What do „Fridays for Future”,
he women’s and lesbian movement of the 1970s and 1980s,
and the labor movement of the late 19th century have in common?
They’re all social movements.
A social movement is based on the conviction
that societal change is possible.
But that alone isn’t enough
to fully capture all social movements.
That has to do with the fact
that not all social movements
pursue emancipatory goals.
hey can also be oriented around racist,
nationalist, and/or authoritarian goals,
like for example the voelkisch movement
in Germany in the early 20th century
or the right-wing extremist movements
in various countries today.
What differentiates a social movement
that strives for emancipatory change?
That advocates for a society free of abusive power, domination, and violence?
Social scientists have come up with the following definition:
A social movement is
a collective actor that
mobilizes people to participate in collective action,
has a certain continuity over time,
has a high degree of symbolic integration,
i.e. has strongly shared cultural values and symbols,
has a low degree of role specification,
uses various organizational forms,
engages in a range of political action,
tactics and countercultural activities,
and pursues a goal
of bringing about,
preventing, or undoing foundational social change.
Let’s look at the elements
in this definition a little more closely:
A social movement is what
social scientists call a „collective actor“
and it is a way of articulating common interests.
A social movement has the intention
of having a recognizable influence on the way
society is organized and how social institutions operate.
Their motivation is fed by discontent,
or the oppression or persecution
of certain groups of people,
and they use protest to push for change.
Often they are unruly,
unwieldy, and unpredictable.
To count as a social movement,
it has to have lasted a certain amount of time.
At the same time, however,
a movement has no exact starting date
or formal membership.
Rather, it is made up of an informal affiliation
of individuals, groups,
initiatives, and organizations.
In other words, it’s an open constellation.
The participant feel connected to each other,
as if with invisible ties.
Depending on the movement,
representatives from nonprofits, unions,
political parties, religious groups
and social work associations may also participate.
One can see the social form of a movement
as a network-like constellation of participants.
Each is independent
but they communicate with each other.
The composition of this network changes over time:
some participants drop out for a time,
others quit altogether, new groups and individuals join in.
Social movements take aim
at significant structural social transformations.
They intend to either bring about,
prevent, or undo social change through protest.
Protests are the visible,
core expressions of social movements
and are a form of political participation.
Through a process of collective negotiation within the movement,
questions, analyses, and demands
are creatively turned into political actions.
There is a wide diversity of protest forms,
including, to name just a few examples:
signing petitions,
tagging or stenciling,
mass demonstrations,
sit-down blockades,
strikes,
occupations,
sabotage,
and kiss-ins.
Movements mobilize people to participate in these actions
using personal appeals, posters, flyers,
informational events,
websites, and social media.
A social movement
siezes on societal contradictions
to criticize social situations
and convey political demands.
These demands are then usually
articulated through public protests or
the practice of resistance,
for example through direct action.
Through this process, interests are sharpened and amplified
that are not – or are only marginally –
represented in the current political system.
As such,
movements exist in a conflict-ridden relationship
with State and For-profit interests,
and with the practice of discrimination.
To the degree that
a social movement points out structural problems
like inequality, injustice and discrimination,
it not only engages in conflict.
It also instigates it:
Together they develop an understanding of the problem,
and internal negotiations generate
shared convictions and political demands,
which are then translated into protest actions.
As a collective endeavor,
a movement can form and organize itself
in various ways – for example,
by developing networks among participating individuals and groups.
Or groups can consolidate
into temporary coalitions,
for instance to organize a demonstration together.
Individual groups
can also be connected to each other
through a national council or a global forum.
In a social movement
people are connected by the conviction
that by working together,
emancipatory change is possible.
The foundation is a feeling of togetherness and belonging.
This is expressed, for example,
in the use of symbols,
linguistic codes,
or by wearing certain clothes.
This is summed up in the term
“high symbolic integration.”
The power of a shared sense of “we”-ness and solidarity
is experienced and especially palpable
in collective protest actions.
A social movement
creates new leeway for action.
The movement and its activists exercise power
through diverse political actions
in which it expresses its critique or alternative solutions.
The movement empowers itself.
Pushing its demands through
is a confrontational process.
To succeed,
it must continually exert more and more pressure
even if it means
breaking with social conventions to do it.
A movement gains significance
the more its members show up in massive numbers
and are committed in their engagement
as they face their opponents and the public.
Over and above just saying no to the situation they oppose,
a social movement develops
countercultural activities
and alternative utopian practices and visions.
Often the first steps of these utopias
are directly implemented in the movement.
Social movements are often
committed to grassroots democracy.
In such cases, they operate
with minimal role specification.
In other words,
there are no official hierarchies
or formal functions
that individuals or groups take on.
And they have no fixed division of labor.
Because of their openness
and the possibilities offered by their grassroots democratic practices,
social movements serve as meaningful spaces
for learning and social experimentation.
They produce new knowledge,
which is transformed into action.
In that way, new social practices are also created.
In this way
the West German women’s and lesbian movement of the 1970s
analyzed violence against women as a societal problem.
It developed for example
autonomous women’s shelters and hotlines.
Today these kinds of safe houses and counseling resources
are part of the social work infrastructure.
Participation in a social movement
goes hand in hand with individual and collective politicization.
As a form of empowerment,
it can also be understood as the interplay
between individual and collective liberation.
This is especially true of movements
that are founded
on the experience of discrimination,
such as the civil rights movement in the USA,
the women’s and lesbian movement,
or the self-designated
disability rights movement.
The power and authority structures of the larger society
are also reflected within the movements themselves,
which can lead to internal conflicts.
That can, however, be ultimately productive,
since new and independently active groups
or even new movements
sometimes appear out of these conflicts.
Thus, the experience of sexism
in the student and apprentice movements
led to the new women’s movement;
and the lesbian movement was formed
out of an internal critique of the women’s movement.
And notably in the lesbian movement,
experiences of antisemitism,
racism,
ableism,
and classism in turn
led to the formation of separate groups of lesbians.
The aspiration
to think about
diverse forms of oppression
simultaneously is captured
in the term “intersectionality.”
To summarize,
social movements have three essential attributes:
their collective form of organization,
their political actions,
and their goal of changing the society.
There are lots of ways
to be part of a social movement,
to feel like you belong
and to commit to something in solidarity with others:
go to a presentation,
take part in a demonstration
or organize one,
form a small group with your roommates to read, analyze,
and have discussions around the kitchen table,
or plan the next political action,
take to the streets with
lively and powerful political messages.
All of this is what it means to be politically engaged in a movement,
with the conviction and the goal
of a good life for everyone!
(Translation by Darcy Leach)
(Subtitles: Pudelskern. GmbH, 2023)