Social movements are a type of group action.

They are large informal groupings of individuals and or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change Modern Western social movements became possible through education (the wider dissemination of literature, and increased mobility of labor due to the industrialization and urbanization of 19th century societies. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of expression, education and relative economic independence prevalent in the modern Western culture is responsible for the unprecedented number and scope of various contemporary social movements. However others point out that many of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in Kenya, to oppose Western colonialism. Either way, social movements have been and continued to be closely connected with democratic political systems. Occasionally social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but more often they have flourished after democratization. Over the past 200 years, they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent Modern movements often utilize technology and the internet to mobilize people globally. Adapting to communication trends is a common theme among successful movements. Political science and sociology have developed a variety of theories and empirical research on social movements. For example, some research in political science highlights the relation between popular movements and the formation of new political parties as well as discussing the function of social movements in relation A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as world communications have accelerated this geographical distinction has become less distinct. When cultural movements go through revolutions from one to the next, genres tend to get attacked and mixed up, and often new genres are generated and old ones fade. These changes are often reactions against the prior cultural form, which typically has grown stale and repetitive. An obsession emerges among the mainstream with the new movement, and the old one falls into neglect - sometimes it dies out entirely, but often it chugs along favored in a few disciplines and occasionally making reappearances There is continual argument over the precise definition of each of these periods, and one historian might group them differently, or choose different names or descriptions. As well, even though in many cases the popular change from one to the next can be swift and sudden, the beginning and end of movements are somewhat subjective, as the movements did not spring fresh into existence out of the blue and did not come to an abrupt end and lose total support, as would be suggested by a date range. Thus use of the term "period" is somewhat deceptive. "Period" also suggests a linearity of development, whereas it has not been uncommon for two or more distinctive cultural approaches to be active at the same time. Historians will be able to find distinctive traces of a cultural movement before its accepted beginning, and there will

always be new creations in old forms. So it can be more useful to think in terms of broad "movements" that have rough beginnings and endings. Yet for historical perspective, some rough date ranges will be proSocial movements have become a prominent part of politics around the world. Although they may have better chances for success in democratic systems, globalization provides opportunities for groups living under dictatorships to still put pressure on their government. The democratization of communication media has both facilitated individuals finding compatriots with similar interests, as well as allowing movements to spread their message and generate pressure for action. The Internet, in particular, has become a powerful mobilizing tool. Groups utilizing online direct action use such tactics as cyberpetitions, virtual protests, virtual sit-ins, virtual blockades, gripe sites, email bombs, web hacks, and computer viruses. Movements often use the same tactics as they use offline, like petitions, not due to their effectiveness, but because they are familiar. Scholars have also been interested in examining what factors make movements more successful. Success is difficult to define as movement activists often have no consensus on this themselves. 1800 and 1945, Gamsons The Strategy of Social Protest found that groups were more successful if they were single-issue oriented, used selective incentives, used violence and/or disruptive tactics, and their organization was more bureaucratized, centralized, and unfactionalized. In addition, he finds that exogenous political crises can have significant effects, for good or ill. Recent studies have also turned to consider how the broader environment affects the prospects for social movement success. Some social movement scholars have decried the disciplines obsession with being scientific at the expense of producing research that is of use to social movement activists. They are interested in insight into the practices and experiences of organizers, into how collective and personal commitment can be sustained, into relationships between day to day activism and long-range vision, into problems of intra-movement contention, organizational rigidity and democracy, etc. Movement activists are interested in insights from the academic community, but often do not find anything useful. Much attention has focused on framing and social movements. In particular, many have looked at how social movements can effectively frame issues to bring about change. Injustice frames have been particularly common. In some movements, such as religious, self-help, or identity-based movements, the injustice dimension may be less significant.Only a handful of collective action frames have been identified as being sufficiently broad in interpretive scope, inclusivity, flexibility, and cultural resonance to function as master frames, namely rights frames, choice frames injustice frames, environmental justice frames, culturally pluralist frames, sexual terrorism frames, oppositional frames,hegemonic frames, and a return to Democracy frame. The movement literature has also examined how movement activists utilize boundary framing or adversarial framing. Research also suggests that social movements identification of problems and causes restricts the range of solutions and strategies deemed possible by the group. Social movements appear to have little influence over the media organizations which cover themselves or their assertions.

The growing attention to framing has been accompanied by a number of critiques, some focusing on specific conceptual issues with movement framing and others concerning the theoretical relationship between framing and other perspectives. In addition, although vided for each to indicate the "height" or accepted timespan of the movement. intentional or unintentional, positive or negative) and in terms of collective benefits. Culture theory More recent strains of theory understand social movements through their cultures - collectively shared beliefs, ideologies, values and other meanings about the world. These include explorations into the "collective identities" and "collective action frames" of movements and movement organizations. Culture theory builds upon both the political process and resource-mobilization theories but extends them in two ways. First, it emphasizes the importance of movement culture. Second, it attempts to address the free-rider problem. Both resource-mobilization theory and political process theory include a sense of injustice in their approaches. Culture theory brings this sense of injustice to the forefront of movement creation by arguing that, in order for social movements to successfully mobilize individuals, they must develop an injustice frame. An injustice frame is a collection of ideas and symbols that illustrate both how significant the problem is as well as what the movement can do to alleviate it, "Like a picture frame, an issue frame marks off some part of the world. Like a building frame, it holds things together. It provides coherence to an array of symbols, images, and arguments, linking them through an underlying organizing idea that suggests what is essential - what consequences and values are at stake. We do not see the frame directly, but infer its presence by its characteristic expressions and language. Each frame gives the advantage to certain ways of talking and thinking, while it places others out of the picture. Important characteristics of the injustice frames include

Facts take on their meaning by being embedded in frames, which render them relevant and significant or irrelevant and trivial. People carry around multiple frames in their heads. Successful reframing involves the ability to enter into the worldview of our adversaries. All frames contain implicit or explicit appeals to moral principles.

In emphasizing the injustice frame, culture theory also addresses the free-rider problem. The free-rider problem refers to the idea that people will not be motivated to participate in a social

movement that will use up their personal resources (e.g., time, money, etc.) if they can still receive the benefits without participating. In other words, if person X knows that movement Y is working to improve environmental conditions in his neighborhood, he is presented with a choice: join or not join the movement. If he believes the movement will succeed without him, he can avoid participation in the movement, save his resources, and still reap the benefits - this is free-riding. A significant problem for social movement theory has been to explain why people join movements if they believe the movement can/will succeed without their contribution. Culture theory argues that, in conjunction with social networks being an important contact tool, the injustice frame will provide the motivation for people to contribute to the movement. Framing processes includes three separate components:

Diagnostic frame: the movement organization frames what is the problem or what they are critiquing Prognostic frame: the movement organization frames what is the desirable solution to the problem Motivational frame: the movement organization frames a "call to arms" by suggesting and encouraging that people take action to solve the problem

Social movement and social networking

Much discussion has been generated recently on the topic of social networking and the effect it may play on the formation and mobilization of social movement For example, the emergency