SMT Responses

1.) What is the point of Social Movement Theory (SMT)?

Just like all theories utilized in the study of international and intercultural relations, SMT helps provide a lens through which to analyze, understand, and investigate social movements all across the globe. Beyond just the interpretation of movements, one also is able to predict various peoples motivations and the chances of their success in creating an effective social movement.

2.) Is there any reason we couldn’t use the same analytical frameworks to study, say, the American Civil Rights movement and movements for political change in the MENA region?

The American Civil Rights movement had clear leadership, clear goals, and took place in a single country that every corner of the world had a stake in. This made the American Civil Rights movement heavily documented and very visible keeping the government on its toes (within reason) and also kept the movement organized and coordinated. With clean cut faces that lead the movement such as MLK Jr. and even not so clean cut faces such as Malcolm X the whole world knew who to turn to when it came to meeting with government heads and granting demands. While there have been many movements for political change in the MENA region, they usually lack most of the facets that made the American Civil Rights Movement so effective. As we are dealing with a close-knit region versus a country, many movements have spanned borders making their demands hard to fully grasp and put to an official list. When we look at the Arab Spring for example, there was no one defined leader and the issue of ideology came into play a lot and caused much strife and confusion. The MENA region also has a much more rich history causing people to be more resistant to change while America was a nation founded on this idea of change. All of the reasons that make the American Civil Rights Movement inherently different from the many movements in the MENA region also tend to why we can’t use the same analytical frameworks to study both.

3.) What use can SMT be in understanding the success of Islamist movements?

As SMT has provided a lens through which to study the circumstances of social movements throughout history, it can certainly be applied to understanding the success of Islamist movements. Islamist movements, while they include the element of uniting people based on their method of practicing and understanding Islam, also tend to be incredibly organized and hierarchical frameworks that act as functioning governments in the regions that they come to power. Understanding this phenomenon would greatly be helped by the use of theories such as SMT. For example, we could examine the conditions right before certain Islamist groups came into power and see if they could have been prevented. We would also better understand how they even come to power when many include such radical ideals that are so different from the way that they majority of Muslims practice Islam.