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Order of Social Movements

To help make sense of small developments within big stories.

By Jiré SaffronPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Order of Social Movements
Photo by Kevin James Shay on Unsplash

If it feels like new movements are popping up everywhere, that’s because they are. And they always have.

Social movements are one of the most powerful tools for meaningful change. Movements cause social pressure that stimulates public awareness, awareness can lead to political pressure, and that pressure can change the status quo.

A social movement can be defined as an “organized effort to change policies or practices by people who do not have the power to effect change through conventional channels.” This process is not straightforward or predictable but by looking through the lens of public opinion, we can better understand how movements evolve.

This is a general framework to understand how social changes gain support; and how moments turn into movements.

The Four Stages of Social Movement

Ignorance is Bliss

Spark

Mass Mobilization

Movement with Goals

Ignorance is Bliss

Movements don’t come out of nowhere; they have to be built.

For months, years, and decades, communities deal with injustices and vulnerabilities that impact their quality of life. Most of these issues are not new but often tied to systemic roots. Nothing can be done in the beginning until people start to talk about it. By opening conversations, they discover the different sides of the problem and what can be done immediately. In these marginalized communities are the people who are most acutely aware of the issue and the first to advocate for them. Once they begin to believe that they deserve better, small support groups form, and passionate activists rise up.

Through a string of seemingly isolated events that are all related to the root problem, more people are made aware of the issue. Advocates use these moments to build and promote a narrative. Those who understand the events clearly, try to get others to see them as well.

Traditional media coverage at this stage is sparse. The public might view the cause as trivial (“not that serious”) or unnecessary.

From the perspective of the average unaffected citizen, this is natural. There are already so many issues in the world. Problems solved today are only followed by problems to come tomorrow. To stay sane, it is easier for most people to worry first about the issues that directly affect them. Ignorance is bliss.

Growth starts to compound as one event capitalizes on the momentum of the last. With the attention that they attract, new developments and awareness efforts slowly bring in more supporters. This ultimately leads to a critical moment that catalyzes the intense interest and attention of the public (local, national, or global).

Spark

This moment is so visible and so clearly unjust (within that culture) that it dominates the public conversation, forcing people to pay attention to the larger ongoing issue.

A new sense of urgency is created.

People that are used to supporting from the sidelines find the conviction to join the front lines. People living in ignorance start to accept that a real issue might exist. People in denial start to question their assumptions.

The spark is not always a unique event. A lot of times, it is something that has already happened many times before. It just happens at a unique moment. Unplanned and unexpected forces converge to create the conditions necessary for a movement to gain broad impact and appeal.

Mass Mobilization

Public support shifts towards the cause

Sparks catalyze people to reflect on issues and form opinions. Movements convert that energy into action. The ability to get broad support—from people from diverse backgrounds—is one of the most consistent indicators of how effective a movement will be. With diverse representation, wider public validation is signaled. It shows that even people who don’t experience an issue themselves, recognize its need to change.

In all circumstances, movements need allies.

Young need old; minorities need majorities; the powerless need help from the powerful; the public sector needs the private sector; and downtown needs support from the suburbs. Each person brings a unique background and skill set that helps to push a movement forward.

The more people that an issue feels real and urgent for, the more powerful the movement.

And not everybody needs to be convinced. Research from Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth found that, out of 323 major movements from the past century, none with at least 3.5% of the population actively participating failed to produce serious political change.

Using violence to reach a movement’s goals elicits strong responses from citizens. The type of response though depends on where they live. In high trust societies, institutions like the government are believed to do more good than harm. Here, intentionally violent tactics reduce trust and legitimacy in a movement. In low trust societies, residents see their institutions as oppressive and their leaders as willing to go to extremes to maintain control. Here, violent resistance that represents the people’s demands tends to gain popular support.

Leadership and a unified front start to emerge

We are seeing shifts to more decentralized forms of leadership in the modern era. Today, one 15-year- old girl from Sweden can inspire 3.6 million people across 169 countries to follow her lead; and spread the message of climate change as effectively as any climate scientist.

New tools amplify voices with unprecedented ease and scale.

In the past, people needed to have political power or access to media to reach the masses. Now, the internet and social media have democratized that power to anybody with an internet connection. People can organize in places where rights are limited and meeting in secret can get you arrested, or worse. Important steps like raising money and recruiting members can be accelerated. And communication among large groups is simpler than ever. In Hong Kong, protesters organized and communicated through chat groups instead of waiting for directions from a centralized leadership team. Through Telegram, an app that allows chat groups of up to 200,000 people, they made decisions transparent by taking votes through in-app polls. They were able to be flexible and share updates on things like police hot spots, tips to stay safe, and shifting protest locations.

But mobilization does not equal organization.

Today, demonstrations take place more often, in larger numbers, and with less time to plan. The Great March on Washington took three months to organize 250,000 people in 1963. The 2017 Women’s March organized more than 4 million people in the US and 7 million globally, in just two months. It is as easy now as it has ever been to get people together (in-person or online) and draw attention. The hard work of movements is turning that attention into coordinated and continued action.

A Movement with Goals

For moments to turn into a movement, supporters and participants must have clear goals and consistent action.

At this stage, there are so many people actively involved and aware of the movement that it sustains itself. Relationships between supporters grow stronger and the urgency of the movement is maintained. Regular citizens and the powers that be now have to acknowledge that this isn’t going anywhere. It has become a regular part of life and public conversation.

All the supporters that want to help are given an opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way.

Limited action gets limited participation. Not everyone in support of a cause is willing or able to take the same kind of risks. Sustained movements use a mix of creative civil resistance tactics that disrupt the establishment so much that they have no choice but to pay attention. Boycotts, street blockades, sit-ins, walk-outs, strikes, marches, occupations, and phone calls and email blasts have all been used to turn support into noticeable actions.

New institutions naturally rise.

From the small support groups founded in the ignorance is bliss stage, formal institutions take shape. These new institutions amplify a common voice, challenge the establishment, and build alliances. Real change takes time—years, decades, and even centuries. Institutions form to carry forward the momentum that limited human lives cannot. Success for a movement is acceptance by the very institutions it is trying to change. When institutions acknowledge the reasons for a movement’s existence in the first place, they can finally start to work together to create mutual solutions.

Moments are fast and fleeting, movements are slow and sustained.

Tracking people’s attitudes and opinions on the course for social change is revealing. Shifts in public opinion show us what defined rules cannot.

A movement takes a society from a previous reality to a new one and changes occur within people’s mindsets that make them change their practices in real-time. Laws and policies only formalize that new reality, after the fact, and communicate it to the rest of the population–unaware or stuck in the past.

Societies are shaped by social movements. Our standards today are the result of all the movements up until this point. Even the ones that we see as “failed” forced shifts in perspective and conditions that are carried long into the future.

humanity
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