Sociology 432: Social Movements

Midterm exam study questions

(final version: October 26, 2005)

One essay and five short essay questions will be randomly selected from the following questions. The essays have no right or wrong answer. You need to show that you can take a clear position, support it with as many facts and case studies as possible, and acknowledge exceptions to your argument. The short essays are more specific, but they also are designed to test how well you can put together specific evidence with the more general sociological patterns.

Essay questions

1. Take a position on whether social movements need to adopt tactics that are more (or less) confrontational/militant/violent in order to be successful. What are the advantages and disadvantages of increasing militancy? Consider all the possible targets of social movements and how they might be affected by increasing militance. Support your position with specific examples from any social movement we have studied. Acknowledge counter-evidence and exceptions to your main position when necessary.


2. One of the most popular explanations of the rise and success of protest movements has been the "resource mobilization" perspective. Summarize the main arguments of this perspective and give examples of how it helps explain the rise of social movements. In your examples, be specific about what resources contribute to what mobilization. Then identify what other factors tend to be ignored or at least de-emphasized by this perspective. For each of these de-emphasized causes, suggest a specific case where it might be a mistake to ignore those factors.

Short essay questions

(final revision October 26, 2005)

3. Explain how the "repertoire of contention" varies with the "cycle of protest". Describe examples from the history of U.S. social movements that fit with the usual pattern and any that don't fit.


4. What is the best predictor of the spread of (and the success of) any particular protest tactics in the civil rights movement? What is the evidence? What explains the decline in the use of a tactic?


5. What are two advantages of a formal, more bureaucratic organization for a social movement? What are two disadvantages?


6. What were the structural (i.e., economic, demographic, organizational etc.) changes in American society that facilitated the growth of the civil rights movement? How did the "indigenous organizational strength" of the civil rights movement change prior to the 1950s so that a successful social movement was more likely?


7. What events in the origins of the feminist movement point towards more cultural framing factors as important? What events point towards resource mobilization factors as important? Why might cultural changes be more important for the origins of a feminist movement than for, say, the origins of the civil rights movement?


8. Describe the major differences in the operations of collectivist and bureaucratic strands of feminist movement organizations. Give examples of each strand of movement organization.


9. What were some of the specific goals and changes that the feminist movement accomplished in the 1970s and 1980s? How did the different strands of organization, bureaucratic and collectivist, contribute differentially to these goals?


10. What is the evidence of the decline of the success of the feminist movement in the last two decades? What factors have changed since the 1970s that might help account for that decline?


11. Why are we justified in considering riots as a protest tactic ? What is the evidence? In what sense are they not really a tactic?


12. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of lawsuits as an effective protest tactic. Consider its impacts on movement participants and on opponents. What are some examples of successful uses of the legal route? some unsuccessful attempts?


13. Why are strikes and boycotts an especially difficult tactic to make successful? Use specific examples to illustrate your analysis.


14. Why is the sit-in such an effective protest tactic? Analyze its impact on relevant targets. How has it been counteracted by the authorities?


15. Describe three tactics used by the Poletown protesters and explain their impacts (or lack of impact) on relevant targets. How does this analysis help us understand their failure?


16. Why is "petitioning" by itself rarely a successful protest tactic? Use a specific example to illustrate its weaknesses. Why bother with petitioning at all (i.e., what advantages are there to choose this tactic)?


17. What is the problem with individual discontent as an explanation for the rise of social movements? Use at least one specific example to illustrate your argument. Then cite a specific counter-example that indicates discontent may be an important factor in explaining the rise of a protest movement.


18. What is the evidence that government or social repression of a social movement is usually effective or is usually counter-productive?


19. What are the possible positive and negative impacts on more moderate activists of the rise of radical, militant factions in a social movement? What does the evidence in the civil rights movement suggest actually happens?