The Main Principles of New Social Movement Theory

Sociologists use new social movement theory to explain the role of social movements in post-industrial societies. Social movements refer to a voluntary organization of individuals who act in concert to make or block changes. Social movements are power-oriented groups rather than participation-oriented movements, meaning that the group actions of social movements are not necessarily of primary benefit to individual members but instead serve the groups’ larger goals. Coordinated group actions are undertaken to make changes in the larger socio-political context. Social movements tend to be most successful in open, democratic societies in which social mobility and social change are accepted concepts. Norm-oriented social movements are more common than value-oriented social movements. Norm-oriented movements refer to groups that attempt changes within the system whereas value-oriented movements refer to groups that attempt to change the basic goals of a system (Morrison, 1971).New social movement theory refers to a new paradigm of social movement activity and collective action. Contemporary social movements are characterized by strategies, goals, and membership distinct from tradition social movements. New social movement theorists and scholars explain new social movements as arising from numerous channels in society. For example, new social movements are seen as expressions of civil society’s desire for structural change and arise from the growing importance and ubiquity of information in our increasingly knowledge-based society. New social movements are also seen as an inevitable outcome of changing social, economic, and political relationships in the post-industrial society. New social movements are movements for change based on the desire for structural reform rather than revolution, do not attempt to dismantle the existing political and economic systems and are characterized by their self-liming radicalism. New social movement helps to explain the changing forms of political organization and the shifting relations between public and private spheres in post-industrial societies (Lentin, 1999).New social movement theory dominates current social movement research and allows for the study of macro external elements and micro internal elements (Fuchs, 2006). New social movements, which began to emerge in the 1950s, include social movements that arise from the conflicts in post-industrial revolution society and economy. New social movements are a loosely connected group of collective actions that have displaced the traditional social movement of proletarian revolution (Buechler, 1993).

New social movement theory argues that new social movements, such as anti-war, environmental, civil rights and feminist movements, are distinct from other traditional social movements such as labor movements. Traditional social movements tend to be engaged in class conflict while new social movements are engaged in political and social conflict. Traditional social movements tend to focus on economic concerns and inequalities. Members of new social movements are most often from a segment of society referred to as the new middle class. New social movement encourage-age members to engage in lifestyle changes, tend to have supporters rather than members and are characterized as loosely organized networks. These movements differ from protest groups or movements as they often desire to see change on a global scale as opposed to the single issues taken on by protest groups.

Culture Theory

Culture theory builds upon both the political process and resource-mobilization theories but extends them in two ways. First, it emphasizes the importance of movement culture. Second, it attempts to address the free-rider problem.

Both resource-mobilization theory and political process theory include a sense of injustice in their approaches. Culture theory brings this sense of injustice to the forefront of movement creation by arguing that, in order for social movements to successfully mobilize individuals, they must develop an injustice frame. An injustice frame is a collection of ideas and symbols that illustrate both how significant the problem is as well as what the movement can do to alleviate it.

In emphasizing the injustice frame, culture theory also addresses the free-rider problem. The free-rider problem refers to the idea that people will not be motivated to participate in a social movement that will use up their personal resources (e.g., time, money, etc.) if they can still receive the benefits without participating. In other words, if person X knows that movement Y is working to improve environmental conditions in his neighbourhood, he is presented with a choice: join or not join the movement. If he believes the movement will succeed without him, he can avoid participation in the movement, save his resources, and still reap the benefits – this is free-riding. A significant problem for social movement theory has been to explain why people join movements if they believe the movement can/will succeed without their contribution. Culture theory argues that, in conjunction with social networks being an important contact tool, the injustice frame will provide the motivation for people to contribute to the movement.