Understanding Social Movements: Causes, Stages, and UK Case Studies

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of social movements, defining them as collective actions aimed at achieving common goals and societal development. It explores various features of social movements, such as the importance of belongingness, the influence on political structures, and the presence of collective actions. The essay details the stages of social movements, including emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline. Furthermore, it examines the reasons behind the emergence of social movements, such as deprivation, resource mobilization, political processes, and cultural shifts, providing examples like the Stop the War movement, Occupy movement, and Brexit. The essay analyzes the impact of these movements on society and the factors contributing to their emergence and evolution, offering a valuable resource for students studying sociology and related fields.

1- Why do social movements
emerge

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................................3
Features of social movements:.................................................................................................................4
Stages of social movements.....................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERNCES............................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
There are several social movements has been organized at global level with an objective
to create huge social impact. Social movements are the events in which group of people joined
each other in order to achieve a common goals (Bee and Kaya, 2017). Here, majority of
decisions are taken by group members to create huge social impact. These are organized to create
and oppose changes which are not favorable for a particular social group. There are several
social movements such as Occupy, Brexit, Stop the war has been organized in UK. Main aim of
these events is to secure the rights of individuals and fight for it. These movements can be
peaceful and violent in which several campaigns, rallies take pace. The current report is about
emergence of social movements. It includes a detailed description about social movements along
with suitable examples. Further, stages of movement have also been discussed in following
report. Further, there are several reasons behind the emergence of social movements are also
included in report which gives an overall prospective about emerging social events at global
level.
Main Body
Social movement refers to the collection of a number of people who gathered together to
achieve a similar goal. Main aim of social movement is development and well being of people
within society. Here, a lot of people come together and coordinate with each other in order to
achieve desired goals of societal development. It is analyzed that these kinds of movements are
organized and continue for the longer period of time (Birken, 2019). Social movements are
purposeful which organized to attain a common goal. In this, people come together and work
together without any kind of relationship with each other towards a common goal of societal
development. These movements are generally organized with an aim to bring and resist the
changes coming in society. Generally, there are leaders who lead and guide participants in
movement. There are a lot of social movements have been organized in history with an aim to
create higher impact over the society and people .Some of the examples of social movements
within UK given as under

Stop the war movement: In this, Politicians and celebrities come together to protest
against the UK’s proposed and actual involvement in the invasion of Iraq. They continue this
protest against any kind of action taken by military of both UK and other nations.
Occupy movement: This was created and against of financial crisis and its impact was
visible or the whole society in the end of 1st decade of 21. In this people have set a camp in front
of London Stock Exchange to protest against the crisis. This was organized with the aim of
social justice and a crucial part of global Occupy movement. In 2011, it was organized against
financial crisis and get support from all over the world. The protest was created against London
stock exchange in which nearly 2000 to 3000 people took part in protest.
Brexit: it is a social movement which has been created huge impact over the whole
economy of UK. It has divided the country and two parts that highly influenced living standard
of people. There are a lot of social changes which are favorable or unfavorable have been created
by this movement in addition it has created white political impact economic impact or economy
of nation (Bitcon, Evans and Avila, 2016). In addition, there are several social groups who
protest Brexit as it brings several changes in social life of people. It influences income level,
buying habits of people and brings a lot of uncertainty that creates uncertainty, deprivation
among individuals of country. Therefore, it is consider as a major event which give rise to the
huge social movement.
Features of social movements:
 It is analyzed that sense of belongingness is really essential to create a social movement
and get positive outcomes. It is possible when group members actively participate in this
and work towards a common goal to bring a positive change in society.
 Here, these movements also influence political, legal structure of a country that put huge
impact on overall economy.
 There are collective actions have been taken in social movements rather individual
actions as there are several people participated in this and coordinate with each other
(Decker, 2016).
 There some rules and regulations are determined for social movements which are
necessary to follow by all members. In addition, these movements can be peaceful and
violent in nature depends on the subject for which it has been created.

 Here, duration of any kind of social movements is not predetermined. It can be continue
for a longer period of time if goals are not achieved. Generally, these are created with an
aim to bring changes and resist it for the benefit of whole society.
Stages of social movements
Social Movements has been created with some common goals and there are some
predefined stages are followed for it. These steps are given as under:
Emergence: It is the first and most important step in which people realize that there are
some problem in society that need to be resolved for the well being of overall society. It occurs
when people do not get proper information and details about a particular topic. This is the initial
stage in which is less organized as people are not fully aware with policies, rules and regulations.
These rules are formulated by leaders and communicate to participants. It may possible that
some people are not satisfied with these policies but still bound to follow it in order to achieve
desired outcomes. They understand that it is a collective action and they need to agree on similar
aspects rather oppose it. For instance, the civil rights movement that took place in America in
1950. It was happened due to difference between African-American Population in South
America. After this, there was separate civil rights has been created for individuals within
country to maintain peace.
Coalescence: At this stage, group actions are combined together in order to achieve
common goal of social well fare. It is the wider concept under which action plan is developed for
the purpose of movement (Jones, Betson and Pfeiffer, 2017). Here, participants organized
marches, develop strategies, execute campaigns. At this stage, people collect resources, develop
network so that movement become successful. In this, movement turns out more official and
organized as people formulate strategies and develop required actions. After the initial phase,
American civil rights protest became a high profile campaign in which students start marches
and camps. They dragged by police and also get support from well known leaders such as Dr.
Martin Luther and more.
Bureaucratization: It considers as formalization of social movement as it includes
decision making, division of labor, determining whole procedure and many more. Here, structure
is determined by the leaders in order to achieve predefined goals. At this stage, written

documents are prepared in which related policies, rules, regulations, structures described by
leaders. In this, a list of members who are taking part in movement is also prepared to get clarity
and divide the work accordingly. In this, several strategies are prepared by leaders in order to get
desired outcomes from movement. Here, rewards are also given to participants in so that they
stay positive and work for societal development. In this stage, social movements cannot
completely depend on campaigns, rallies and participants rather work with trained staff to
accomplish desired goals. In this, political power is higher than other stages as there is
continuous involvement of political parties. It is analysed that power is centralized in the hand of
some powerful parties at this stage who prepare all necessary rules and regulations.
Decline: It is the last step of social movement which is also known as institutionalization.
It can be happen in terms of repression in which agents work on the behalf of authorities and
destroy whole social movement (Lim, 2020). A social movement can decline due to Co-optation
where leaders start to work for authorities rather for social development. In this, their actions are
centralized and carried out for personal interest. Sometime, movement achieved desire goals and
complete successfully. Therefore, there are several ways to decline a movement that depends on
situation.
Reason of emergence of social movements
It is analyzed that there are several social movements are organized with different
purpose. Major reasons of occurrence of social movements are given as under:
Deprivation: It is an important reason where people fell that they are deprived with some
king of resources, goods and services which are essential to live a standard life style. It has two
branches that are absolute and relative deprivation. In absolute deprivation individuals have
grievances and feel isolated from other groups of society. On other side, in relative deprivation
group face disadvantageous situations within society (McLoone 2019). It is analyzed that it is a
necessary elements for any kind of social movement. There are a lot of people in different
countries who are deprived from something and need to fulfill their wishes in order to live a
better life. Movements can be occur due to grievances, discrimination and more. This is majorly
depends on emotions of an individual’s due to which they fell deprived and isolated in society.
For instance, Feminist movement took place in 1960 to provide equal rights and opportunities to

women in America. Major reason of that movement was also deprivation as women think that
they are not consider as capable as men. They were not getting equal opportunities of success
and growth. Therefore, movement occurred and created huge impact on overall country.
Resource Mobilization: It refers the importance of resources availability in social
movement. In this, individuals have some kind of grievances and they use resources such as
money, power, and knowledge in order to minimize those grievances. It is analyzed that during
this movement people become more materialistic and give higher importance to resources.
People wish to have more resources and when they do not get necessary resources it give rise to
social movement. For instance, in civil society movement which was based on discrimination
leaders were able to get support of ample of people. They get huge support from white people of
country as they also wish to successfully complete this movement. These huge human resources
helped them to successfully accomplish movement and get desired results.
Political Process: It refers to a movement which generally occurs due to the availability
of political opportunities within country. There are several other political parties who protest
current government. It is analyzed that if current government is in strong position then
movement can be fail but if, they are in lower position then social movement can become a
success. It is most common movement which also takes place in current days (Sauer and
Mészáros, 2017). Here, main emphasis is on political condition as opposite parties wish to harm
the present image of existing government and wish to make their own government. It avoids
other factors such as culture and values of society and so on. There are several movements take
place at global level which are affected with political power. The major example of this is Brexit
in which UK got separated from European countries that has put major impact on overall
political condition of both nations. It changed government and their rules and regulations across
the nation. In addition, it is also creating huge impact on overall economy of nation.
Cultural Drifts: It is analyzed that there are several changes are introducing in society on
regular basis which are also changing the behavior and values of individuals. There are several
people who are not able to adjust with these changes thus oppose it. During culture drift a lot of
people develop new ideas. It is a crucial reason of social movement that influence whole society
and created with an aim to create huge social impact. There are several examples of cultural

drifts such as equal opportunities for males and females, awareness about education, awareness
of secularism and more.
Social Disorganization: It is analyzed that changes in society do not take place
simultaneously. It affects the mindset of individuals and increase ambiguity. These kinds of
changes bring a lot of confusion as old tradition replace with new approaches. Due to this,
individuals get confused & rootless. They start to feel isolated, frustrated which further give rise
to social movement. Therefore, social disorganization is considers as a major reason of social
movement.
Social injustice: Sometimes, injustice is done with a particular social group which
depressed them. It is not related with status, income level and other such factors rather any social
group may face injustice which encourage them to create social movement in order to improve
their position within society. Here, American civil society movement was a good example of
social injustice in which there are discrimination on the basis of completion (Sklaveniti, 2017).
There was higher emphasis on “Human Society” that belongs to every human regardless of race,
color, gender. This movement focuses on the development and change at every level of society
by spreading awareness about culture and values among people. Main purpose of this movement
is to create democratic, fair and secular country where there is no discrimination and each
individual get similar right.
There are several social movements which have been generally arises due to unfavorable
situation present in society. Sometimes, it can also be happen in such kind of society where
groups are aliened. It is analyzed that discriminations, changes bring tension, frustration for
individuals and give rise to social movements (Williams, 2017). Due to continuous changes
people become deprived and create social movement with an aim to achieve predefined social
goals.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is analyzed that social movements are essential and play a
major role in overall society development. There are several changes have been created through
these movements which are significant for the betterment of society. It is concluded that these
movements are organized with a certain purpose that need to be fulfill in order to create social
impact. In addition, these are created in guidance of leaders who formulate policies, rules and
regulations for movements. Discussion has been carried out about server kind of social events
like occupy movement, Brexit and more. Further, there are numerous causes of social
movements such as deprivation, social disorganization, injustice and more that give rise to these
movements. Moreover, social movements are essential and taking place across the globe with an
aim to create huge social impact for overall development and well being of society.

REFERNCES
Books and Journals
Bee, C. and Kaya, A., 2017. Between practices and demands: ambiguities, controversies and
constraints in the emergence of active citizenship in Turkey. Southeast European and
Black Sea Studies, 17(3), pp.301-324.
Birken, L., 2019. Consuming desire: Sexual science and the emergence of a culture of
abundance, 1871-1914. Cornell University Press.
Bitcon, C., Evans, S. and Avila, C., 2016. The re-emergence of grassroots herbalism: an analysis
through the blogosphere. Health Sociology Review, 25(1), pp.108-121.
Decker, F., 2016. The “alternative for Germany:” factors behind its emergence and profile of a
new right-wing populist party. German Politics and Society, 34(2), pp.1-16.
Jones, B.A., Betson, M. and Pfeiffer, D.U., 2017. Eco-social processes influencing infectious
disease emergence and spread. Parasitology, 144(1), pp.26-36.
Lim, A., 2020. Global Fields, Institutional Emergence, and the Regulation of Transnational
Corporations. Social Forces.
McLoone, M., 2019. Irish film: the emergence of a contemporary cinema. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Sauer, S. and Mészáros, G., 2017. The political economy of land struggle in Brazil under
Workers' Party governments. Journal of Agrarian Change, 17(2), pp.397-414.
Sklaveniti, C., 2017. Processes of entrepreneurial leadership: Co-acting creativity and direction
in the emergence of new SME ventures. International Small Business Journal, 35(2),
pp.197-213.
Williams, G., 2017. Struggles for an Alternative Globalization: An ethnography of counterpower
in southern France. Routledge.