Blog Post 2

In Chapter 1, six characteristics of social movements are laid out for us after asking the question, "What is a social movement?". Firstly a social movement must be "an organized collectivity". Essentially, there must be organization within a social movement to be considered legitimate. This organization can be at any level, but it must be there. A social movement must be "an uninstitutionalized collectivity", which means that the discourse must come from someone who may not usually have the power to directly bring about change. Social movement must be "large in scope", so if there is only one person who stands for a certain issue, this can not be considered a social movement. Likewise, if the excitement of an issue lasts for one week, but never is addressed again, this can not be considered a social movement. There must also be real events occurring around this social movement in order for the movement to be real. A social movement must "promote or oppose change in societal norms and values", which follows along a belief and disbelief system. If the movement does not exist to bring about change, than it is not a social movement. A social movement must "encounter opposition in a moral struggle". Similar to promoting change in social values, this is the core of that characteristic. If a movement were trying to create change, but didn't oppose anything, it would have no purpose. Lastly, "persuasion is pervasive" within social movements. Social movements must desire to bring about change theoretically through bargaining, coercion, and persuasion.

A group that might be considered a social movement is anyone fighting for the rights of animals. Many organizations like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have created an organized community of people who stand in this social movement. These people are "uninstitutionalized" because they are not the ones who make the laws protecting animals, but they are fighting for a general change of attitude and rights for animals by trying to have laws changed. There are people who rally around Christmastime to protect animals (an event), there is a large population of people who stand for animal rights (size), and people have been rallying around this issue for a long time. There is an extremely large amount of animal use in goods used by humans, which is a societal norm, and animal rights activists protest the use of these goods. Morally, many people believe that it is the right of humans to use animals for their benefit, but animal rights activists would argue that people do this in a way that is harmful to animals. To get other people on board with the protection of animal rights, members of PETA and other organizations might put out articles, protest leather companies, or eat vegan. All of these characteristics fit into the criteria of the characteristics of a social movement found in our book. I also consider the protection of animal rights to be a social movement.