Types of Social Movements

Social movements refer to deliberate voluntary efforts to organize individuals to act in concert and thereby achieve a strong enough group influence to make or block changes. This article provides an analysis of the main typologies of social movements, including the alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movement models; the traditional social movements versus new social movements model; and the economic classification of social movements model. A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of prominent social movement typologies is included.

Social Movements & Collective Behavior > Types of Social Movements

Overview

The following is an analysis of typologies of social movements. Sociologists use a wide range of measures, variables, and indices to classify social movements in order to facilitate comparisons. Understanding the main types of social movements is vital background for all those interested in the sociology of collective action. This article explores the classification of social movements in three parts:

• An overview of social movement theory and social movement typologies;
• A description of the main typologies of social movements, including the alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movement model, the traditional social movements versus new social movements model, and the economic classification of social movements model; and
• A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of prominent social movement typologies.

The History of Social Movement Theory

Social movements refer to deliberate voluntary efforts to organize individuals to act in concert and thereby achieve a strong enough group influence to make or block changes. Sociologists consider social movements to be power-oriented groups rather than participation-oriented movements. This distinction means that the collective actions of social movements are not necessarily of primary benefit to individual members, but instead are rather in service to the groups' larger goals. Coordinated group actions are undertaken to make changes in the larger sociopolitical context. Social movements tend to be most successful in open, democratic societies in which social mobility and social change are accepted concepts. In post-industrial societies, norm-oriented social movements are more common than value-oriented social movements. Norm-oriented movements refer to groups that attempt changes within the system. Value-oriented movements refer to groups that attempt to change the basic goals of a system (Morrison, 1971).

Sociologist Lorenz von Stein first introduced the term "social movement" in his book The History of the French Social Movement from 1789 to the Present (1850). Lorenz von Stein, who is known for his concern with class struggle, developed his concept of social movements from his analysis of mid-nineteenth-century bourgeois-industrial society (Kastner, 1981). During that time, social movements (complete with collective identity, press attention, leadership, membership, and collective action) became popular in Europe and North America. The Industrial Revolution, which spread capital and people quickly across geographic regions, created significant changes in political, social, and work environments during this period. Early social movements included labor unions and worker collectives. Following World War II, social movements grew more from concerns about social inequalities and environmental degradation than labor or work concerns.

Social movement theory, which proposes that social movements are, in many instances, created through the use and manipulation of frames, resources, and information, emerged in the late nineteenth century. The interdisciplinary history of social movement theory includes six main areas of study:

• New social movement theory,
• Value-added theory,
• Structural-strain theory,
• Relative deprivation theory,
• Resource mobilization theory, and
• Mass society theory.

Social movement theory refers to the study of social mobilization, including its social, cultural, and political manifestations and consequences. Contemporary social movement scholarship is often motivated by a desire for social change and may integrate scholarship and activism (Benford & Snow, 2000). Prominent typologies of social movements, described in detail in the next section, include the alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movement model; the traditional social movements versus new social movements model; and the economic classification of social movements model.

Further Insights

Typologies of Social Movements

Social scientists classify social movements based on numerous criteria, including their scope, chronology, geographical focus, strategies, targets, goals, economic resources, and membership characteristics. Typologies of social movements tend to reflect the trends and concerns of social science thought at the time they were developed. For example, the traditional versus new social movement model emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a means of explaining how new movements were distinct from those that came before. Social science research of the era confirmed and reflected the radical social changes (achieved by the civil rights movement, feminist movement, etc.) occurring in society. The three typologies of social movements described below, reflect sociology's nuanced study and classification of social movements over the twentieth century.

The Alternative, Redemptive, Reformative, and Revolutionary Model

Anthropologist David Aberle, in his book The Peyote Religion among the Navaho, introduced a typology of social movements referred to as the alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary model (1966). Aberle's model remains one of the most influential social movement classification systems.

According to Aberle, social movements may be classified by reference to two dimensions: locus of the change sought and the amount of change sought. The locus of change sought refers to the level or extent of change the social movement is seeking. For example, a social movement may work to change individuals, as seen in Alcoholics Anonymous, or work to change the larger society by changing the economic order, the technological order, the political order, or the law. The amount of change desired by a social movement may be partial or total. For example, the civil rights movement desires desegregation and equal rights across society, while labor movements tend to work for change in specific businesses and industries.

Aberle's social movement classification scheme can be used to evaluate the target population and scope of most any social movement. For example, numerous sociologists have used Aberle's typology to study and classify religious movements such as Buddhism, Christianity (including mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Evangelical faiths), Judaism, Islam, Shamanism, Native American belief, African Yoruba, Kabbalah, and Sufism (Masuda, 1998). The four types of movements described below (i.e., alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movements) describe the vast majority of nineteenth- and twentieth-century social movements:

1. Transformative Movements: Transformative movements, such as radical political groups, work for total or complete structural change. They may participate in violent action to achieve change and may anticipate the coming of a cataclysmic change (Almanza-Alcalde, 2005). For example, the Christian Identity movement, a movement of "extremely conservative Christian churches and religious organizations and extreme right wing political groups and survival groups" (Robinson, 2006, para. 3), is united by a belief in some form of White supremacy and Armageddon. Armageddon generally refers to the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. In the late 1990s, the Christian Identity movement was estimated to have 50,000 followers in dozens of sects. The largest and most well-known Christian Identity movement has historically been the Ku Klux Klan (Robinson, 2006).
2. Reformative Movements: Reformative movements work to create partial societal change in order to address injustices and inequalities. Reformative movements tend to have as their stated goal a desire to foster and promote positive change and achieve a just social order. Reformative movements tend to be single-issue movements. In many instances, the single issue will become a starting point for a larger platform of change and social restructuring. For example, political reformative movements have begun working to reduce the external debt of poor countries and, once successful, branch out to change the world trade rules (Almanza-Alcalde, 2005). Fred Voget, cultural anthropologist and American Indian ethnologist, first used the term reformative movement in 1956 to refer to a conscious creative attempt on the part of a subordinate group to obtain a personal and social reintegration through a selective rejection, modification, and synthesis of both traditional and alien cultural components. A modern example of a reformative example is the Umbanda religion of Brazil. The Umbanda religious movement, a patchwork of African, Indigenous, Portuguese Catholic, and Spiritualist components, appeals to its members and adherents through expressions of national identity. The movement works toward social reform by reintroducing and revitalizing past cultural heritage (Dann, 1979).
3. Redemptive Movements: Redemptive movements seek a total change in individuals (Almanza-Alcalde, 2005). Personal recovery movements, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, are popular examples of redemptive movements. Alcoholics Anonymous, which was started in 1935 by a stockbroker and surgeon suffering from alcoholism, combines popular psychology and religion to offer its members personal redemption through the acknowledgment of their disease. In the early twenty-first century, the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous estimated that its membership included over 123,000 groups and more than 2 million members in about 180 countries.
4. Alternative Movements: Alternative movements work toward partial change in individuals. Alternative movements, which began forming in the 1960s, are characterized by countercultural values, the rejection of materialism, and the development of unconventional lifestyles. They do not work to change the existing social and political system. Instead, alternative movements work toward developing a parallel way of life that is ecological and spiritually viable and sustainable. For example, the sustainability movement and back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States was characterized by a migration from cities to rural areas and a commitment to efficient and sustainable resource use (Almanza-Alcalde, 2005).

Traditional versus New Social Movements

Sociologists also classify social movements using a traditional versus new social movement model. This classification scheme is based both on the date (or era) of the social movement in question and the characteristics of the social movement itself. In this model, social movements are analyzed with the following criteria: the point of view of the actors in the social movement, the relationship of the actors in the social movement to culture, and the social movement's framework for action (Wieviorka, 2005).

Traditional social movements, most associated with the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, are characterized by their isolated and alienated membership and large scale. New social movements generally date to the latter half of the twentieth century and are characterized as loosely organized networks. The traditional versus new social movement model suggests that new social movements first developed in response to, and possibly in reaction against, traditional social movements. Whereas traditional social movements attracted members through targeted analysis of personality traits, grievances, disillusionment, and ideology, new social movements, beginning in the 1960s, abandoned the traditional social-psychological appeals common to these deprivation movements and mass society movements. By breaking with traditional social movements, they radically challenged perceived truths about how social movements operate (Klandermans, 1984).

The history of social movements from the late nineteenth to twentieth centuries includes two main periods: the industrial and post-industrial eras. Industrial society produced numerous working-class social movements that strove to improve working conditions, rights, and wages. The post-industrial period produced new social movements, such as the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the environmental movement, distinct from traditional industrial-era social movements. (It must be noted that some scholars also draw a distinction between new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s and global social movements of the 1980s and 1990s.)

Since the 1950s, social movements have differed from traditional social movements. Whereas traditional social movements were characterized by local leadership, volunteer staff, collective actions, large membership, and resources donated from direct beneficiaries, new social movements are more professionalized with professional leadership, paid staff, invisible membership, resources donated from outside the movement, and actions that represent the movement, but do not require member participation. Successful professional social movements, such as the environmental movement, have become experts at mobilizing resources, both from inside and outside themselves, to effect desired change (Jenkins, 1983).

The traditional versus new social movement model argues that contemporary social movements perform collective action in markedly different ways than their traditional counterparts did. Their strategies, goals, and membership are distinct from traditional social movements. Some theorists and scholars believe that new social movements arise from numerous channels in society; for example, they see new social movements as expressions of civil society's desire for structural change. New social movements also arise from the growing importance of and ubiquity of information in increasingly knowledge-based societies. Additionally, new social movements can be seen as the inevitable outcome of changing social, economic, and political relationships in post-industrial society. They tend to be the desire for structural reform rather than revolution, and because they do not attempt to dismantle the existing political and economic systems, they are characterized by self-limited radicalism. New social movements are also reflective of the changing forms of political organization and the shifting relations between public and private spheres in post-industrial societies.

The traditional versus new social movement model argues that new social movements, such as the antiwar, environmental, civil rights, and feminist movements, are distinct from other traditional social movements, such as labor movements. Traditional social movements tend to be engaged in class conflict, while new social movements are engaged in political and social conflict. Traditional social movements tend to focus on economic concerns and inequalities, while members of new social movements are most often from a segment of society referred to as the new middle class. New social movements also encourage members to engage in lifestyle changes and are often based on loosely organized networks of support rather than formal membership. Finally, new social movements often desire to see change on a global scale, whereas protest groups tend to be local and devoted to single issues (Lentin, 1999).

Economic Classification

Finally, sociologists also classify social movements according to their economic resources and goals. Researchers have found that social movements may be classified as motivated either by economic factors or other variables, such as the environmental or civil rights concerns. While economics is inexorably linked to nearly all aspects of society, sociologists do distinguish between economically driven social movements and non-economically driven social movements.

Researchers argue that economically driven social movements most often arise from economic strain. For example, researchers have found that when the rate of growth in social income falls below a previously sustained high rate of growth, individuals become constrained in their actions and choices. In these conditions, individuals are more likely to participate in social movements that aim to improve their economic conditions. Depressed economic conditions are found to create a market and desire for social change. Social movements respond to individual upset and discontent by offering opportunities for economic, political, and social protest (Breton & Breton, 1969).

Social movements started by low-income people tend to be resource poor; therefore, resource-poor social movements require and seek outside support and funding. There are two types of members belonging to social movement organizations: conscience constituents and beneficiary constituents. Conscience constituents refer to individuals or groups outside of the social movement that have a moral alliance with the social movement's cause, goal, or mission. Social movements often seek out and receive resources from conscience constituents. Because the social movement and the mass media are responsible for framing the social movement's message and character, conscience constituents tend to contribute more when these framers emphasize the beneficiaries' commonalities with the conscience constituents (Paulsen & Glumm, 1995).

Resource-mobilization theory, which is used to analyze economically driven social movements, such as labor unions and gangs, holds that a social movement arises from long-term changes in a group's organization, available resources, and opportunities for group action. The theory examines structural factors, including a group's available resources and the position of group members in sociopolitical networks, to analyze the character and success of social movements (Klandermans, 1984). It argues that successful social movements are created by the successful mobilization of resources and the development of political and economic opportunities for members.

Issues

The Strengths & Weaknesses of Social Movement Typologies

The typologies of social movements described in this article have distinct strengths and weaknesses. For example, Aberle's model of alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movements has numerous supporters and critics. Supporters of Aberle's model argue that the scale and inclusiveness of the model allow it to be used to analyze and classify almost every incarnation of social movement. Critics of Aberle's model argue that the typology describes only ideal or pure types of social movements. In reality, they say, social movements inevitably possess a combination of elements and characteristics from the four different types of social movements (Masuda, 1998). Ultimately, Aberle's model may serve as a tool for the analysis of shared or common social movements elements and characteristics.

Supporters of the traditional versus new social movements model find that it aids in the classification of a wide range of contemporary and historical social movements. In addition, the model facilitates the comparison of new and traditional social movements. Critics of the model, however, dispute its assertion that new social movements replaced traditional social movements beginning in the mid-twentieth century. Critics argue that social movements with the characteristics of new social movements existed during industrial times and traditional social movements continue to exist side by side with new social movements. Critics find that there is little research to support a true differentiation between new social movements and traditional social movements (Lentin, 1999).

Supporters of the classification of social movements by economic criteria argue that the ubiquity of economic concerns across social movements makes the model widely useful and applicable. Critics of the model, however, argue that it provides a limited view of the motivation of social movement members. Critics find that the economic characteristics of social movement participants may tell an incomplete story of why individuals start and join social movements. In addition, critics note that the economic classification model does not give equal weight and importance to the material and nonmaterial resources that social movements mobilize to achieve their goals. Material resources used by social movements include money, organizations, manpower, technology, means of communication, and mass media. Nonmaterial resources of social movements include legitimacy, loyalty, social relationships, personal networks, personal connections, public attention, authority, and moral commitment. Critics assert that successful social movements require the mobilization of both economic and non-economic resources, as well as the presence of economic and non-economic motivations and goals among members (Fuchs, 2006).

In the final analysis, typologies of social movements help researchers understand how social movements (with often seemingly distinct objectives, kinds of collective action, targets, strategies, and resources) are alike and reflect a shared history of collective action, as well as how they are distinct and reflect their own unique perspectives and situations (Almanza-Alcade, 2005).

Terms & Concepts

Alternative Movements: Social movements that work toward partial change in individuals.

Collective Action: Spontaneous social actions that occur outside of prevailing social structures and institutions.

Collective Identity: The self-image that social movements tend to form for their participants.

New Social Movements: Social movements that arise from the conflicts in the post-industrial revolution society and economy.

Post-Industrial Society: A society characterized by an economy based on service and the privatization of capital.

Redemptive Movements: Social movements that seek a total change in individuals.

Reformative Movements: Social movements that work to create partial change in a society to address injustices and inequalities.

Resource Mobilization Theory: The idea that social movements arise from long-term changes in a group's organization, available resources, and opportunities for group action.

Social Movement Theory: The study of social mobilization, including its social, cultural, and political manifestations and consequences.

Traditional Social Movements: Social movements, associated with the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, characterized by an isolated and alienated membership and large scale.

Transformative Movements: Social movements, such as radical political groups, that work toward total or complete structural change.

Bibliography

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Suggested Reading

Coy, P. G. (2010). Research in social movements, conflicts and change. Bingley, UK: Emerald. Retrieved October 29, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost).

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Rose, F. (1997). Toward a class-cultural theory of social movements: Reinterpreting new social movements. Sociological Forum, 12, 461–494. Retrieved June 4, 2008 from EBSCO online database SocINDEX with Full Text:

Steinberg, M. (1992). Recent social movement theory: Moving from the theoretical margins to Main Street. Sociological Forum, 7, 551–556. Retrieved June 4, 2008 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Complete: