Essay Sample on Unleashing the Power of Social Movements: Types, Strategies & Theories

Introduction

Social movement refers to organizational strategies and structures that can empower the oppressed populations to mount the effective challenges and resist the advantaged and more powerful elite. Sociology and political science have developed a variety of empirical research and theories on a social movement. The sociologists distinguish several types of a social movement through an examination of things for example methods of work, range, type of change, scope, timeframe and range. The education and wider dissemination of literature made the social movement in modern western possible. This increased the mobility of labour because of the urbanisation and industrialisation of the societies in the 19th century. Contemporary social movements depend on the freedom of education, expression, and some relative economic independence. There is a connection between social movements and the democratic political. Most of the social movements of the last century grew up intending to oppose Western colonialism, for example, the Mau Mau in Kenya.

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Mostly, there is an involvement of social movements in the democratising nations but often flourished after the democratisation. Social change has several theories. The theories of social movement include the value-added theory developed in the 1960s, the Marxist theory developed in 1880s, the new social movement theory developed in 1980s, relative deprivation theory developed in 1960s, collective behaviour and collective action theory (1950s) and the political process theory just to mention a few. A social movement can either be local, regional, national, and global. Examples of social movement countries involve both developed and developing countries. The countries include the United States, Peru, South Africa, Bolivia and India just to mention a few. The movement has both the failures and the successes. The paper discussed the social movement in the United States and India and their successes and failures.

Inequality and poverty are the producers and the products of the succeeding power in any given society. The social movement is understood as questioning the nature and the exercising of power in the community and the society. The social movement, therefore, plays play a significant part in challenging some of the relationships between inequality and poverty. A social movement has several characteristics, strategies, emergencies and motivations (Escobar, 2018). The language of rights and justice are the most prominent cases in social movements compared to the languages if poverty reduction. To bring the theme of poverty and inequality in a nation, the movement is considered relevant. In the United States, social movement involves women's rights movement and the women liberation movement. After the occurrence of the World War II, there was a dramatic change in the lives of women in the developed countries. The advancement in technology and the household technology reduced the burden of household making, and there was a drastic increase in the life expectancy. For example, the United States experienced extreme growth in the service sector opening up several job opportunities that do not depend on the physical strength of an individual. Despite the United States having this socioeconomic transformation, some cultural attitude, especially concerning the work of women and the legal precedents, reinforced the gender inequalities.

A social movement in India is different from the United States. The movement in India is different from the institutional movement and social group in terms of the organisation, occupation and the period of operation, that is permanent or temporary. In India, a social movement is mainly an expression of deprivation, violence, extremism and they had better define the common challenges facing the citizens basing on the purpose and special solidarities in conjunction with the elites. The movement mobilises the individuals and aims at making a change in the society. In India, the social movement is caused by several cases. First, the cultural drift. Organisations undergo a constant change, and there is a change in the behaviour and values. Development of democratic society in India, the spread of mass education, inequality of opportunities for both genders, growth of secularism and removal of untouchability are the cultural drifts enhancing the organisation of social movement.

Secondly, the presence of social injustice. Social injustice makes individuals feel alienated and more frustrated facilitating the organisation of social movements. The feelings of the social injustice are unlimited to the miserable, poor individuals. The wealthy individuals feel outraged due to the prevailing urban injustice laws for the properties including taxes. This creates a frequent occurrence of social movements due to the dissatisfaction of the social movement. Most Indians faced discrimination and some cases that affected the state of life. The examples include corruption, colonialism, rape case, inequalities among the different classes of living and deforestation. Due to these cases, India developed several social movements that led to a change in the state and the nation. The actions include, first the Swadeshi movement that occurred in 1905 during the struggle for freedom. Most of the Indians came forward and supported the movement by boycotting the foreign goods - the movement aimed at removing the British Empire from the power by becoming self-sufficient.

Other social movements in India includes the Satyagraha movement. The movement aimed at uniting the citizens in India in a more peaceful way. More so, there was a save silent valley movement that started in 1973. The movement was solely for protecting the quiet valley, which is a green tropical forest in the district of Kerala (Williams, 2016). Also, there was a Chipko movement in 1973 - the movement aimed at protesting against the deforestation. The movement protected the forest by hugging the trees to prevent them from being cut. Lastly, there was a Nirbhaya Movement in 2012. The movement was aiming at protesting against the security of women because gangs were raping most women. The movement created a stir in the social media where women changed their display pictures to black dots, and thousands of people had to sign a petition protesting the incidence of gang rape in Delhi. Considering the movement, the various states and the government at the centre announced some steps that ensured the safety of the women in Delhi.

The social movement in both India and the United States had several successes and failures. The success of the changes includes. First, the civil rights movement in the United States attained the goals of enforcing the legal and constitutional rights. The movement was successful as it led to the end of disenfranchisement, discrimination and racial segregation in the United States. The movement secured a new recognition in the federal protection and federal law for all the citizens of the United States. Secondly, the environmental movement. The movement included green politics and conservation that addressed environmental issues. The movement was a success in India as the movement centred on human rights, health and ecology. The movement led to a reduction of deforestation cases in India. The movement involved different individuals from the professionals, politicians, private citizens, nonprofit organisations and scientists. Also, the society and women acquired equity and gender balance. In India, the movement against the rape cases in Delhi led to the provision of safety and security for the women in the society. More so, in the United States, women got a gender balance in terms of job opportunities because most of the work does not require physical strengths. Some of the undesirable conditions can exist and might take a period to be recognised as social problems. The maximum social movement in both India and the United States were successful and were categorised into three types that is the redemptive, reformist and revolutionary. The successes achieved throughout the Indian American social movement were for the protection of sovereignty, the laws and the constitution.

Social movements also have some failures. First, the failure of American Indian social movement was restoring the treaty-making and termination of the rights of Americans and Indians. Secondly, social reforms and moral failure (Williams, 2016). The Indians and Americans are still looking at the system with disgusts criticising the elected government that is better for a healthy democracy forgetting the roles in the society. The failure was mainly due to corruption and the pathetic attitude towards education and the system of the governance. To finish corruption, the United States and the Indian government in conjunction with the citizens have to spend some more time to complete the state. More so, the internal lawlessness and security. The social movement in India failed to address the security issues. Some of the places, for example, Manipur, Bihar, Assam and Nagaland are still struggling to bring peace to the state. According to the security reports in India, the rape cases are rampant and are increasing daily. The report unveils almost 25,000 cases of rape across India meaning that there is an occurrence of nearly 68 rape cases daily in India. Besides, the social movement failed to change the cases like unemployment and gender discrimination. Most women do not get equal chances to work or explore their skills in the workplace. This is a failure, as the social movement did not have more impact on the employment creation and gender equality. Lastly, politicians and the inability to protect and fulfil the rights of education. The social movement only criticises the government but does not play a part in selecting the best candidate who will take the society into another state.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social movement plays a vital role in shaping the state of a country in terms of both political, economic and cultural state. The movement addresses the cases that affect the citizens of a nation demanding a change and transformation of the state. Although the movement aims at providing a better state in the government and the country at large, it is not guaranteed that all the cases that the movement is addressing will be handled. The movement might be of success to the society or failure, and individuals should not depend on the movement for the transformation of the economic state.

References

Escobar, A. (2018). The making of social movements in Latin America: Identify strategy anddemocracy. Routledge.

Williams, R. C. (2016). The cooperative movement: globalisation from below. Routledge.