How do social movements work?
Management of social movements requires allowing for tremendous diversity and internal complexity. Social movements can either benefit from, or help create a climate that allows for the synthesis of three functional elements: 1. a sustained organized public effort making collective claims on target authorities (i.e., a “campaign”[10]); 2. combinations of political actions, including: creation of special-purpose associations and coalitions, public meetings, solemn processions, vigils, rallies, demonstrations, petition drives, statements to and in public media, and/or pamphleteering (or social movement “repertoire”); and the participants’ concerned publicly demonstrate the movement’s worthiness, unity, numerical strength and commitment. Displays of worthiness, unity, numerical strength and commitment can take the form of statements, slogans, or labels. Yet collective self-representations often act them out in idioms that local audiences will recognize, for example: worthiness: sober deme
