Social Movements and the Development Process - Essay Example

Social Movements And The Development Process Introduction Over the past century, all types of social movements have sprung up in Asia as a result of the problems their populations are facing especially the issue of chronic poverty. The social movements however carry out politicized activities that are carried out collectively by the poor for their benefit. Social movements, which are contentious politics forms, imply that collective challenges that are based on common purposes along with social solidarities are indulged in carrying collective actions against oppressive regimes. In contentious politics within the Asian continent, the ordinary people join hands with the more influential members of their communities for the purposes of confronting the elites, governments along with their opponents (Meyer, 2004). The notion of movements refers to the process of mobilizing other than a specified set of organizations working towards the achievement of change (Tarrow, 1998). The social movements in Asia have however broadened their sustainability’s in the last twenty years with their activities becoming more diverse. There are formal organizations which form part of the social movements in the continent. These movements are additionally greater than their actors as can be identified and indulge in utilizing uncoordinated along with cyclical structures involving collective actions and protests by their populations (Bandana, 2006). They also have networks that are responsible for linking the organized and detached actors all in the processes of mobilizing. The movement can therefore be defined as processes of collective action which are detached but are sustained across time and different locations. The social movements can also be said to be collectives which are politically or socially directed. They involve the cooperation of various organizations and networks that have an aim of changing certain elements in the financial, political along with social systems (Bandana, 2006). The social movements in Asia usually revolve around the poor and disenfranchised populations since they have been denied the access to opportunities which the elite people within their society’s get. The people eventually result to using alternative methods of seizing power from the ruling classes in order to challenge them over resource use, their political enclosures along with other changes that are necessary for reducing their poverty levels. In most democratic countries that are found within the continent, social movements along with public actions have become the only legal structures to attaining power that is at their disposal. Developments in the Field The use of social movements to organize mass movements among people in Asia has brought up an vital possibility of their attainment of success in their political field. They have helped many people across the continent in the attainment of political responses for the problems they are encountering. In addition to the poverty being experienced by the people, the social movements also respond to specific issues which could range from difficulties, grievances and challenges that affect the people (Tarrow, 1998). Over half a billion people within the Asian continent dwell in slum areas and encounter various problems such as insecurity, poor housing and sanitation among others though without any financial assistances from their governments. Most of the slum dwellers experience very high infant along with child mortality rates with communicable diseases spreading very easily in their neighborhoods. The collective actions instigated by the social movements have in turn forced various governments to intervene on various issues that range from proper planning in the urban centers, improvements to various transport systems, their garbage disposals and sanitation (Bandana, 2006). Most of the governments within the Asian continent have also been found off guard on the issue of the migrations being made into urban centers in search of better living standard. This movement has brought overcrowding that results in poor sanitation for its people, the lack of basic necessities and other degradable issues that affect them. The major purposes of the social movements within Asia are to initiate changes from the governments in order to improve the peoples living standards. The social movements usually sprout as reactions to certain crisis that people are facing and the failures by their governments to take corrective measures even after identifying where the problems lie (Pichardo. 1997). The Classical Social Movement Agenda The classical model comes as a result of structural strains that in turn bring about a disruptive psychological state that led to the creation of social movements. The growth of the classical social movements came about due to the social isolations, alienations along with anxieties that existed within the communities (Concept.pdf). In the 1960 and 70’s, North America and Europe concentrated on social movements before assimilating other structures of contention for the prevailing explanations concerning social movements. The four major concepts that were focused on during this period were political opportunities, the structures to be used for mobilizing, the frames used for collective action and the repertoires of their disagreements. They characterized the political structures as structures which had static opportunities, their mobilizing structures as their formal organizations in the movements and their communal networks in their everyday lives (Meyer, 2004). They additionally characterized their frames for collective actions as the civilizing constants that familiarize participants. The repertoires of disagreement were seen to evolve with their responses to the changes that were experienced in the capitalist states. Severe along with widespread inconsistencies are thought to have brought cognitive dissonances that eventually led to the sprouting of social movements. Various authors have defined the term dissonance as upsetting states that produce tensions among individuals. The movement began as a result of the criticism that high level politicians and the elite witnessed. The social historians reconstructed the political lives among the ordinary people while making the experiences their daily routines while dismissing the topics of popular politics as being irrational (Tilly, 2004). During this period, collective actions were dismissed as being confusion in the peoples common senses. They also fought the actions of students and other demonstrators by claiming that they were impulsive and irresponsible outbursts of the peoples self-indulgence. Lastly, the classical movements agenda involved countering the rational assertions that protestors made. The classical social movements use the resource utilization models which suggests that grievances are spread throughout a society for resource allocation at the same time (Concept.pdf). The movement was heavily criticized for mobilizing resources that usually emphasized on the importance of organized bases, accumulation of resources and the collective coordination of various popular political actors. The proponents of the movement stressed that there were similarities along with convergences that existed between the existing social movements and the interests of various political groupings (Meyer, 2004). The models of resource utilization would have downplayed the contingencies, emotions, plasticity along with the interactive characters of the politics of social movements in the current Asia. They would have however drawn the attentions of organizational processes practiced in popular politics. For example, the red and yellow shirt movements in Thailand have made contingencies and carried with them their emotions in the achievement of their objectives. For instance, the yellow shirts have spent many days protesting for the purpose of ousting the ruling regime of president Thaksin Shinawatra through their coordinated efforts and collective actions. These movements would have been heavily criticized by the proponents of the classical agenda for their methods of coordinating their activities (Polletta, 2001). The classical model has no political contexts and its mobilization model stresses on satisfying the societies needs based on the resources required, the structural factors involved, and opportunities along with constraints. An Integrated Perspective On Social Movements: The Dynamic Interactive Framework. The dynamic interactive framework is used for depicting the start of contention as an outcome that is highly dependent of the interactive sequence that involves a minimum of a set of actors by the set and an insurgent grouping. In this dynamic and interactive framework, the opportunities along with threats usually depend on the collective acknowledgments that were limited to the framing of social movement’s goals in the classical agendas (Tilly, 2001). The interactive model additionally involves other actors other than recognized movement organizations that include the polity members, the subjects along with other challengers. The framework also stipulates the structures used for mobilizing can be formed when the contentions arise but they are still required to be the vehicles that will be used for their struggles. It also states that complete episodes, the actors along with their actions are framed interactively by the movements opponents, the media and other vital third parties (Meyer, 2004). In this interactive framework, attention is given to innovative actions while new perturbations are introduced into the interactive field which results in shared uncertainties among the entire group participating in an emerging conflict. The framework finally stipulates that the processes of mobilization usually occur in the entire episode when contentions are witnessed. The interactions found within the framework are described as being continuous and recursive while mobilization is partially comprehended as an interaction function. An example of the mobilization processes that occurred in Asia was the “yellow revolution” which took place within the Philippines involving incidents of nationalism along with national disintegration for the purpose of democratizing their country (Tilly, 2001). Social Movement and Networks The social movements give the people opportunities to make their concerns heard by the governments in their countries. Their perceptions are normally based on the fact that the lowest people within their societies are always acknowledged. Formal along with informal organizations utilize the media, social networks to bring about collective actions. The formal organizations comprise of hierarchical organizations that usually link their leaders and the followers. The associations between the formal along with informal organizations helped sustain the interactions between protestors. Collective action frames have additionally been utilized within the social movements in the Asian continent. These frames have been defined as action-oriented beliefs along with meanings which inspire and legitimize the activities along with campaign activities of the social movements (Concept.pdf). They also emphasize on including the low class people in the consultations for change while encouraging their participation in solving the problems they encounter every day (Meyer, 2004). The sprouting of the social movements in the continent of Asia began about thirty years ago due to the economic, political and social changes that were occurring around the globe at the time. The above conditions created the best conditions for the social movements to thrive. Their thriving was however dependent on the democracies and freedom within the Asian countries. The collapse of the communist regimes in the soviet union along with the cold war’s did bring about greater freedoms for the people in the Asian region in their political and economic endeavors. This in turn made the western notions of liberalism replacing older concepts such as dictatorships, paternalism along with centralization (Diani and Mcadam, 2003). The benefits attained from the framework include gaining access to political authority, shifting alignments, dividing the elites and creating influential allies. The societies also get opportunities for airing their grievances. The Asian social movements and networks have experienced neo-liberalism, diversity in their political fields along with economic entrepreneurship. They have also been endorsing capitalist approaches to their economic freedoms along with development. In addition, they have also decentralized the decision making processes while promoting the peoples participation in several activities. This has greatly enabled the social movements in Asia to mobilize the people from the grass root levels to come and challenge their governments while demanding changes to various sectors that will eventually help in improving their lives (Meyer, 2004). Over the previous thirty or so years, there has been an increase in democratic activities along with increases in the peoples political freedoms. This has fortunately occurred even in countries where the societies have been previously restricted such as China along with Vietnam among others. For instance, there were movements that displayed the people’s power in countries such as China in 1989, Thailand in 1992 and the Philippines in 1986. These movements and their actions were spurned by the networking among the middle classes which had emerged in these countries (Diani and Mcadam, 2003). Due to the introduction of various democratic reforms in countries such as Thailand, Philippines and the Indonesian islands, the laws in these countries provide that nongovernmental organizations must participate in evaluating their governments policy while at the same time suggest suitable reforms to them (Diani and Mcadam, 2003). For example, in Thailand, no government has been able to pass budget bills without first of all getting approvals from their nongovernmental forums. The Indonesian government also makes consultations with its civil societies before making any political or economic decision that would have an impact on their affairs. Social networks that enable the movements to mobilize the people have thrived within the region due to the widespread use of facilities such as smart phones, bloggers, twitter and face book. They have enabled their people to always keep contact with each other and their movements and this enables them to quickly attend to the problems they commonly encounter (Meyer, 2004). Social Movements: Case Studies The social movements within the Asian continent utilize the press, technological advances, newer ideologies, changes in their value systems, making education compulsory along with the globalization process in achieving their objectives. The traditional and modern innovations that are applied in their actions include public shaming, direct solution, civil disobediences, symbolic actions, demonstrations. With the handing over of the Hong Kong island by the British to the Chinese government in the year 1997 the island status did change from being a colony of Britain into becoming an administrative district that was special for the Chinese republic. As the regime in the island changed, there were new forms of social movements that came up with very unique characteristics (Broadbent and Brockman, 2011). This new social movements relied on information technologies for the purposes of mobilizing the support of their people. As a result of taking advantage of the technologies availed in the information sectors the movements have ended up exhibiting qualities that are post-modernist in their strategies, organization, participants, goals along with their patterns of mobilizing their members. For instance, the year 2003 saw the emergence of protests in Hong Kong brought about by the biggest indigenous social movement in the country (Tarrow, 2004). In the year 1997, Taiwanese prostitutes broke their country’s taboos and went public over several matters that were adversely affecting their lives. They concealed their identities by wearing large caps and sunglasses and visited their city’s council in an attempt to find their mayor, Mr. Chen Shui-Bian in their city hall (Broadbent and Brockman, 2011). They placed their demands for respect and their right of occupying the streets and insisted that the regime ought to continue with its policies of legalizing prostitution which was about to be banned in a fortnight. There were licensed prostitutes on the Taiwanese streets who stayed by themselves and away from the public (Tarrow, 2004). They in turn carried on with their activities from old buildings that had been constructed before their country went to war. They however valued their job as many of them had aged and had no other business to do (Broadbent and Brockman, 2011). The prostitutes were still proud since they had independence and this enabled them to stay away from being exploited by pimps. The emergence of a new legislation to ban their activities enabled the prostitutes to march in the streets in protest to the signing of the act. The prostitutes were mobilized to call for changes in the law and additionally made demands of being respected. They also demanded security for all the prostitutes who were working and living in the country (Tarrow, 2004). The social movements in Taiwan hosted peaceful marches in an effort to raise support for the sex workers among the public. These marches helped bring the attention of the world thereby making frequent visits along with the participation of the foreign prostitutes into the Taiwanese affairs. Eventually, the social movement did manage to obtain a lot of sympathy from their public and labor movements in easing the problems they were encountering (Broadbent and Brockman, 2011). Globalization and Transnational Movements Globalization of the world’s economy is usually associated with the liberalization occurring within the economies around the globe, declining costs of transaction, developments in communication technology along with the emergence of transnational movements. The types of regimes that exist in the Asian continent include strong democratic states, strong authoritarian states, weak democratic states, weak authoritarian states. They have battered the divisions that exist between international along with national systems thereby fostering the social networks dispersals of power (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). These movements have in turn resulted in the transformation of the internal dimensions among various countries in the Asian continent. This occurs due to the proliferation along with growth of the transnational communal movements within the Asian continent (Tarrow, 2004). The social movement’s actors in various countries in the Asian continent have to look far beyond their boundaries in order to change their national along with local practices. The political context existing in the world expands as well as complicates the choices available to actors willing to promote social along with political changes. There is an increasing influence system that exists within the countries in Asia that changes the way the actors in the social movements perform their struggles (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). The social movements within the Asian continent are increasingly becoming more transnational in their structures. This goes in line with the parallel transformations in the contentious politics that various countries situated in the region are currently experiencing (Tarrow, 2004). For example in the global setting, the efforts put in shaping governmental practices require international professionals, comprehension of the rivalries that exist between different countries and the capacities of mobilizing protests against various governments situated in the different nations. Within the Asian continent it is now becoming common to find transnational movements organizing and playing key roles in contentious issues in global politics (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). Social Movement and Development Various kinds of activism has been witnessed across Asia ranging from collective protests, survivalist struggles along with the emergence of social movements (Pilar & Guadilla, 2005). The people within the Asian region have usually extend their family networks for the purposes of security and establishing locally based credit systems which are informal (Bayat, 2000). According to researches carried out by Bayat, the Asian women have been able over time to establish strategies that will enable their women to sustain their livelihoods. The poor people according to him are only able to cope with the deteriorations experienced in the communal along with economic conditions through the stretching of their resources for the purpose of satisfying their needs (2000). They are also able to cope with the hardships they encounter as a result of cutting down on their consumption levels. The workers within the Asian continent had been forced to start working very long hours while sending out their children to work for the purpose of supplementing their families income (Webster, 2004). This was despite the fact that the wages and salaries being earned were insufficient for catering for their needs. The hardships encountered led some of the poor people to sell their personal wares so that they may be able to cater for their needs (Pilar & Guadilla, 2005). As a result of the hardships people encountered, there were grass root groups that began mobilizing their people to begin engaging in social actions. Urban actions were numerous during the 1980’s when various regimes within the regions attempted to cut their deficits through the use of austerity policies which included tremendous cuts in their consumers’ subsidies (Bayat, 2000). These actions greatly violated the social contracts that existed between the Asian people and their respective governments thereby triggering their anger along with discontent (Webster, 2004). The growth of social movements within the continent was aggravated by the strict controls that the governments imposed on their populations which included reductions in consumer subsidiaries and drops in the values of the respective countries currencies (Bayat, 2000). The types of social movements found within the Asian continent include environmental old social, new social and the movements in charge of disseminating information. Civil Society and Social Movement The social movements within the Asian continent relied on people at their workplaces and within the neighborhoods or their communities to gather support for their collective actions (Morgan, 2010). The civilian communities experienced various problems that ranged from insecure housing, the inability to pay for their rents, the lack of schools, hospital facilities along with cultural centers. Developments at the grass root levels enabled the working classes to cultivate enough resistance against the government through their boycott to work and the demonstrations they held. The grass root support was initiated by people living within the communities, their local leaders, religious groupings, politicians and other nongovernmental organizations (Morgan, 2010). For example, the Brazilian Barrios was established in Brazil by politicians and local leaders to aid in improving the community’s degree of control on the available resources. In other countries within the Asian continent people have demonstrated against issues such as industrial pollutions and the health hazards created through their actions (Bandana, 2006). The civilian society has been utilizing traditional methods of communication though they currently embrace modern forms of communication to mobilize the people. In the absence of adequate police controls on the actions of social movements, the civilians carrying out their collective actions usually indulge in vices such as the grabbing of properties, stealing and destruction of property owned by the governments (Morgan, 2010). This actions will most of the time tend to bring in more destruction than gains if there are no controls put on their actions by the police forces in the different countries. The civil societies have been responsible for leading, organizing and managing the activities of the social movements within the region (Bandana, 2006). The urban populations living in Asian cities have many different types of techniques which they use for the purpose of communicating with one another and laying out their strategies (Bandana, 2006). The civilian populations found in this countries are however not anonymous or individualistic and are capable of coordinating their activities through networking and the use of modern technologies for disseminating information (Bayat, 2000). International Institutions And Social Movements: World Bank The world bank has been charged with supplying countries within the Asian region with funds to avoid imbalances in their payments and avoid their economic collapse (O’Brien, Goetz, Scholte and Williams, 2000). It is also responsible for the facilitation of trade within the continents international borders by reducing tariffs (Choi, 2008). There are several factors that have contributed to changes in the political, social along with economic landscapes of the countries within the region. These includes issues such as the termination of fixed exchange rates between trading countries, the growing international flows of capital, the financial and debt crisis along with the coming up of regional institutions (O’Brien, Goetz, Scholte and Williams, 2000). The world bank currently aims to get closer to the people so that they can comprehend the problems they are encountering while offering solutions to the problems their public along with private sectors are experiencing. The World Bank has also been spearheading the fight towards achieving equitable representations, accountability, transparency along with devolution of powers (Choi, 2008). These activities are being carried out for the purpose of dealing with the crisis being witnessed in the multilateral structures found within the continent (O’Brien, Goetz, Scholte and Williams, 2000). Conclusion The paper examines the various types of social movements found within Asia, their main reason for sprouting along with the participants in the activities of the social movements. It helps in bringing greater insights into the beginning and sprouting of movements such as the classical and interactive dynamic frameworks in use within the continent. It also analyses the factors that facilitate the activities of the social movements and the impacts of the globalization along with transnational movements in the continent. Finally, the development and activities of the social and civil movements have been analyzed to give greater insights to the topic under study while providing the best recommendations for the communities. The role of the international institutions such as the world bank have also been analyzed. All the above issues have been scrutinized for the purpose of coming up with appropriate recommendations in the future to curb the problems the people within the continent are experiencing. References Broadbent, J, and Brockman, V, 2011, East Asian Social Movements Springer Science, New York. Choi, J, 2008, Social Movements For Foreign Workers In South Korea: A Perspective On The State For Transnational Social Movements, University of Chicago, Chicago. Diani, M, and Mcadam, D, 2003, Social Movements And Networks--Relational Approaches To Collective Action, Oxford University Press, United States. Keck, M, and Sikkink, K, 1998, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks In International Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. Bayat, A, 2000, Social Movements, Activism And Social Development In The Middle East, Civil Society And Social Movements, United Nations, New York. 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