Social Movements and Their Impact on the World

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Recommended: Abortion as a social conflict

As society redevelops itself and progresses to keep up with the ever changing dynamics of its citizens, social movements are an outlet available to bring about change within the law. Social movement is a broad term and often can have specific goals and targets in mind, when trying to mobilize the law. "Social movements are collective actors or groups that seek a common goal or express a common identity; targets may include states, society, corporations, and/or social norms and values. May be conservative or progressive" (Hilson, 2002). We must accept that social movements may not always be seeking a goal but expressing an identity. Social movements make claims in relation to law or based on law. Social movements deliberately and proactively litigate when they bring a case with a number of different goals in mind. An example of legal mobilization through a social movement would be the assertion of women's rights in regard to abortion. Women have a right to choose whether or not they want to reproduce and through the use of social movements we have seen laws progressively change.

"Legal mobilization is the ways in which collective actors such as social movements draw on and use law to achieve their goals or to express their identities" (Hilson, 2002). Women mobilized their rights by engaging in the language of law to claim their rights are being violated. Legal mobilization can be described and interpreted in many different ways depending on the situation and in which way the law is attempting to be changed. Critical legal studies and legal realism ascertain that when a certain law exists that is ineffective you must mobilize it in order to encourage change. Legal mobilization can be viewed as either progressive or regressive d...

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Hilson, C. (2002). New Social Movements: The Role of Legal Opportunity. Journal of European Public Policy Vol. 9, No. 2, 238-255.

Joffe, C. (1987). Abortion and Antifeminism. Politics & Society Vol. 15, No. 2, 207-212.

Outshoorn, J. (2012). Assessing the impact of women's movements. Women's Studies International Forum 35, 147-149.

Rohlinger, D. (2013, March 4). Moving Forward or Standing Still? The Battle Over Abortion in the 21st Century. Retrieved from Mobilizing Ideas: http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/moving-forward-or-standing-still-the-battle-over-abortion-in-the-21st-century/

West, R. (2009). From Choice to Reproductive Justice: De-Constitutionalizing Abortion Rights. The Yale Law Journal Vol. 118, No. 7, 1394-1432.

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