You social movements are collective actions maintained by organized groups in society that aim to fight for some social cause. In general, the cry raised by social movements represents the voice of people excluded from the democratic process, who seek to occupy the spaces of law in society.
Social movements are extremely important for the formation of a democratic society by trying to enable the insertion of more and more people into the society of rights. The first social movements aimed to solve the problems of Social classes and politicians, such as the expansion of the right to vote. Today, social movements are largely based on identity guidelines that represent categories such as gender, race and sexual orientation.
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Characteristics of social movements
When thinking about social movements in the light of thinkers of philosophy and of the sociology, é impossible to point to a consensus. The Italian political scientist Gianfranco Pasquino points out the impossibility of establishing a conciliatory line between those who deal with social movements, considering a horizon of
classic thinkers.In this sense and as examples, sociologists Marx, Weber and Durkheim they see in social movements the sustaining of a revolution, the institutionalization of a new bureaucratic power and even greater social cohesion, respectively.
On the other hand, we have thinkers linked to conservatism, such as the French polymath Gustave Le Bon, the French philosopher, sociologist and criminologist Gabriel of Afternoon and the Spanish philosopher and journalist José Ortega and Gasset, who saw in social movements an imminent danger. For this group, social movements, like mass movements, tend to follow irrational paths that disturb the current order.
Despite the differences, there is a convergence about social movements: the realization of social tensions and the imminent rupture of social change. In any case, it is necessary to realize that there is an ancient history of tensions that represent major social movements in the modern world.
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Perhaps the oldest mass movement that we can single out as a principle of social movement was theBastille fall, which marked the French Revolution in 1789 and was responsible for the fall of the monarchy. absolutist French. Another great mass movement that became an organized social movement was the suffragette movement, considered part of the first wave of the feminism, a movement organized by women who claimed their right to vote and citizen participation in politics.
Origin of social movements
At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the unions institutionalized as collectives that aimed to defend workers from employer exploitation., inspired mainly by the ideals Marxists. In this sense, social movements in defense of workers, the lower social classes, and socialist movements and anarchists, which aimed at a complete revolution and dissolution of the capitalist social order.
In the 1960s, due to the sequelae left by the Second World War and to the climate of global polarization caused by the Cold War, new collectives, actions and movements have sprung up all over the world. The agendas of social movements began to diversify from that moment on. In the United States and South Africa, the black population revolted against the unfair system of racial segregation which guaranteed privileges to the white population and took away the rights of the black population, treating this layer as a horde of inferior citizens.
Women have also organized themselves into collectives to fight for their rights, seeking to sexual freedom and equal treatment between genders (This became known as the second wave of the feminist movement).
THE LGBTQ+ population also entered the scene to claim the right to express themselves freely and not be judged or segregated for it. An episode marked by a spontaneous mass movement that generated a great social movement was the one that occurred at the Stonnewall Inn bar, in New York, which resulted in a confrontation with the police and gave rise to the Gay Pride Parade, now called the LGBTQ+ Pride Parade, which takes place in several cities around the world. world.
The world has gone through severe changes since the 1960s, a period in which minorities took to the streets to fight for their rights. From then on, several social movements began to emerge around the world, always in search of an organization that aimed to inclusion of excluded people and always differentiating itself according to the specifics of each location.
In Brazil
An example of locality of social struggle occurs in Brazil with movements like the MTST (Movement of Homeless Workers) and MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement, known as the Landless Workers Movement). Brazil is a country that, unlike developed countries, has never produced an effective land reform.
The number of people who do not have access to land for rural work or do not have their right to housing guaranteed is huge, which makes the agenda of these movements an emerging issue this way. In this sense, in view of the specific demands of our country, organized movements were created to fight for the demands that our people face.
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How social movements work
É impossible to establish a single formula of functioning of social movements, since they are diverse, defend different agendas and have different demands according to their geographical location and their historical time. However, some features can be listed as common modes of operation for them.
Many social movements erupt from mass movements and rebellions, as was the case with the LGBTQ+ movement, from groups of the black movement, such as the black Panthers, in the United States, and of the MST, in Brazil.
They can be made up of different groups that fight for the same cause, such as the feminist movement, which has different strands, the black movement, which is formed by a wide range of collectives, and the LGBTQ+ movement. However, each group or cell of these movements has its ways of organizing itself to promote social militancy.
They unite people around a common cause.
They aim at a social restructuring that includes those interested in common power and guarantees their rights as citizens.
Examples of social movements
Movement of landless rural workers
Feminist Movements
anti-racist movements
Environmental movements (such as WWF and Greenpeace)
Movements to unite communities and the periphery, such as Nós do Morro — which fights racism, social inequality and the exclusion of people living on the outskirts.
Movements to fight homophobia and transphobia, such as the LGBTQ+ movement
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor
