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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.
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Stages of Social Movements

     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.

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