Social Movements: Theories & Impact (MCAT Psychology/Sociology) - Khan Academy

Resource mobilization theory argues social movements require substantial resources (human, social, physical, financial)—deprivation alone is insufficient. Both internal and external resource mobilization contribute; outsiders may supply resources to insiders lacking them, as seen in white activists uniting black communities or males organizing females. Modern examples include social media platforms enabling organization. Relative deprivation theory (Ted Gurr) examines why people join movements: frustration-aggression theory shows prolonged deprivation drives collective action. Three types exist: decremental (declining capabilities from disasters, e.g., Russian Revolution), aspirational (increasing expectations while capabilities stay constant), and progressive (capabilities decline after expectations rise). All approaches provide analytical frameworks for understanding collective mobilization from different standpoints—class, resources, structural conditions, or deprivation—offering complementary perspectives on social movements.

Social movements emerge from two key theoretical perspectives: Relative Deprivation Theory explains that movements arise when people perceive they lack resources or opportunities compared to others, creating a sense of injustice that motivates collective action; Resource Mobilization Theory emphasizes that successful movements require tangible resources such as money, knowledge, media support, and organizational infrastructure to effectively organize and sustain collective action.

There are three main theories explaining social movements: (1) Theory of Relative Deprivation - people who are deprived of something (such as water, electricity, roads, schools, or jobs) unite and come forward to fight against that deprivation; (2) Theory of Collective Action - when people come together in large numbers, they can take collective action against issues, as smaller groups are easily suppressed by authorities; (3) Theory of Resource Mobilization - social movements require mobilizing resources (people, topics, economic resources) from one place to another to succeed, as staying in one place or focusing on only one topic reduces chances of success.

Relative deprivation serves as a primary catalyst for social movements and collective action. When individuals or groups experience deprivation through comparison with others, they tend to organize collectively to address their grievances. Those who have personally experienced deprivation are most likely to mobilize for social change. Historical examples include the African American civil rights movement (fraternalistic deprivation based on racial discrimination) and the LGBT community's fight for marriage equality (egoistic deprivation regarding personal rights). Sociologists distinguish between egoistic (individual comparisons with colleagues) and fraternalistic (systemic discrimination based on race, class, or occupation) deprivation. Ted Robert identified five conditions for relative deprivation: lacking desired things, awareness that others possess them, intense desire, belief in obtaining them, and obstacles preventing acquisition. These conditions create psychological states that can lead to frustration, aggression, and potentially political violence when legitimate goals remain unattainable.

Two major theories explain why social movements emerge. Relative deprivation theory posits that movements arise when people feel disadvantaged compared to others. According to Waterman, four conditions must be present: (1) The person must lack something they need, (2) They must know someone who possesses that thing, (3) They must desire that thing, and (4) They must believe they have a reasonable chance of obtaining it. Relative deprivation occurs when there is a mismatch between expectations and capabilities. Resource mobilization theory emphasizes that movements develop when individuals with grievances can mobilize resources including knowledge, money, media support, labor, legitimacy, and solidarity. The theory focuses on how movements acquire and organize resources to achieve their goals, rather than assuming grievances alone will automatically lead to movements.

Globalization has enabled the emergence of social movements that transcend national boundaries. The tools of globalization, including communication technologies and information networks, have been used to organize movements for political change and to challenge authoritarian regimes. The Arab Spring and similar movements demonstrate how global connectivity can facilitate the spread of democratic values and the organization of collective action across national boundaries. This perspective sees globalization as a force that promotes individual freedom and collective self-determination.

New communication technologies like internet, social media, and blogs enable horizontal, decentralized social movements that bypass traditional vertical power structures, allowing ordinary individuals to initiate and propagate collective action globally through peer-to-peer networks rather than hierarchical organizations.

Social media transforms revolutionary organizing by creating digital public spaces when physical ones are suppressed. Egyptian organizers used digital platforms to cultivate resistance culture before taking it to streets. More broadly, these tools enable transnational movement building—connecting student organizers across continents, facilitating cross-cultural strategy discussions, and aggregating best practices globally. As technology becomes more accessible, networks expand infinitely, allowing strange bedfellows to collaborate. The universal potential for revolutionary action exists regardless of geography or demographics, as technology circumvents traditional barriers of race, borders, and language, empowering concerned citizens worldwide to participate in building more just societies.

Social justice movements are becoming increasingly globalized through technology and social media, enabling faster connection with comrades worldwide. This allows for quicker sharing of stories from different regions and more rapid mobilization of solidarity. For immigrant rights communities, this transnational connection is natural given families abroad and shared political concerns. International trade agreements like NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership have devastating impacts on communities, displacing workers and undermining livelihoods across borders. Communities must name and fight against these policies that perpetuate economic injustice.

Mass Society Theory, coined by Karl Mannheim in 1935, is a sociological perspective that examines how industrialization, urbanization, and mass media create a society where powerful media shapes people's thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors, leading to homogenization of culture, centralization of power among elites, loss of individuality, isolation from traditional communities, and reduced critical thinking among the masses.

This section presents two major alternative sociological paradigms. Conflict theory, based on Marxian ideas, emphasizes inequality and conflict over resources and power. Key thinkers include Charles Wright Mills (sociological imagination), Ralf Dahrendorf (conflicts at multiple levels), and Immanuel Wallerstein (world-systems theory dividing global economy into core, semi-periphery, and periphery). Rational choice theory assumes individuals act rationally to maximize benefits and minimize costs, applying economic reasoning to social phenomena. Gary Becker extended this to marriage and family, proposing mathematical formulations weighing factors like love, financial resources, and social status. These perspectives contrast with functionalist approaches by emphasizing power, conflict, and individual agency in social organization.

Collective behavior refers to the actions of people in groups or crowds, typically as a reaction to events, emotions, or sentiments, and can be explained through multiple theoretical perspectives including irrational theories like LeBon's mass hysteria theory (which argues crowds cause people to lose rationality and develop contagious mental unity) and rational theories like emergent norm theory (which recognizes individuals with different perspectives) and value-added theory (which explains how different types of collective events like panics, crazes, hostile outbursts, and social movements produce different behaviors based on structural conditions and communication patterns).

Rational Choice Theory is a sociological framework that explains human behavior by asserting that individuals make decisions based on a cost-benefit analysis, choosing actions they believe will yield greater benefits than costs; this theory, rooted in economics and political science, suggests that social order emerges from individuals pursuing their self-interests rationally, and social change occurs when enough people collectively make rational choices that shift societal norms, though critics note it oversimplifies human behavior by assuming constant rationality.

Mass society theory explains social movements as responses to decreasing mechanical solidarity and collective consciousness in modern industrial societies. As relationships become more impersonal, conditional, and utilitarian, social movements provide avenues for social attachment, collective identity, and emotional expression that compensate for individualistic social structures. Social movements offer participants a sense of belonging and identity beyond individual interests. Through shared participation, members develop common consciousness, emotional bonds, and collective purpose that counteract the alienation and isolation characteristic of modern mass societies based on impersonal relationships. This theory emphasizes the psychological and social functions that social movements serve in maintaining human connection in increasingly fragmented societies.

According to Bloomer in 1969, social movements generally go through a life cycle marked by several stages: (1) Emergence - when social movements begin for one or more of the reasons indicated in previous discussions; (2) Coalescence - when a movement and its leaders must decide how to recruit new members and determine strategies to achieve their goals, potentially using news media to win favorable publicity; (3) Institutionalization or Bureaucratization - as a movement grows, it tends to become bureaucratized with paid leaders and paid staff replacing volunteers, higher levels of organization and coalition-based strategies emerging; (4) Decline - the end of mobilization.

Herbert Blumer's framework identifies four universal stages through which all social movements pass: (1) Emergence - movements begin due to social evils, societal deterioration, or need for change; (2) Coalescence - movements unify, consolidate, and recruit new members using communication strategies; (3) Bureaucratization - movements institutionalize with clear authority lines, paid workers, and structured fundraising, potentially reducing effectiveness; (4) Decline - movements end when goals are achieved or when they fail. This life cycle framework applies universally to both historical and contemporary social movements worldwide, providing a systematic approach to understanding how movements develop, grow, and eventually fade away.

Social movements progress through four stages: (1) Immersion - a few people realize a problem and take grassroots action with all-nighters and pizza parties; (2) Coalescence - the group agrees on strategy, hashtags, and merchandise; (3) Bureaucratization - paid staff replaces volunteers, hierarchy develops, and attention shifts to fundraising and conventional activities; (4) Decline - the movement dies because goals are achieved, it fractures into factions, government cracks down, or leadership is disgraced. Movements can also fall apart through government co-optation with symbolic gestures. The pattern follows Animal Farm, where different stages correspond to different characters.

Social movements have distinct life cycles including: emergence (originating), coalescing into critical mass, institutionalization (accessing social institutions), bureaucratization (formal organization development), and decline. Some movements experience long periods of dormancy followed by resurgence during opportune moments.

Social movements progress through four stages: (1) Emergence - social movements start when people realize there is a specific problem in their society they want to address. This realization can come from dissatisfaction or information/knowledge about a specific issue. At this stage, the social movement defines the problem it will address. (2) Coalescence - often social unrest or discontent passes without any organizing or widespread mobilization. For example, people in a community may complain to each other about general injustice but do not come together to act on those complaints, and the social movement does not progress to the second stage. (3) Bureaucratization - as a movement grows, it often tends to become bureaucratized with paid leaders and paid staff replacing the volunteers that began the movement. (4) Decline - social movements eventually decline for one or more reasons such as leaders not running things properly or internal conflicts. However, sometimes they achieve their goals and naturally cease to exist because there is no reason to continue.