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What is a Social Movement? Social Movement Definitions

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Introduction

The word ‘movement’ gets used a lot but it isn’t always clear what is meant by it. We’ve collected a number of definitions from academics and other social change theorists.

You might like to use these definitions as a discussion starter for your organisation or action group. What commonalities do you notice? What differences do you notice? Alternatively you may like to explore longer reads on the topic to dig deeper (see the links under each definition).

Definitions of Social Movements

Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow

What qualifies as a social movement? We define a movement as a sustained campaign of claim making, using repeated performances that advertise the claim, based on organizations, networks, traditions, and solidarities that sustain these activities. But most forms of contentious politics are not social movements.

Social movements combine:

  • (1) sustained campaigns of claim making; 
  • (2) an array of public performances including marches, rallies, demonstrations, creation of specialized associations, public meetings, public statements, petitions, letter writing, and lobbying; 
  • (3) repeated public displays of worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment by such means as wearing colors, marching in disciplined ranks, sporting badges that advertise the cause, displaying signs, chanting slogans, and picketing public buildings. 
  • They draw on (4) the organizations, networks, traditions, and solidarities that sustain these activities— social movement bases.”

Reference: Tilly, Charles, and Tarrow, Sidney. (2015) Contentious Politics, Oxford University Press, Incorporated.

WUNC: worthiness, unity, numbers, commitment. – Charles Tilly

Sidney Tarrow

(Social movements are…) sustained collective challenges to elites, authorities, other groups or cultural codes by people with common purposes and solidarity. – Sidney Tarrow

Reference: Tarrow, S. (1998) Power in Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Doug McAdam

(Social movements are…) rational attempts by excluded groups to mobilize sufficient political leverage to advance collective interests through noninstitutionalized means. 

Reference: McAdam, D. (1982) Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, page 20. 

Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani 

(Social movements are…) informal networks, based on shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilise about conflictual issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest.

Della Porta and Diani argue that: “…social movements are a distinct social process, consisting of the mechanisms through which actors engaged in collective action:

  • are involved in conflictual relations with clearly identified opponents;
  • are linked by dense informal networks;
  • share a distinct collective identity.”

Reference: Della Porta, D & Diani, M. (1999) Social Movements: An Introduction, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Blackwell, page 20.

David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi

(Social movements are…) collectivities acting with some degree of organisation and continuity outside of institutional or organisational channels for the purpose of challenging or defending extant authority, whether it is institutionally or culturally based, in the group, organisation, society, culture or world order of which they are a part.

Reference: Snow DA, Soule SA and Kriesi H (eds.), (2004) ‘The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Oxford; Blackwell, page 11.

Hardisty and Bhargava

While there is no formula for a social movement, we know that successful ones share some things in common. First, people become mobilized around issues they hold dear; at some level they share a powerful vision about what is wrong with society and how it must be improved; and they engage in lots of diverse activities not under any one leader’s direct control. The resulting political motion and its effect lead to a change in attitudes, practices and public policy. 

Reference: Hardisty, J., & Bhargava, D. (2005, November 7). Wrong about the right. The Nation, pages 22 – 26.

Giddens

(A social movement can be defined as…) a collective attempt to further a common interest, or secure a common goal through [structurally informal] collective action outside the sphere of established institutions.

Reference: Giddens, A. (1993). Sociology (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press, page 642.

Sztompka

(Social movements are…) loosely organized collectivities acting together in a non-institutionalized manner in order to produce change in their society.

Reference: Sztompka, P. (1993) The Sociology of Social Change, Wiley-Blackwell, page 276.

Batliwala

A movement is a set of people with a shared experience of injustice, who organize themselves to build their collective power and leadership, develop a shared agenda for change, which they pursue through collective action, with some continuity over time. – page 14

For any collective change process to be considered a movement, it must have ALL these six core characteristics: a set of people with a shared sense of injustice, an organized membership base, leadership from within at multiple levels, a shared political agenda, collective action, and continuity over time. – page 19

Reference: Batliwala, S (2021) All About Movements: Why Building Movements Creates Deeper Change, India: CREA

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    • Organisation: Commons Library
    • Location: Australia
    • Release Date: 2023

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