Civic Involvement Series - IV. Social Movements

Hello my dear reader,

Today, we will be talking about a very important issue. However, before you start reading, if you haven't read the topic "Civic Involvement Series - II. Social Change and World Citizenship", I recommend you to read it because the subject we're going to talk about today is actually about that topic. Our topic today is social movement.

As the name suggests, social change was actually defined as a change in society. In order for these social changes to occur, the public must take action within a specific issue. Do you think there is a connection between social movement and social change in the plot? Of course the answer to this question is "Yes!".

Social Movement is defined as the movements of a community of people coming together for common purposes. Based on this definition, we can say that social movements are needed for social change to occur. Well, have you ever thought about what issues these social movements might be about? In fact, I believe that social movements often arise from reactions to a particular problem or need. So, when we look at the 20th and 21st centuries, I observed that social movements in most countries are generally on the same issues. These topics are the ecology movement, the anti-atom energy movement, the peace movement (Pacifism), the women's movement, anti-imperialism / anticolonialism, the lesbian movement, the homosexual movement, the bisexual movement, the labor movement.

If we look at our country, it can find many examples of social movements. I think that the Gezi Movements come first among these movements. The Gezi Movements, which are still fresh in our memories, are actually a movement that grows with the gathering of groups who came out to prevent the trees in the park and then opposed some decisions taken by the government. As a result of the clashes that occurred in this movement, we had many citizens who died with the police bird. I would like to draw the following conclusion from this that social movements always make a sound, but sometimes, as in the Gezi Movements, they can produce painful and inhuman consequences such as death.

The second example of social movements in Turkey is the Pride Parade that takes place every year in Istanbul. The main purpose of Pride Marches is to ensure that LGBT people are accepted in society. Both LGBT people and people supporting LGBT people participate in this march. Who knows, maybe these social movements reduced the number of homophobic people in Turkey and live in society without exclusion.

In today's blog, I would like to draw attention to why these two social movements that I mentioned above are made in a fun way, one of which ends with death, and the other with dancing. Some of the social movements are made with the permission of the state and some are made without permission. Unfortunately, conflict and disorder are more likely to occur in social movements without permission. However, if we look at the results, both social movements resonated and were spoken and discussed throughout the country like all other social movements. This is why social movements have the power to cause social change.

See you in my next blog

Sena Ölçer