Reflections on Social Movement Theory: Criticisms and Proposals

The arrival of a new century and a new millennium are attention-grabbing symbolic markers. They provide a convenient opportunity for me to reflect critically on the current status of social movement theory. Because of space limitations, it is impossible to provide a comprehensive review and critique of this burgeoning field. I focus here on what I contend are serious blind spots within current social movement theory. I argue that these theories continue to slight the role that human agency plays in social movements. The slight occurs because assumptions in current theory lead its proponents to gloss over fundamental sources of agency that social movement groups can bring to the mobilization process, cultural framing, tactical problems, movement leadership, protest histories, and transformative events. I address the human agency and these movement phenomena, and offer correctives. By the mid-twentieth century, collective behavior and related theories constituted the dominant paradigm that guided research of social movements. These theories argued that social movements were a form of collective behavior that emerged when significant social and cultural breakdowns occurred. As a form of collective behavior, social movements were considered spontaneous, unorganized, and unstructured phenomena that were discontinuous with institutional and organizational behavior