Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Community Living: A Social Movement?
Robert HickeyQueen’s University
School of Policy Studies
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Social Movements
• Builds on session from 2009 CLO Conference• What makes a social movement?
Characteristics of social movement organizations
• Lessons from other social movements – the labour movement
• Possible applications for the Community Living Movement
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Characteristics of a social movement?
• What makes a social movement?– How would you describe the characteristics of a
social movement?
• Historical social movements?– What was the first mass social movement?
• Contemporary social movements?– Flash mobs versus social movements
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Social movements
• Collective identities– Cohesion and coordination of interests
• Communication networks– Implications of new ICT?
• Political opportunity structures (threats)– Discontent not sufficient
• Contentious politics (system change)– Challenges of success
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Unions – “old” social movement
• Rise – Decline – Renewal (?)• Diverse organizations
– Craft vs industrial, discriminatory vs inclusive
• Unions reflect most ‘voluntary organizations’– Small activist core with many free-riders
• Advances in institutional stability often comes with a decline in social movement orientation
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Causes of union movement decline
• Economic restructuring– Decline in manufacturing shift to services
• Political shifts (Thatcher & Reagan)– Anti-union government policy
• Employer resistance– Wal Marts of the world unite
• Unions themselves
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Dynamics of union decline
• Iron Law of Oligarchy– Michels (1911) observed that organizations
develop divergent interests between leaders and rank and file members
• “Business unionism” as key problem– Union functions like an insurance agency focused
on services for members, not a democratic organization pressing for universal improvements
– Job control focus, exclusionary practices
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Dynamics of decline (cont’)
• Lack of organizing strategy and capacity• Reactive orientation
– Easy to say no, ignore change pressures– Difficult to build a strategic agenda to shape
change
• Collective action problems– Competition versus coordination
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Conditions for renewal
• Crisis– Organizational insolvency– Density decline
• Change in leadership– Influx of community organizers
• National union support and direction– Incentives– Expertise
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
A sense of crisis (US labour movement)
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Canada in comparison
Union Density: US & Canada
0
10
20
30
40
50
1901
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
1999
2002
Canada US
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Efforts at union renewal
• Union renewal as a process– Member participation and activism– Leader – member relations– ‘social movement unionism’
• Union renewal as an outcome– Union density– Bargaining power, political influence etc.
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Renewal strategies
• Mergers• Organizing orientation• Coalition formation with other organizations• Innovative collective action• Comprehensive campaign strategies• New forms of political action• Employer partnerships
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Lessons and possible applications
• Very mixed record of success• Renewal most successful among organizations
pursuing comprehensive strategies – Combination of tactics– Bottom up mobilization and top down strategies
• Balance mandate to support current members with imperative to organize non-members– Create community organizing capacity and
expertise
Community Living Ontario57th Annual Conference
Lessons and possible applications
• Cultivate collective identities, common frames and pro-active, strategic agendas
• Networked resources (internal & external)• Role of research
– Political opportunity structures– Institutional entrepreneurship
• Intra-movement political rivalry can have a debilitating effect on organizations
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