Research starters academic topic overviews

Four Stages of Social Movements       

One of the earliest scholars to study social movement processes 

was Herbert Blumer, who identified four stages of social move-

ments’  lifecycles.   The  four  stages  he  described  were:  “social 

ferment,”  “popular  excitement,”  “formalization,”  and  “institu-

tionalization” (De la Porta & Diani 2006, p.150).  Since his early 

work,  scholars  have  refined  and  renamed  these  stages  but  the 

underlying themes have remained relatively constant.  Today, the 

four social movement stages are known as: 

Emergence, 

• 

Coalescence, 

• 

Bureaucratization, and 

• 

Decline.  

• 

Although the term decline may sound negative, it should not nec-

essarily be understood in negative terms.  Scholars have noted 

that social movements may decline for several reasons and have 

identified five ways they do decline.  These are 

Success, 

• 

Organizational failure, 

• 

Co-optation, 

• 

Repression, or

• 

Establishment within mainstream society (Macionis, 

• 

2001; Miller, 1999).