Identify the key elements which account for the success or failure of social movements. Discuss with reference to examples.

"The overthrow of an existing government, ... the installation of traffic-calming measures in a suburban street" (Abercrombie, 2000: 324), the nuclear disarmament movement, the stop the war coalition, all are examples of social movements. A social movement, as defined by Tarrow (1994: 4), is 'collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interaction with elites, opponents and authorities'. This shows that social movements tend to try and bring about change by challenging those above them whether it …showed first 75 words of 1712 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1712 total…Sense of Society" London: Prentice Hall Tarrow, S. (1994). "Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics." London: Cambridge University Press Whitely, P. (2003) 'The State of Participation in Britain' Parliamentary Affairs vol 56(4) pp 610-615 Young, T. R. (1999) 'Marxism and Social Movements: Theory and Practice for Social Justice' Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 28 (3) pp. 268-270. Zhao, D. (1998) 'Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization During the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing.' The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 103, (6). pp. 1493-1529