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Social Movements
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Social Movements are a collective expression by noninstitutionalized ("grassroots") groups seeking or resisting social change. It is a social network attempting--mainly from outside the power structure--to bring about institutional changes, or to assert the power and self-determination of a particular social community.
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A selection of free resources from Women and Social Movements is ... available from the SUNY Binghamton Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender. Please click here to visit their Website.
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Blumer (1969): Social movements can be viewed as collective enterprises seeking to establish a new order of life. They have their inception in a condition of unrest, and derive their motive power on one hand from dissatisfaction with the current form of life, and on the other hand, from wishes and hopes for a new system of living. The career of a social movement depicts the emergence of a new order of life.
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There is little doubt that the existence of domestic social movements, in particular Solidarity, was a fundamental cause of regime breakdown in Poland. Throughout its last years the PZPR was constantly under pressure. Unable to prevent the emergence of a succession of social movements or to quash dissident ideas about creating an independent civil society, the regime made numerous concessions to the populace in a vain attempt to gain some legitimacy. Establishing a constitutional court, holding a reform referendum and conceding to conscientious objectors are just some examples of a regime no longer "directing Polish society but responding to it" (Brown 1991: 79). The existence of such strong opposition ... tempered the nature of regime demise, providing an obvious partner for the PZPR in the Round Table negotiations which allowed for a peaceful transfer of power and set a precedent for the rest of Eastern Europe.
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Social movements have been and continue to be closely connected with democratic political systems. Occasionally social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but more often they have flourished after democratization. Over the past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent.[Tilly, 2004]
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Social movements bring about historic changes in the society. They have ... produced some of the most inspiring and influential political actors in history-Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Mahatma Gandhi, to name a few. What is the legacy of historic movements supporting organized labor and civil rights? The Web sites below can help answer this and other questions.
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Social Movements