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Collective Behavior and Social Change:
Exercise 2 - Social movements
Instructions:
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Even though there are different types of social movements, they tend to develop in the same way. Researchers have identified four stages of development.
Stage 1: Emergence (beginning) Social movements
start when people realize that there is a specific problem in
their society that they want to address. This realization can
come from the dissatisfaction people feel or from information
and knowledge they get about a specific issue. At this stage,
the social movement defines the public issue (problem) it is going
to address.
Stage 2: Coalescence (coming together) This
is the stage when the social movement and the issue it focuses
on become known to the public. At this stage, a social movement
develops its policies (plan of action), recruits members, holds
protest marches, forms networks, and gets resources.
Stage 3: Bureaucratization (becoming formally organized)
At this stage, the movement acquires a capable staff and becomes
an effective organization.
Stage 4: Decline (end) At this stage, the
movement loses strength and may die. It might have reached its
goal and therefore may have no more need to exist. It might also
have failed for various reasons. For example, its leaders might
not run it properly, or there might have been conflict inside
the organization.
Instructions:
Read the passage and click on the correct answer. If wrong, try
again. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box.
