Beyond science and policy: Typologizing and harnessing social movements for transformational social change
Benjamin K. Sovacool
Abstract
Social movements refer to collective groups of actors banding together to achieve desirable social change through common agendas and tactics. This study examines the power of four successful historical social movements—anti-slavery (the abolition of slavery and universal labor rights), temperance (the prohibition of alcohol consumption), civil rights (racial equality and voting rights), and family planning (women's rights and reproductive choice). Each of these are global/transnational movements, and they also map onto typology of revolutionary, redemptive, reformative, and alternative movements. In each case, the study explains the agendas of these movements, the tactics they utilized, and the prominent actors involved. It finds that transformative movements do not necessarily need to be focused on transformation, and can instead target incremental reforms and/or changing the behavior of individuals. Institutionally, none of these successful social movements relied on a single actor or coalition to achieve their goals. Even though all four of these movements were successful (eventually), they took decades to centuries to reach their goals. Finally, all four movements relied on a progression or accumulation of tactics over time, and all four depended on some degree of questionable tactics. These included forcibly freeing slaves and violent slave revolts (anti-slavery) to burning and destroying pubs (temperance) and scapegoating German Americans (temperance) to giving bribes and concessions to pass civil rights reforms (civil rights) to condoning abortions (family planning). Scholars of energy transitions and social transformation may need to expand their inventory of “repertoires of contention” accordingly.