Social Movement Essay

In a world where every individual has different needs and interests, and with scarce resources and opportunities, it is difficult for everyone to obtain their goals. This results in power inequalities in societies all over the world as one has to lose for the other to gain. Individuals then take on various methods of presenting and fighting for our interests. One of the most predominant ways, which has been extensively studied, is social movements. Social movements have been use for centuries by different groups of people, all over the world. To achieve their goals, they use different tactics ranging for peaceful means, such as marches and lobbying, to forms that are more aggressive. Social movements use these tactics not only to challenge their opponents but also to gain the attention of other individuals outside of the movement.

A prominent supporter of this notion is James C. Scott, a political scientist, famously known for work on peasant resistance. In his book Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, Scott states that invisible forces of resistance have existed throughout history to challenge the powerful. He posits that “weapons of the weak” are forms of “social movement with no formal organization, no formal leaders, no manifestoes, no dues, no name, and no banner” (Scott, 1985, pg.35). This paper will argue that the resistance Scott conceptualizes, as “weapons of the weak,” can constitute as a form of social movement that is focused of class struggles. This is because even if groups engage in individual, covert, subtle campaigns, together they affect their surroundings. Therefore, these forms of resistance have the capacity to grow and evolve into overt national and international social