The United States between 2005 and 2008: A New Social Movement on the Rise

2017 ◽  
pp. 177-190
Author(s):  
Rita J. Simon ◽  
Mohamed Alaa Abdel-Moneim
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Social Movement

scholarly journals Retirement Without God: Activism and Community Among Secular People Over 60

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 441-441
Author(s):  
Joseph Blankholm
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Vast Literature

Abstract There are more than 1,400 nonbeliever communities in the United States and well over a dozen organizations that advocate for secular people on the national level. Together, these local and national groups comprise a social movement that includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other kinds of nonbelievers. Despite the fact that retired people over 60 dedicate most of the money and energy needed to run these groups, the increasingly vast literature on secular people and secularism has paid them almost no attention. Relying on more than one hundred interviews (including dozens with people over 60), several years of ethnographic research, and a survey of organized nonbelievers, this paper demonstrates the crucial role that people over 60 play in the American secular movement today. It also considers the reasons older adults are so important to these groups, the challenges they face in trying to recruit younger members and combat stereotypes about aging leadership, and generational differences that structure how various types of nonbeliever groups look and feel. This paper reframes scholarly understandings of very secular Americans by focusing on people over 60 and charts a new path in secular studies.

Exploiting a Crisis: Abortion Activism and the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Kate Hunt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Organizations

How do social movement organizations involved in abortion debates leverage a global crisis to pursue their goals? In recent months there has been media coverage of how anti-abortion actors in the United States attempted to use the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict access to abortion by classifying abortion as a non-essential medical procedure. Was the crisis “exploited” by social movement organizations (SMOs) in other countries? I bring together Crisis Exploitation Theory and the concept of discursive opportunity structures to test whether social movement organizations exploit crisis in ways similar to elites, with those seeking change being more likely to capitalize on the opportunities provided by the crisis. Because Twitter tends to be on the frontlines of political debate—especially during a pandemic—a dataset is compiled of over 12,000 Tweets from the accounts of SMOs involved in abortion debates across four countries to analyze the patterns in how they responded to the pandemic. The results suggest that crisis may disrupt expectations about SMO behavior and that anti- and pro-abortion rights organizations at times framed the crisis as both a “threat” and as an “opportunity.”

Losing Common Ground: Feminists, Conservatives and Public Policy in Canada during the Mulroney Years

1996 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Bashevkin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
The United Kingdom

AbstractThis article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across five major policy sectors identified by Canadian feminism and presents the perspectives of movement activists on the Mulroney period. Although comparisons with policy action under the Thatcher and Reagan governments indicate a more pro-feminist record in Canada than the United Kingdom or the United States, Canadian materials suggest a narrowing of common ground between the organized women's movement and federal elites during the Mulroney years.

scholarly journals Thinking Outside the Master's House: New Knowledge Movements and the Emergence of Academic Disciplines

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Asian American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
New Social Movement ◽  
Intellectual Movements

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding emergent disciplines as knowledge-focused social movement phenomena called New Knowledge Movements, or NKMs. The proposed theoretical framework is developed through a synthesis of new social movement theory and Frickel and Gross’s Scientific/Intellectual Movements (SIMs) model. In contrast to the SIMs model, this paper argues that many new disciplines emerge through contentious collective action on the part of political and intellectual outsiders rather than through the action of intellectual elites. The framework is demonstrated and tested through a narrative exploration based on secondary sources and scholar-activist tests of the emergence of two disciplines, women’s studies and Asian American studies, in the United States. Suggestions for future applications are provided.-- This email may be subject to disclosure under R.I. Gen. Laws § 38-2-2. Confidentiality cannot be assured.Mikaila Mariel Lemonik ArthurChair, Department of Sociology, Rhode Island CollegeCraig-Lee Hall Room [email protected] <[email protected]>Phone: (401) 433-9633 Fax: (401) 456-8665http://www.mmlarthur.com

scholarly journals Women's Underrepresentation in the U.S. Congress

Daedalus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-55
Author(s):  
Kira Sanbonmatsu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Women And Politics ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Elective Office ◽  
Period Data ◽  
The U.S

Women's elective office-holding stands at an all-time high in the United States. Yet women are far from parity. This underrepresentation is surprising given that more women than men vote. Gender–as a feature of both society and politics–has always worked alongside race to determine which groups possess the formal and informal resources and opportunities critical for winning elective office. But how gender connects to office-holding is not fixed; instead, women's access to office has been shaped by changes in law, policy, and social roles, as well as the activities and strategies of social movement actors, political parties, and organizations. In the contemporary period, data from the Center for American Women and Politics reveal that while women are a growing share of Democratic officeholders, they are a declining share of Republican officeholders. Thus, in an era of heightened partisan polarization, women's situation as candidates increasingly depends on party.

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