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,
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Coalescence,
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Bureaucratization, and
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Decline.
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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,
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Organizational failure,
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Co-optation,
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Repression, or
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Establishment within mainstream society (Macionis,
•
2001; Miller, 1999).
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