Social Movements: Critiques, Concepts, Case-Studies

Stanford Lyman published this edited collection of sixteen essays on social movements in 1995. The essays are organized into six major themes: 1) Classical Perspectives with an essay by Robert E. Park on "The General Will" and  an essay by Albert Salomon on "The Religion of Progress"; 2) Disciplinary Approaches with  three essays by Rudolf Heberle, Herbert Blumer and Robert Benford and Scott Hunt; 3) Conceptual Issues: Debates and Critiques with three essays by David Plotke, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward and Margit Mayer that explore the history of social movements in the United States; 4) Contemporary Studies with four essays by Edwin Amenta and Yvonne Zylan, Mansoor Moaddel, Daniel Harris and Robert J. Brulle that explore the meaning of the Townsend movement, the Iranian Revolution, AIDS and Environmentalism; 5) the Future of Social Movements with three essays by Carl Boggs, Zygmunt Bauman and Alain Touraine that explore social movements of the 1960s, including the new left as a counter-culture and their relevance to modern life and 6) Coda: Social Movements in Sociological Thought that concludes with Stanford Lyman's essay on "Social Theory and Social Movements: Sociology as Sociodicy." Lyman claims that it was sociology that "provided the ideological justificaton and inspiring stimulation for most of the post-religious social movements in America." He also claims that America is seeking a "unversally just publc philosophy" that unites the nation but that this search has failed.  The wide range of ethnic, racial, gender and political factions found today continue to undermine the vision of a "city on a hill" that John Wintrhop envisioned when he founded the puritan colony in Boston. Lyman concludes that "Sociologists might look for models of social order but people seek models of the just life."

Perhaps the most powerful of the essays in this collection is that of Rudolf Heberle titled "Social Movements and Social Order." Heberle, brilliantly explains that "the rise of social movements in a society is a symptom of the discontent with the existing social order." When the values of a social order no longer align with those of a specific group, dissatisfaction emerges - reflected in a sense of aleination from the community. According to Heberle, a genuine social order can only be achieved when values are shared by the entire society. Absent such conditions, social movements emerge that demand a change in the norms of the social order.

Robert Jackall and Arthur Vidich, as general editors of the series "Main Trends of the Modern World", place this unique volume as an example of "the clash between worldviews and values, old and new." They claim the series "fashions grounded, specific images of our world in the hope that future thinkers will find these more useful than speculation or prophecy." They have certainly achieved that objective and more. Indeed, Lyman's collection of essays represents an immensely valuable review of the dialetic between social order and social movements.