Social change

About: Social change is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 61197 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1797013 citations.

Collective identification and social movement participation.

Abstract: Determinants of collective behavior, as suggested by the social identity or self-categorization approach and social movement research, were examined in 2 field studies. Study 1 was conducted in the context of the older people's movement in Germany and Study 2 in the context of the gay movement in the United States. Both studies yielded similar results pointing to 2 independent pathways to willingness to participate in collective action; one is based on cost-benefit calculations (including normative considerations), and the other is based on collective identification as an activist. Study 2 included an experimental manipulation and provided evidence for the causal role of collective identification as an activist. Directions for future research on the proposed dual-pathway model are suggested. Members of disadvantaged groups who do not want to passively accept their lot have to find ways to improve their situation. To do so, they can adopt a variety of strategies that can range from individual strategies of social mobility to collective strategies of social change. The former rest on the belief that one's own position can be improved by moving from one social position to another as an individual (Tajfel, 1981). These individual strategies thus involve leaving a disadvantaged group physically or at least psychologically. Collective strategies, on the other hand, are adopted to the extent that a person believes that "the only way for him to change these [disadvantageous] conditions ... is together with his group as a whole" (Tajfel, 1981, p. 247). Collective strategies include not only militant forms of intergroup behavior or collective action such as revolts and strikes but also more moderate forms such as signing a petition or attending a group meeting. Although individual social mobility strategies are often pre

Critical Social Science: Liberation and Its Limits

Abstract: This book is a systematic attempt to understand the circumstances in which social science can contribute to the critical assessment of social institutions. The author makes a distinctive contribution to analyzing fundamental problems of modern philosophy and social theory, expanding upon his previous writings in this area. Fay defines a "critical social science" as an attempt to understand in a rational fashion the nature of a just and humane social order and discusses both the limitations and the possibilities of what such an understanding can achieve.