repertoires of extra-institutional challenge emerging in the postmodern age seem to fall outside the way social movements have been theorized in the last twenty-five years. Today's postmodern trends—increasing consumerism and affluence, individualism, demographic complexity, ideological diversity, global migration, and constant innovation in communications technology—have proliferated new social identities and deconstructed social identities imposed by the Other. As a result, postmodernity's complexities are multiplying the number of small, diverse, and diffuse groupings defining themselves in challenging ways outside the corridors of politics. Indeed these groupings may in the years to come recast what some see as a social movement society into a CBSM Society of diverse challenges to the institutional order.


2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172093604
Author(s):  
Luke Yates

Recent work historicises and theoretically refines the concept of prefigurative politics. Yet disagreements over the question of whether or how it is politically effective remain. What roles does prefiguration play in strategies of transformation, and what implications does it have for understandings of strategy? The article begins to answer this question by tracking the concept’s use, from discussions of left strategy in the 1960s, a qualifier of new social movements in the 1980s–1990s, its application to protest events in the 2000s, to its contemporary proliferation of meanings. This contextualises reflections on the changing arguments about the roles of prefiguration in social movement strategy. Based on literature about strategy, three essential categories of applied movement strategy are identified: reproduction, mobilisation and coordination. Prefigurative dynamics are part of all three, showing that the reproduction of movements is strategically significant, while the coordination of movements can take various ‘prefigurative’ forms.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon N. Barnartt

Protests from different social movements sometimes coincide, but does that mean that one movement is influencing the other and increasing its “action mobilization,” or are different sets of factors causing the coincident protests? This paper examines that question in reference to two sets of coincident protests: those of people with disabilities and those of the pro-Democracy protests of 2011. It shows that, although disability protests did not start at the same time as the pro-Democracy protests, a number happened during and after, and in close physical proximity to, those protests. Neither set of protests acknowledged or referred to the other. While it is likely that a new law in Egypt and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities were among the mobilizing factors for people with disabilities, it also appears that the language of “rights” began to diffuse from the pro-Democracy protests to the disability protests.  


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Oliver ◽  
Hank Johnston

Frame theory is often credited with "bringing ideas back in" social movement studies, but frames are not the only useful ideational concepts. The older, more politicized concept of ideology needs to be used in its own right and not recast as a frame. Frame theory is rooted in linguistic studies of interaction, and points to the way shared assumptions and meanings shape the interpretation of events. Ideology is rooted in politics and the study of politics, and points to coherent systems of ideas which provide theories of society coupled with value commitments and normative implications for promoting or resisting social change. Ideologies can function as frames, they can embrace frames, but there is more to ideology than framing. Frame theory offers a relatively shallow conception of the transmission of political ideas as marketing and resonating, while a recognition of the complexity and depth of ideology points to the social construction processes of thinking, reasoning, educating, and socializing. Social movements can only be understood by linking social psychological and political sociology concepts and traditions, not by trying to rename one group in the language of the other.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (184) ◽  
pp. 403-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Sander

This article argues that social movement research must be renewed by a historical-materialist perspective to be able to understand the emergence and effects of the relatively new climate justice movement in Germany. The previous research on NGOs and social movements in climate politics is presented and the recent development of the climate justice movement in Germany is illustrated. In a final step two cases of climate movement campaigns are explained by means of the historical-materialist movement analysis proposed by the author.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Ahmad Sudi Pratikno ◽  
Dewi Nurmasita

Social movement is an effort to provide benefits to others. However, within the context of cultivating the character, research on social movement through socio-drama based on local wisdom is very limited. This study aims to examine the increasing character of nationalism through social movements in the form of socio-drama. Research subjects were elementary and secondary students residing in rural area. This research used qualitative and descriptive method. Data collection techniques were documentations, observations, and interviews. The results showed that the increased character of nationalism only arise when playing socio-drama only, they would return to the previous character. Cultivating the character values need a long time, so the change of character did not necessarily happen.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurwan Nurwan ◽  
Ali Hadara ◽  
La Batia

ABSTRAK: Inti pokok masalah dalam penelitian ini meliputi latar belakang gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna, Faktor-faktor yang mendorong gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna, proses gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna dan akibat gerakan sosial masyarakat Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna? Latar belakang gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba yaitu keadaan kampungnya yang hanya terdiri dari beberapa kepala keluarga tiap kampung dan jarak yang jauh masing-masing kampung membuat keadaan masyarakatnya sulit untuk berkomnikasi dan tiap kampung hanya terdiri dari lima sampai dengan tujuh kepala keluarga saja. Kampung ini letaknya paling timur pulau Muna terbentang dari ujung kota Raha sekarang sampai kampung Wakuru yang saat ini. Kondisi ini juga yang menjadi salah satu faktor penyebab kampung ini kurang berkembang baik dibidang ekonomi, sosial politik, pendidikan maupun di bidang kebudayaan. Keadaan ini diperparah lagi dengan sifat dan karakter penduduknya yang masih sangat primitif. Faktor yang mendorong adanya gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna adalah adanya ketidaksesuaian antara keinginan pemerintah setempat dan masyarakat yang mendiami Kampung Labaluba pada waktu itu. Sedangkan proses gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna bermula ketika pemerintah seolah memaksakan kehendaknya kepada rakyat yang menyebabkan rakyat tidak setuju dengan kebijakan tersebut. Akibat yang ditimbulkan dari adanya gerakan sosial masyarakat Kampung Labaluba Desa Kontumere Kecamatan Kabawo Kabupaten Muna terbagi dua yaitu akibat positif dan akibat negatif.Kata Kunci: Gerakan Sosial, Factor dan Dampaknya ABSTRACT: The main issues in this study include the background of the social movement of Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District, Muna District, Factors that encourage social movements of Labaluba Kampung Sub-village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District, Muna District, the social movement process of Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo Sub-District Muna Regency and due to Labaluba community social movements Kontumere Village Kabawo District Muna Regency? The background of the Labaluba Kampung community social movement is that the condition of the village consists of only a few heads of households per village and the distance of each village makes it difficult for the community to communicate and each village only consists of five to seven households. This village is located east of the island of Muna stretching from the edge of the city of Raha now to the current village of Wakuru. This condition is also one of the factors causing the village to be less developed in the economic, social political, educational and cultural fields. This situation is made worse by the very primitive nature and character of the population. The factor that motivated the existence of the social movement of Labaluba Village in Kontumere Village, Kabawo Subdistrict, Muna Regency was the mismatch between the wishes of the local government and the people who inhabited Labaluba Village at that time. While the process of social movements in Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo District, Muna Regency began when the government seemed to impose its will on the people, causing the people to disagree with the policy. The consequences arising from the existence of social movements in Labaluba Village, Kontumere Village, Kabawo District, Muna Regency are divided into two, namely positive and negative effects. Keywords: Social Movements, Factors and their Impacts


Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou

Chapter 3 addresses the institutional legacy (that is, the set of formal and informal rules that regulate the exercise of power in a political regime) of the transition to democracy, particularly those institutional dimensions that are more relevant for social movements—what social movement studies have defined as political opportunities. After setting the theoretical framework by specifying the main qualities of democracy the research has addressed, the chapter covers the legal and constitutional provisions on civil (especially protest) rights, political rights (right to resistance, majoritarian versus consensual assets), and social rights as well as practices—particularly with regard to protest, citizens’ participation, protest policing, and concertation.


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