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Collective Behavior and Social Change:
Exercise 2 - Social movements
Instructions:
Read the passage and click on the correct answer. If wrong, try
again. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box. Click
here to review the key terms for this exercise.
Sociologists have looked at social movements
and offered several theories to explain how they develop. Three of
those theories will be discussed here.
Deprivation theory claims that social movements are started by people
who feel they lack something. When people compare themselves to others,
they may feel that they are at a disadvantage. This sense of having
less than other people, also known as relative deprivation, is the
basis for a social movement. According to this theory, this comparison,
which results in a sense of injustice, is the key to the start of
a social movement.
Mass-society theory looks at the type of society that creates a social
movement and examines who is attracted to a social movement. Mass
society theory claims that social movements occur in large mass societies
(industrial societies where people have weak social relationships).
According to this theory, only people who are isolated and feel that
their lives have no purpose join social movements. They look for personal,
not political, satisfaction.
Resource-mobilization theory claims that for social movements to be
successful, they need a lot of resources (money, human labor, office
equipment, etc.) and networks (connections with other groups). Since
the people who want to create a social movement usually lack these
things, it is people who are outside the social movement who must
provide it. For example, the money and connections provided by influential
White people were very important for the Blacks in the Civil Rights
Movement.
Instructions:
Read the passage and click on the correct answer. If wrong, try
again. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box.
