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the exclusionary structures, laws and policies that the emancipatory movements are challenging.
Second, large-scale institutional changes that broaden freedom or advance the cause of social justice are rarely initiated by institutional authorities or political elites. Rather, most social progress is the result of pressure exerted from the bottom up, by ordinary people who press for reform by engaging in collective and creative disorders outside the bounds of mainstream institutions.
And third, good intentions-aspiring to achieve emancipatory goals-by no means guarantee that a movement will succeed.
The highly popular and emancipatory protests of the 1960s, as well as the influence of groundbreaking works in social history mentioned above,inspired a renaissance in the study of social movements in subsequent decades. Focusing primarily on "good" movements, a new generation of social scientists sought to identify the environmental circumstances, organizational features and strategic choices that increased the likelihood that "good intentions" would translate into tangible change. This research has generated a rich trove of findings:
Successful movements must define their goals clearly and target the institutions that have the power to make the changes they are demanding.Successful movements should act in a political environment in which they have leverage to demand systemic change. Authorities who control institutional policy grant concessions only when organized disruptions are more damaging to their continued power than giving in to the demands of the movement.
Successful movements should cultivate "conscience" constituencies-sympathizers, celebrities, patrons-who may not directly benefit from the movement's goals but are willing to contribute money, facilities, equipment, access to media and other resources.
Successful movements cannot be "greedy." They must recognize and respect members' private lives and personal obligations, prepare participants for the dangers and risks of each protest, and allow each individual to choose-without coercion-which actions they are willing to take.
And still, there are no guarantees of success. Because social movements form organically, outside of mainstream institutions, they are by nature messy. Rarely does meaningful change happen by relying exclusively on peaceful and lawful means. Petitions, marches, litigation, and chanting are only part of the protest repertoire. Achieving systemic change invariably requires creating disorder: social movements gain leverage when they disrupt business-as-usual for the institution they are targeting-by stopping traffic, blocking commerce, surrounding buildings or interfering with administrative activities.
Generations of activists, as well as the scholars who study social movements, have been challenged by the need to deploy effective strategies when nonviolent disruption reaches an impasse without generating concessionary responses; or when it provokes violent responses by the police or by counterdemonstrators aimed at defeating the demands for institutional change.
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