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| Women in Leadership |
| Social Change and Social Movements |
| Social change is defined as the “intentional steps that move society in the direction of equality, support for diversity, economic justice participatory democracy, environmental harmony, and waging and resolving conflicts nonviolently.” There are four levels in social change, each of which interacts and influences the others: 1. Individual 2. Organization 3. Social Movement – citizen efforts to change conditions, policies or structures by joining together with other citizens and other organizations. 4. Society – social, economic and cultural forces at large. To effect change through a social movement, several key competencies must exist, including: · Recognizing issues/naming them (moving from lack of awareness to awareness and articulation) · Feeling confident and empowered to speak about issues (overcoming internalized oppression) · Ability to form coalitions (establish solidarity) |
| SOCIAL MOVEMENT STAGES From Bill Moyer: Movement Action Plan (MAP) Examining numerous historical social movements, Bill Moyer has created a model describing how successful movements achieve their goals, the Movement Action Plan (MAP). The MAP gives us one way to conceptualize the evolution of a social movement, namely focusing on the developmental stages of a movement, in much the same way as we think of the developmental phases for human beings. Stage 1: Unaware (Business as usual) Only a small number of people are interested and involved Goal: get people thinking about the issue Stage 2: Failure of established channels Current structures begin to be challenged Goal: create awareness that existing channels are not working (increasing public opinion) Stage 3: Ripening conditions/Educating and Organizing Things speed up, more people interested, more groups forming to work on issues Goal: mass education especially refuting power-holder claims Stage 4: Takeoff Typically started by a trigger event/excitement, energy, spontaneity (civil rights action in Alabama, Chernobyl disaster) Goal: catalyst – build and coordinate grassroots movement, win widespread public opinion (celebrities get involved, lots of organizations spawned) Stage 5: Perception of failure Appearance that the movement is failing, 2 steps forward, 1 step back, media/power may also “promote” or emphasize failure Goal: Planning – create strategic measurable objectives for the work of the movement to keep progress occurring Stage 6: Winning over the majority Long-term struggle with power holders, shift from “opposition” to engaging public support, thinking of alternatives Goal: to win the majority opinion The remaining steps are part of a phase described as Managing Success: Stage 7: Achieving alternatives Long, ongoing process/creating dialogue about alternatives to adopt (nuclear energy proved to be undesirable in new paradigm, so other alternatives emerged) Goal: recognize the success, achieve major objective or demand within a new paradigm Stage 8: Consolidation and Moving On Insure institutional follow through, (diversity as a positive value) Goal: change the cultural framework, achieve a paradigm shift The value of this model is to help activists maintain perspective on where they are in the process of social change. Because there are times in any movement when the work can seem overwhelming, or like little progress is being made, understanding the developmental stages of a social movement can help maintain commitment and enthusiasm through awareness that change is actually occurring! Adapted by Nancy Skinner from Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership: A Guide for Organizations in Changing Times, Lakey et al, New Society Publishers, 1995. |