Social Movements and Social Change
Social movements are strategies and organizational structures that are made to empower oppressed groups of people so that they can resist advantaged and more powerful elites. These are large groups which can be formal or informal according to organizations or individuals whose focus is specific social or political issue. Social change is termed as an alteration in a social structure such as a change in social organization systems, values, behavior or symbols. There are various theories that emphasize different aspects of change such are a theory by Marxist that suggests that changes in class systems can be caused by a change in modes of production and all this cam prompt class conflict or other forms of change. Conflict theory of social change suggests that conflicts which in this case are inevitable can bring other changes such as promoting social integration. This study will explore American politics and how social movements and social change and how it has shaped it.
Social Movements during the Progressive Era
Social movements shaped progressive in the 19th and 20th centuries as it reconstructed American politics. This aimed at aligning American social and political order with an opportunity, equality, and liberty for all. Progressive reforms focused energy to counter inequality, corruption and social injustice. Progressivism comes about due to vibrant labor movements, social gospel, and grassroots foundation. This movement challenged the American government to eliminate political injustice and reduce government force to enhance human freedom. [1]According to valued added theory, for any collective behavior to occur there ought to be conditions that support the idea of social movements. Such conditions include structural conduciveness which means that people involved must be aware of the problem facing them and have a chance of gathering together. Other conditions include generalization belief, growth in a structural strain which simply means people expect and the problem identified can be attributed to a certain group of people. According to Tilly and Charles in conflicts theory , they're inevitable conflicts that will arise in countries such as America and this will lead to the social integration of people having a common problem hence rise of social movements.
Impact of Social Movements on Social Change
According to Escobar and Arturo,the rise of social movements in America led to various social changes such as births to unmarried couples, cohabitation, legalization of marijuana, same-sex couples among others[2]. These social changes are a result of the change in technology, population, and social institutions. All these agents of social changes need to be supported by social movements that help to push the dream to become true. Unfortunately, social movements face some challenges, especially when a movement grows to a level that it can influence a large number of people. This may cause division among the members who turn against each other hence this weakens the movement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Social movements in America have the tensions that have shaped them such as cultural and political objectives, confrontation strategies and need to have distributed leadership. United states of America is one of the nations that is experiencing faster economic growth and this has led to different views from different parts where some groups feel unfairly treated. Since coming to power of the Donald Trump, there has been ill-feeling by Democrats who feel that the president is working to bring down some important things done by former presidents Barrack Obama such as Obama care and this could rise to social movements. Trump has worked hard to ensure American citizens have priority in job opportunities which have seen as one of the important social changes in the United States today.
Bibliography
Escobar, Arturo. The making of social movements in Latin America: Identity, strategy, and democracy. Routledge, 2018.
Tilly, Charles, and Lesley J. Wood. Social Movements 1768-2012. Routledge, 2015.
