An important task of the student of social movements is to identify those conditions under which social movements are most likely to arise. While the existence of widespread poverty and suffering might seem sufficient to give rise to efforts at reform, it must be emphasized again that some basis for hope must also exist to stir people to make the effort. Paradoxically, partial alleviation of conditions of deprivation may provide such a basis, serving as the impetus for the formation of a social movement just as things seem to be getting better. The success of other people similarly situated, such as victorious revolutionaries in a neighbouring nation, may be another source of hope.

More general theories of the origin of social movements, such as those of Smelser, Turner, and Killian, suggest that social change may result in strains or conflicts in one or more crucial aspects of the social order. Normative strain arises when changing conditions create a situation in which the established norms no longer lead to the attainment of important, accepted values. Strain in values arises when the values themselves seem to interfere with the satisfaction of important needs of a segment of the society. This sort of strain often arises when different groups, such as immigrants, minorities, or the younger generation, develop values that conflict with those of more established groups. Even with little change in norms and values, changes in social structure reflected in the failure of important functionaries to play their roles adequately may lead to discontent.

The general nature of the belief system existing in the culture of a society affects the likelihood that social movements will arise and defines the type that will occur. For example, a system that is essentially fatalistic is less conducive to social movements, particularly those with a strategy of societal manipulation, than one that emphasizes the perfectibility of human beings and their control over their own fate.

Other theories

Since the early 1970s two new strands of theory and empirical research have arisen, one in the United States and one in western Europe. The first, called resource mobilization theory, takes as its starting point a critique of those theories that explain social movements as arising from conditions of social disorganization and strain and as finding their recruits among the isolated and alienated in society. By contrast, research mobilization theorists argue that the success of social movements rests mainly on the resources that are available to it; this means forming coalitions with already-existing organizations, securing financial support, and mounting effective and organized campaigns of political pressure. As a result of this emphasis, resource mobilization theorists downplay the factor of ideology—and irrational factors generally—in the study of social movements.

The second theory is the new social movement theory. It derives from an intellectual dissatisfaction with the predominantly Marxist view that treats social movements as reflecting a fundamental struggle among classes organized around economic production. That theory, it is argued, has become less relevant as these classes have been drawn into collective bargaining, the welfare system, and other social advancements within the state. The “new social movements” that have arisen in their place are interpreted as struggles against the social inequalities, the dominance of the mass media, and other features of postindustrial capitalism and the welfare state. These include youth, feminist, peace, ecological, civil rights, and racial justice movements. Jürgen Habermas, a German sociologist, interpreted such movements as protests against the excessive size and rationality of the state and its bureaucracies and their intrusion into the private worlds of individuals.