Talk:Social movement

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Two major sections missing

I was just looking at the article and I realized we are missing two big sections: 1) on what issues social movements are concerned with (gender rights, human rights, environment, etc.) and 2) on geographical distribution of social movements (how many are located in which part of the world). I will try to expand on this in the future; if you have any sources/data do list them here (or add them to the article). --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 15:14, 30 June 2010 (UTC)

1. Defining which issues social movements are concerned with

Some examples of classic social movements would be useful (e.g. the Civil Rights movement). But any section written to define social movements should not be too narrowly defined, because the internet has greatly expanded the range of topics available to protest. See, e.g., Earl, J., & Schussman, A. (2008). Contesting cultural control: Youth culture and online petitioning. (In W. L. Bennett (Ed.), Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth (Vol. c, pp. 71–96). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.) and the rise of Change.org and other petition sites that regularly adopt non-state actors as targets. Civicked (talk) 17:47, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

2. Geographic distribution:

Note - a very useful source is the research by Jackie Smith:

• Jackie Smith, Charles Chatfield, Ron Pagnucco (1997). "Transnational social movements and global politics". Syracuse University Press
• Jackie Smith (1997). Characteristics of the Modern Transnational Social Movement Sector, pp.42-58 in Transnational Social Movements and World Politics: Solidarity beyond the State (ed. J. Smith, C. Chttfield and R. Pagnucco). Syracuse University Press
• Jackie Smith, Hank Johnston (2002), Globalization and resistance:transnational dimensions of social movements, Rowman & Littlefield
• Jackie Smith, Dawn West (2005) The Uneven Geography of Global Civil Society: National and Global Influences on Transnational Association. Social Forces, Volume 84, Issue 2

She focuses on trans(inter)national movements, findings conclude that those are dominated in the developed/core/North/West, goals (human rights (27%), environment (14%), woman’s rights (10%), peace (9%), world-order/multi-issue (9%), development (5%) and self-determination/ethics (5%)) and age (mean is 20-something years). I'll try to add that to the article; if I forget to do it soon ping me or use the above sources. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 15:39, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

• John Lowland ([1]) offers an interesting estimate on the big picture of social movements with regards to size. "Taking all SMOs as a set and extrapolating from the limited data we have [...] I venture the guess that the vast majority of SMOs in at least the industrialized democracies have well less then 50 members, with many having twenty-five members or less. Only a small percentage have membership of more then ten thousands, although [a small number] have been much larger. [...] Focusing on the end of major periods of mobilization” numbers in the range of hundreds of thousands and even millions have been reported. Again, I'll try to expand on it. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 15:37, 6 August 2010 (UTC)