Positive Social Change: The Global Impact Of Social Movements

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In order to understand the particular relationship which an individual who actively pursues the transformation of a vision for positive social change into a reality has with the external power resources required to manifest such a reality, it is necessary to have a minimal understanding of the specific power resources engaged. One specific power resource which has historically been employed as a vehicle of change is that of a social movement.
Social Movements Defined In general, social movements have been identified as being “an answer to a threat or hope that is directly linked to the control that a social group has over its capacity to make decisions, to control changes” (Touraine, 2002, p. 1). Adding to this, McCarthy and Zald …show more content…

342). For the purpose of elucidation, consider that 1.1 million Canadian households experienced food poverty in 2012 (Roshanafshar & Hawkins, 2015, p. 4); just below five percent, or 10 million people in Brazil experienced food poverty in 2013 (Food and Agriculture Organization., International Fund for Organizational Development., & World Food Programme., 2015, p. 20); and a robust 15.8 million households in the United States experienced food poverty in 2015, with 19.4 million people living in extreme poverty (Coleman-Jensen, Singh, & Gregory, 2016, …show more content…

320). An example can be found in an international peasant movement called La Via Campesina, which is specifically motivated to take control of decisions about the food system, and supports women’s rights, the elimination of agricultural dumping, and the end of genetically modified foods (Grey & Patel, 2014). Just as food insecurity and social agricultural movements are no longer limited to the Global South, so to have such movements extended beyond the borders of rural landscapes into urban settings across the globe (Dubbeling, & Merzthal, 2006, pp. 20, 21; De Zeeuw, Van VeenHuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011, pp.

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