Contemporary Controversies Over Land and Rights: Aboriginal Self-Determination As A Social Movement

ABORIGINAL SELF-DETERMINATION AS A SOCIAL MOVEMENT What is a social movement? Relative Deprivation Explanations. Resource Mobilization Explanations. What are some of the key social changes that have facilitated the prospects for mobilization?

Some Study Questions/Problems. What is a social movement? What is “relative deprivation”? What do resource mobilization theorists focus upon in trying to understand the success of social movements.

Identify and describe two factors that have facilitated the mobilization of aboriginals in British Columbia for self-determination.

Collective Action: Collective action refers to a group of people working toward achieving a common goal. Collective action varies widely in its character and form. Social movements are a special form of collective action where the goal is social change.

Social Movement: A social movement is a subtype of the broader category of collective action. A social movement is a large collectivity of people or group trying to bring about or resist social change. The latter are often referred to as counter- movements.

RELATIVE DEPRIVATION Relative deprivation is an explanation for the rise of social protest as illustrated through rebellions, the formation of new social movements, the rise of new political parties, or revolution.

RELATIVE DEPRIVATION Relative deprivation refers to a difference or gap between what people believe they have a right to receive (their expectations) and what they actually receive (their achievements). Expectations and achievements may diverge for a number of reasons.

1. Both achievements and expectations may rise, but expectations may rise faster than achievements. 2. Expectations may remain constant while achievements decline. 3.A third possible scenario, is when there is a period of rising expectations and rising achievements which is followed by a decline in achievements, while expectations continue to rise.

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION THEORY Resource mobilization is a theoretical perspective that sets out to explain the rise of social movements (and other forms of collective action) by focusing on the structural factors that facilitate or constrain mobilization.

As the name implies, resource mobilization focuses on a variety of different types of resources that enable groups to achieve their collective goals.

Two factors that resource mobilization theorists consider to be important for understanding the rise of social movements are the following: 1.Cleavage factors, which tend to separate people from one another or set them at odds. 2.Integrating factors, which pull people together in social groups (whether or not collective action usually occurs).

A Summary of Resource Mobilization Theory. Below is a summary of the main principles of resource mobilization theory: Collective action is more likely to occur, and to be successful, to the extent that the members of a contending group: 1. are bound together in dense social networks; 2. are highly socially polarized from advantaged groups; 3. are relatively unrepresented by existing groups (or parties);

4. have relatively high levels of shared social identity; 5. (compared with dominant/contending groups) have relatively high access to material resources (property, money, jobs), normative resources (communications media, educational institutions), and/or coercive resources (police, armed forces); 6. are relatively large in number, and have a large number of support bases. (Adapted from Brym with Fox 1989.)