When we contemplate social change, our minds often gravitate to concrete campaigns—laws changed, organizations launched, protests held. But as discussed in this week’s episode of Change Maker Q&A, social movements inhabit a deeper layer: they are the living undercurrent that fuels campaigns, shifts culture, and reconfigures power.
What is a social movement?
In the podcast I pose the question: What is a social movement? Not simply a campaign, or a protest, or an initiative—but something broader and deeper. Scholarly definitions support this: for example, the Encyclopaedia Britannica describes a social movement as “a loosely organised but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society’s structure or values.”
Other definitions highlight key features: a movement is collective, sustained over time, organised (even if informally), and oriented toward structural or cultural change rather than simply transactional outcomes.
In the episode I argued that a campaign typically has a specific goal (for instance: change this law, persuade this decision-maker) and uses tactics (such as protests) to achieve it. But a movement is something that embraces many campaigns, many tactics, many organisations—or even informal networks—and changes underlying norms, power relations and collective identity.
Why social movements matter for social change
My podcast lays out four principles by which movements create deeper transformation:
- Shifting world-views – Movements change how people see what is possible, what is normal, what is just.
- Redistributing power – They bring marginalised voices to the centre, challenge entrenched hierarchies, and build people-power from the ground up.
- Building alternatives beyond resistance – Not only resisting harm, but modelling new ways of living, new economies, new relations.
- Influencing institutions – Movements create the conditions under which campaigns succeed, and then institutions (government, business, cultural sectors) change accordingly.
These observations align with scholarly research. For instance, studies find that social movements are central in shaping public policy and long-term social change—not simply through protest, but by reframing issues, mobilising networks and shifting discourse.
Likewise, movement research emphasises that change seldom follows a simple linear path; rather, it is emergent, relational, adaptive.
Movement vs campaign vs organisation
It can help to distinguish:
- A campaign: a focused endeavour, with a goal, objectives, tactics, actions (e.g., a protest).
- An organisation: entity with structure, procedures, perhaps a budget, staff.
- A movement: the ecosystem in which multiple campaigns and organisations operate; a network of actors, values, practices, culture, collective identity.
In the episode I emphasise: movements are not led from the outside—they are generally led by people most affected by the injustice in question. They grow from grassroots, from lived experience, and they evolve.
Historical and contemporary examples
To illustrate how this works in practice, the podcast explores three cases:
- Abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: not a single campaign in isolation, but decades of organising, moral reframing, petitions, boycotts, mass networks across continents, and finally legislative change.
- The U.S. Civil Rights Movement (1950s–70s): a cultural revolution as well as a political one—mass mobilisation, grassroots leadership, narrative change, policy gains (e.g., the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965).
- The youth-led climate justice movement (e.g., Fridays for Future): sparked by a school strike, scaled via digital networks, united around moral urgency (“what we owe future generations”), and reshaped how we see climate activism.
These examples demonstrate how movements build collective identity, change what’s considered “normal”, and over time influence institutions, policy and culture.
Why some movements succeed and others falter
In the podcast I also address why some movements don’t fully deliver. For example:
- The medieval Peasants’ Revolt in England (1381) had righteous anger but lacked infrastructure, strategy and durable networks.
- The U.S. Equal Rights Amendment movement (1970s–80s) appeared close to success (the ERA passed Congress in 1972) but stalled with cultural resistance and lacked sufficient long-term mobilisation.
- The Occupy Wall Street movement (2011) captured global attention, but its rapid spread and decentralised structure lacked mechanisms to translate initial momentum into sustained change.
These cautionary tales affirm what I emphasize in the episode: movements need moral vision and political craft; they need networks, leadership, relationships, persistence.
How you, as an individual or organisation, can contribute
In the episode I end with practical suggestions for anyone wanting to strengthen movements:
- Tell stories: Share lived experience. It humanises issues and helps shift world-views.
- Build relationships & networks: Movements thrive on trust, connection, solidarity.
- Practice alternatives: Don’t just resist; start modelling new ways of doing things—community economics, alternative governance, new social practices.
- Show up consistently: Movement work is long‐term. Small sustained acts matter.
- If you’re part of an organisation: Support movements rather than dominate them. Provide infrastructure, amplify marginalised voices, connect grassroots energy with institutional influence, preserve movement memory.
The bigger picture
Movements remind us that social change is rarely achieved solely through legislation or isolated projects. Real transformation often flows through shifts in culture, power relations, collective identity and imagination—layers beneath the visible enactments of change. As the episode emphasises, movements are the ecosystems within which campaigns and organisations live—they are the undercurrent of change.
If you’re beginning your change-making journey, or have been working in this space for years and want to better understand what drives transformation, this episode is a helpful mirror: pointing you to the living system of change rather than only the visible artefacts.
