A “MINI-COURSE” ON SOCIAL

MOVEMENTS FOR WORLD VEGAN MONTH 2013

SESSION IIRoger Yates

Vegan Information Project

2

Elton Mayo

The “discontented” were irrational individuals The ‘outbursts’ of ‘irrational sentiment’

Bolshevism/Socialism/Fascism were ‘dreams’ and

‘reveries’ created by the monotony of industrial labour

The solution: counselling and social support

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A “functionalist” model of society…

assumes that present society was basically okay  the “needs” of society are met be prevailing

relations  a REFUSAL to engage them on their own

terms.... pathological assumption imposed from the outside

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The social system…

mechanisms for solving social problems political parties

government parties

trade unions interest groups

associations lobbies

pressure groups

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The theory of collective behaviour represented the first explicit attempt to make sense of large scale social movements

Its popular counterpart might be said to be the notion of ‘rent-a-mob’

the idea that there is a pool of potential members or supporters available to be drawn into all and any form of activity

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Social disturbances

people may become… emotional anxious annoyed jealous

this swells the numbers of those prepared to “step out of line”

Periods of RAPID social change can create such problems for social stability

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Robert Merton

‘anomie’ normlessness

  ‘alienation’

such things increase the risk of ‘a social explosion’

“collective behavior” may be the outcome... 

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Stephen Buechler (2000) Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism. Oxford a ‘distinctive theoretical lens’ for examining collective behaviour

core assumptions: a unitary concept of behaviour embracing a range of examples

panics crazes

movements

CB is essentially non-institutional

Its primary causation is rooted in the individualIts meaning is psychological rather than

politicalIt is a reaction to societal stress, strain, or

breakdown

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What distinguishes CB from ‘normal’ responses to change is

that it compresses or short-circuits levels of social action, giving CB a crude, excessive,

eccentric, impatient quality when compared to routine and

institutionalised social action (Buechler 2000: 16)

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1960: Something Completely Different

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Paul Byrne (1997) Social Movements in Britain. Routledge.

British SMs are…

unpredictable irrational unreasonable disorganised

12

Blumer, Social Movements - reprinted in Lyman 1995: 60

The career of a social movement depicts the emergence of a new order of life. In its begin-ning, a SM is amorphous, poorly organised, and without form; collective behaviour is primitive and the mechanisms of interaction are elementary and spontaneous. As a social movement develops, it takes on the character of a society. It acquires organisation and form, a body of customs and traditions, established leadership, an enduring division of labour, social rules and social values - in short, a culture, an organisation and a new scheme of life

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Jacobs & Landau (1966: 36-46)

The Movement is a melange of people, mostly young people; organisations, mostly new; and ideas, mostly American. ...These young people believe that they must make something happen, that they are part of a movement stirring just below the surface of life hitherto accepted... The Movement is organisations plus unaffiliated supporters, who outnumber by thousands and perhaps even hundreds of thousands, those committed to specific groups. The movement’s strength rests on those unaffiliated reserves. ...To be in the movement is to search for a psychic community, in which one’s own identity can be defined, social and personal relationships based on love can be established and can grow, unfettered by the cramping pressures of the careers and life styles so characteristic of America today (Jacobs & Landau 1966: 14-5)

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‘theory’ and even ‘ideology’ are uncomfortable words. Most SDS members are anti-ideological... not well read in Marxism or in other radical literature (but) moved to action primarily by events in their own lives. SDS is more than an organisation; it is a community of friends... personal relationships are inseparable from political life...the vocabulary and community life are part of the SDS style...at group meetings their openness is apparent. They exhibit great tolerance, and no speaker is silenced, no matter how irrelevant or repetitious. And it is difficult to single out those who hold authority... Leaders mean organisation, organisation means hierarchy, and hierarchy is undemocratic... SDSers believe that the new movements are in their infancy and a great amount of work has to be done at the base...theory or long-run strategy is a fuzzy notion to them. The question of how to link the various projects is unanswered...

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in the trippy 1960s activists adopted a style of talk which “made a virtue of their inability to articulate and analyse coherently. They talked from the gut, stumbling, using the language of the new folksinger” (Jacobs & Landau) – with a “commitment to participatory democracy” that was felt to underpin “a passionate anti-authoritarian ethos, a preoccupation with direct action, community and self-activity that carried into virtually every arena of struggle” (Boggs).

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Scott: movements typified as... primarily social rather than

political less concerned with achieving

state power than transforming values and life styles

located in ‘civil society’ rather than the state

attempting to bring about change through cultural innovations and identities

using grass roots and network types of organisation. 

Buechler: theoretical ‘paradigm shift’ leading to SMs being seen as... distinct from CB - worthy of

analysis in own right showing their own enduring,

patterned, and institutionalised elements [sim to Blumer]

being rooted in collective understandings/group interests

having claims to be treated as rational phenomena

constituting therefore political rather than psychological entities.

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When a new wave of environmental activism emerged in the 1970s, along with other movements on issues such as peace, women’s and human rights, it was difficult for political analysts to relate it to previously dominant conflicts. Such difficulty has largely persisted to date (Della Porta & Diani 1999: 25).

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Basic framework of conflict theories such as Marx and Weber

framework of understanding.... politics seen as revolving around a set of clearly defined

material interests these interests were distinct, and frequently contradictory,

between different social groupings each group tends to organise around the pursuit of its

material interest in opposition to others parties/political organisations represent interests political power [control of the state] contested to change the

structure of inequality economic concerns central Other concerns could ‘wait’ a fully developed political challenge brings specific material

interests together in a general vision of an alternative society

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Della Porta & Diani

What is the social base of this movement? It is not w/c in any obvious sense; but what kind of social position do

‘students’ occupy and in what ways could this provide a stable and alternative foundation for organised social action, and for what reasons?

Who or what is ‘the enemy’? Is there an opponent which somehow represents the antagonist of students

as a social force? In their own perceptions, it is not straightforwardly ‘capitalism’ or ‘the rich’ being targeted, but a much wider (and less well defined?) notion of ‘authority’ or ‘domination’, which seems as much a matter of generational as of class politics - the student movement shades over into the ‘counterculture’ which is against everything that is ‘square’ and ‘uptight’

Whose interests are being served? The ‘movement’ appears to be neither class based, nor organised within

the framework of standard national politics; it is not competing for control of the state, as an alternative potential ruling group or class, and to some extent it claims to speak for ‘everyone’, for universal rights and ‘participation’ or ‘liberation’, in a way which eludes confinement within ordinary political limits - is it a movement of all parties and none?

20

For some time, a strong strand of opinion existed on the political left that feminism was a conservative diversion from the pursuit of class equality and that women’s rights would be a natural by-product of general social transformation (Elizabeth Meehan, cited in Scott: 24)

21

Resource Mobilisation Theory (RMT)

Major Q’s…

movement momentum tactics

contact with others directional strategy

Such questions are addressed by many organisations.

22

social movement organisationsMust….

secure support channel collective efforts towards a goal (or set of) handle problems of RECRUITMENT & CONTROL. Assumption:-

people act as individuals they act in self-interest ‘what’s in it for me?’ not psychologically-driven as much as calculating -

cost/benefit.

23

social movement organisations attracted to the notion of “professionalism” 

towards the creation of a “inner circle” or an “elite”

  separated from

passive supporters financial supporters those who go to the odd meeting

[“Help Us to Help.....”]

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high levels of collective action entail high costs and risks for those involved and will tend to be short-lived and focus on specific contentious issues... The long term difficulties in activating support [create] a strong pull towards building a formal organisation that can carry the movement over the low points of cycles of collective activity (Scott, 2000: 117)

25

Zald & McCarthy

The technologies available for resource accumulation should affect the ability of SMOs within the sector to mobilize resources. For instance, the advent of mass-mailing techniques in the United States has dramatically affected the ability of SMOs to compete with local advertising in offering a product to consumers... The greater range of SMOs, the more different “taste” preferences can be transformed into constituents.