Talk:Social movement theory

Untitled
This is a very incomplete and one-sided article. I suppose it may not be a "big deal" because most sociologists would turn to more established sources before Wikipedia, but there is no mention at all of New Social Movement theory (one of the prime theories today), newest social movements or Torraine's theories of political action or "cultural movements." All the approaches are "old school" and the majority are functionalist. The sources don't even list a general approach to social movement theory, just specific texts on two theories that haven't been as relevant since the late 80's.

If I weren't in the process of writing a thesis, I might do the research to edit it myself, I just wanted to start a discussion going, having noticed the problems.

Response: Yeah, this is very incomplete. I put it together haphazardly in under an hour off the top of my head, however it was in much worse shape before. That being said, it's hardly one-sided or irrelevant. The three leading paradigms I included are still being used to this day, as evidenced by citations in the leading American sociology journals (AJS, ASR, Social Forces, Social Problems) as well as Mobilization, the journal specializing in this area. Most of the sources I cited were published within the past 7 years (not the late '80s, as you suggested).

I also don't follow your criticism that the theories are "functionalist." The logic is causal, but the theories hardly point to the direction of Parsons and Merton. If you consider scholars like Tilly, McAdam, and Snow to be functionalist, then call me Emile Durkheim.

Yeah, I didn't mention New Social Movement Theory, but I don't see why you consider it "one of the prime theories today". How often is it used in the top peer-reviewed journals? Go ahead and include it, I don't know that literature because it wasn't included in my training that specialized in the area of social movement research.

True, I didn't "list a general approach to social movement theory," because such an approach simply does not exist. There is no single theory or approach to studying social movements. Social movement theories generally do not compete with each other, instead they tend to complement the omissions of the others.

All-in-all, this piece needs more citations, more examples, and more theories. In one word: more. It is a stub in the purest form of stubness. A partial list of future contributions should include the following:


 * New Social Movement Theory;
 * More theories on culture and social movements including collective identity;
 * Social Movement Infrastructure Theory (a la Andrews and Ganz);
 * Political Mediation Models (Amenta and colleagues);
 * Theories on Recruitment;
 * Th*eories on Policing;
 * Theories on Repression;
 * Theories on Tactics;
 * Theories on Outcomes (cultural, biographical, political, and demographic);
 * Historical changes in forms of social movements (e.g. Social Movement Society);
 * Theories on Coalitions;
 * Theories on Countermovements;
 * The role of media in social movements;
 * Approaches to leadership and social movement organizations;
 * and I guess "theories" along the lines of _Dynamics of Contention_ ought to be included as well.

I would really appreciate more contributions and contributors to this article.

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 September 2021 and 1 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: EvanCrawley.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:39, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Editing Proposal
The theories that are explained right now only focus on what the theories mean. I think it would be valuable to give a short explaination of the history behind these theories and how they are structured. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Priem365 (talk • contribs) 09:33, 26 April 2019 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Political Communication
— Assignment last updated by Zayanmoses (talk) 05:15, 19 February 2024 (UTC)


 * @Ava.burnhamm Welcome and . I'm glad you're here. looking forward to your contributions! Groceryheist (talk) 22:52, 27 January 2024 (UTC)