Social movements play an “important role [not only] in contemporary political sociology” (Nash, 2010, p.87), but in the political and social lives of people in general. Historically, there have been different social movements with different ideologies - some movements were with revolutionary aims, others advocated reforms to the existing systems, and still others were with conservative orientations fighting against changes. Yet the one thing which unites all the types of social movements is that they struggle over the determination of the meanings and the construction of the identities and the social world within a particular state, or in an international arena (ibid.). So within this spectrum, the current paper will explore the nature of social movements and their role in the formation of the “meanings”, “collective identities” and the “social worlds” (ibid. p.125). The paper will first look at the concept “social movement” in order to understand its nature, emergence and development, and then will turn to the case of sexual education “scandals” that took place in Kyrgyzstan in the last four months of 2013. With the help of the New Social Movement Theory of Alain Touraine I will analyze, and thus try to understand how different stakeholders presented sexual education to the public of Kyrgyzstan, and thus constructed certain meanings in relation to sexual education, and identities of people in general.
The emergence and development of the concept “social movement”
The term “social movement” is difficult to define. It is not a political party nor is it an unorganized, short-lived mass without any goals. Instead, as Frank and Fuentes (1987) state, social movements are the mobilization of people in the pursuit of specific concerns. ...
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... individual to make his/her own decisions concerning his/her sexual and reproductive life. The NGO views education as an asset for “developing knowledge and skills, especially inquiry and decision-making skills”.
So following this case of sexual education, we see that the conflicts between different social movements not only produce different meanings, but also reflect and construct the “collective identity” of the general population. The situation of the conflicts over sexual education shows that there is a dominance of the tradition-based nationalism (which by default also includes Islam) in the society of Kyrgyzstan, which tries to control over the “historicity”, while suppressing other existing world views towards sexual education and sexual lives of people, like sexual liberalism presented by the Reproductive Health Alliance of Kyrgyzstan, feminism and queer.
Polletta, Francesca and James Jasper. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 27.1 (2001): 283–305. Print.
Have you ever realized that the world you live in was not the same anymore? Like something is wrong, but you can never quite figure out why? This is what I felt after reading “America’s War on Sex” by Dr. Martin Klein. While reading this book I learned many different things about organization that do everything in their power to stop freedom of sexual expression.
The United States and Latin America have had a long history of relations in regards to populist movements. Many times these populist movements have been anti- United States. We have intervened many times and in many different ways, however I do not believe there is one course of action for Latin America as a whole as it is made up of many different countries with different needs and different leaders. Two examples of when the United States government responded to populist politics, revolutions, or revolts in the 20th century was in Argentina against Juan Peron and his populist movement as well as in Cuba against Fidel Castro. In order to come up with a response for the rise of the Populist Party today, we need to understand what we have done
When examining the article through broader lenses, sociological imagination is used to look at the piece of writing in different ways. Although teaching kids about sex and contraceptives is con...
The Progressive Movement, or the Progressive Era, was a time period between 1900 and 1920. This was a time of great social and economic change. Those who pushed for the Movement were called Progressives. Progressives wanted to cure the ills of American society that had developed during the great spurt of industrial growth in the last quarter of the 19th century. Although all goals were not met, the Progressive Movement was very successful because of the way it improved working conditions for those in all labor fields, put limits on child labor, and made the food and drug industry safe for consumers. The corruption and undue influence in the government was still seen and there was still small inclusion of the people in the political process. Even with these goals not being met, the Movement was successful because of the social and economic improvements. The many acts and administrations created by protests, strikes of workers, and political onlookers not only improved our country democratically, but socially and industrially.
The suffrage movement first emerged at the turn of the century and Civil War when African American slaves were denied the right to vote, a benefit that a majority agreed was associated with citizenship, and therefore should be applicable to all freed slaves. This set the grounds for a suffrage movement that later evolved into a larger issue centered on antislavery reform. Joining together to fight for benefits that were being withheld from American citizens, the role of women came into play during this time as the most active abolitionists who came together to organize petitions, conventions, and raise funds to help further the movement. Women played a vital role in being heard through protests and local publications of their thoughts. Novels such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Clotel, along with articles in popular news publications, shed much light and attention on anti-slavery reform, while also sparking the inspiration for women’s rights (Britton, 2006).
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Sexual education and sex in general is a taboo subject. A number of people, both in the past and recently, have suggested that sex education programs should be taught elsewhere besides schools, like at home. Sadly, parents a...
Sex education or Sexuality Education is described by Kunwar and Yudav (2011) as an education that tackles about the different aspects of sexuality such as human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, human sexual behavior and, etc. It seeks to decrease the possible negative effects on human sexual behavior such as teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases; it also seeks to amend the quality of relationships. This shows that the broader concept of human sexuality will be taught in sex education, aiming to give awareness and deeper understanding of these concepts. This term is also given a definition by Fontanilla (2003) as an instructional tool in helping and forming wholesome demeanors, values, and practices in
Both reproduction and sexuality no longer were off limits to government influence, they were ideas and actions up for political review. Interestingly, the regulations regarding abortion, where thequestin is usually dependent on the “rights” of the fetus, are not included with murder but with criminal threats. In this way, the law makers are forcing the issue away from a personal matter and more into the community’s problem. The reproductive rights of women are appropriated to control medical professionals. While these women’s issues are brought into the political sphere, they are also gaining theoretical equality, they have a stronger influence over the honor of the
American Civil Rights Movement By Eric Eckhart The American Civil Rights movement was a movement in which African Americans were once slaves and over many generations fought in nonviolent means such as protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and many other forms of civil disobedience in order to receive equal rights as whites in society. The American civil rights movement never really had either a starting or a stopping date in history. However, these African American citizens had remarkable courage to never stop, until these un-just laws were changed and they received what they had been fighting for all along, their inalienable rights as human beings and to be equal to all other human beings. Up until this very day there are still racial issues where some people feel supreme over other people due to race.
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.
Researchers classify social movements according to the type of change they seek (Aberle, 1966, Cameron, 1966, Blumer, 1969, as cited in Macionis, 2007). According to John Macionis, a social movement is when people commonly band together to create an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change (Macionis, 2008). In the case of this radical society, Hippies were typically ...
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (free dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on an identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (free dictionary, 2009). There are different gender identities such as male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual that exists all around the world. There is inequality in gender identities and dominance of a male regardless of which sexuality they fall under. The males are superior over the females and gays superior over the lesbians, however it different depending on the place and circumstances. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes, social policy, and homosexuality from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by the two different societies to understand how much changes has occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. In general a traditional society is more conservative where as a modern society is fundamentally liberal. This is to say that a traditional society lists certain roles depending on the gender and there are stereotypes that are connected with the genders. One must obey the one that is dominant and make decisions. On the other hand, a modern society is lenient, It accepts the individual’s identity and sexuality. There is no inequality and everyone in the society is to be seen as individuals not a part of a family unit...
Thornes, (2008), Charles Cooley developed the “looking-glass self”, meaning self begins at birth and primary socialization by imitating the duty of their parents (p21). They are taught to behave accordingly, the tasks and clothing are important to accentuate their genders. For instance, boys are conditioned to be the head of the family and reinforced by wearing trousers while the girls do the household chores with a skirt. This theory was criticised by theorists namely, Ann Oakley because it produces stigma and gender inequalities. Thornes (2008), Feminist argues that the traditional nuclear family is patriarchal, which means men dominates women (p14). Somehow, more countries, especially in Russia, accept this culture for many generations and remains present up to these days. Gender dissimilarities were initiated through social construction and classifying gender identity are incorporated with their performance, these are parts of recognizing the person’s identity. Notably, “Russia is still quite a conservative and patriarchal society” (Paranyuskin, 2015). Furthermore, gender identity has an impact to those people who feels, they do not belong to these groups, particularly in homosexuality. Gender and sexual identity will be treated differently by different social groups