Influence of Political Trend on Social Movement - Literature review Example

Influence of Political Trend on Social Movement Insert Insert Insert Number Insert 18 October 2012 Several scholars have studied the issue of the influence of political trends on social movements. Caren, Ghoshal, & Ribas (2010) studied how period trends and cohort in protest attendance and petition signing has influenced social movements. Their article explored the period between the year 1973 and 2008 and it was based on a cross-sectional survey involving 34241 respondents (Caren, Ghoshal, & Ribas, 2010). The political trend used by the authors in the analysis is the protests attendance and the signing of petitions. Protest attendance and signing of petitions are two political trends that can have a great influence on the social movement of people. The influence of these two political trends is indirect thus making majority of people to be unable to identify them. However, their influence is very conspicuous especially in the United States. Attendance of protests and signing of petitions would continue to influence social movements even more than five years to come. This would have a very great effect on ecommerce. Politics continues to change from time-to-time as people continue to lose trust with their leadership. In addition, as individuals continue to get more enlightened, they become aware of their rights. As a result, they become more willing to attend protests and sign petitions. Since people are expected to become more enlightened in the coming five to ten years, protests and signing of petitions are expected to increase. Therefore, the influence of this political trend on social movements is expected to increase. The changes that might result from the changes in the political trend are increase in the need for ecommerce. As social movements continue to be experienced, organizations would find it difficult to access their target market. As a result, they would be required to employ ecommerce in attempt to access the markets and increase sales. Doowon (2006) studied the impact of political democratization on social movements. The scholarly article of this scholar, ‘Civil Society in Political democratization: Social Movement Impacts and Institutional Politics” reveals how social movements are affected by changes in political trends resulting from political democratization (Doowon, 2006). This scholarly article is very different from the previous article in that it explains research undertaken on a different aspect of political trend. However, like the previous article, this article deals with similar impacts of political trends. The article also explains how the political trends are linked to social movements through policymaking and allowing movement of groups (Doowon, 2006). Like the previous article, this article would be very significant in our research due to its ability to act as a primary source of information. Political democratizations have been changing significantly in the recent past. Furthermore, the changes are expected to increase in the coming five to ten years. This reveals that the impact of political democratization as a political trend on social movement will continue to be experienced in the future. The influences of this political trend are expected to increase as individuals continue to become more politically enlightened. Due to this political trend, social movement patterns have greatly changed. This has led to introduction and development of ecommerce by organizations in order to cover the diverse markets resulting from social movements. As a result, economic and technological trends have changed greatly as ecommerce gains root in different industries. This has greatly changed the people’s ways of living as well as their ways of doing business. Oliver, Cadena-Roa & Strawn (2003) studied important trends of social movements in their article ‘Emerging Trends in the Study of Protest and Social Movements. The article of these authors is from the first article despite the fact that it is centered on the study of protests. People have been moving from one region to another because of several factors. One of the factors that are widely studied in this article is how institutional politics affect social movements. According to this article emergence of protests influence social construction thus influencing the social movements among individuals. Emergence of protests is a political trend. Therefore, this article reveals how political trends have influenced social movements. This reveals that the article would be very significant in the research study undertaken on this topic. Social movements have resulted to a diversification of the consumer market. The diversification of the consumer market has caused organizations to require a strategy of covering the market. This has resulted to the introduction of ecommerce. Diversification of consumer market due to this political trend is expected to increase as the people continue to move from one place to another. As a result, ecommerce would continue to be needed. Ecommerce would influence both technological and economic trends that also have great influence in social movement of individuals. Hence, social movement of individuals would continue to be experienced in different places of the world. Moreover, the rate of movement is expected to increase as the influence of technological and economic trends combine with political trends in influencing social movements of individuals. Some scholars have studied social movements of particular genders. These scholars also study how political trends influence movement of individuals of this particular gender. Stewart, Settles, & Winter (1998) studied women and social movements to reveal how the movement of this group of individuals influence their social and economic activities. The article indicates that social movement influenced majority of women to attend college during the 1960s (Stewart, Settles, & Winter, 1998). Attending college increased their ability to use emerging technology as well as their ability to acquired better employment. This played a great role in shaping the ways of living of this group of people. According to Stewart, Settles, & Winter (1998), the social movement of women in 1960s was mainly in terms of activists and engaged observers. Therefore, the movement was greatly influenced by political trends. Women activists and engaged observers have continued to increase in the past decades. Moreover, the increasing trend is expected to continue in the coming five to ten years. As women continue to move from one social environment to another, communication and interaction of this group of people and organizations is greatly affected. This has resulted to the introduction of ecommerce on products that have women as their major target market. Ecommerce resulting from social movements of women has greatly influenced economic activities in several places. Moreover, it has also influenced technological advancement especially in the manufacturing and distribution of products that target women. Therefore, social movements among women caused by political trends of activism and engaged political observation have great influence on technological and economic trends among women. In addition to scholarly articles, we have blogs that could provide very essential information relevant to our study. Majority of the blogs that would be essential for this study are updated by the leading organizations. The blog that would be very useful in our study is the e-commerce blog. Despite the fact that this blog is not scholarly, it would be essential in our study. This is because the blog has well detailed blog posts updated by individuals and organization whom can be trusted. Moreover, the blog has some of the posts coming from competing firms. This indicates that the blog is unbiased. One of the reasons that make the blog to be very essential is that it contains information on how small and large businesses should improve and sustain their businesses despite the changing political trends (ecommerce, 2012). Moreover, it contains posts on how to avoid the negative impacts of technological and economic trends resulting from social movements on a business (ecommerce, 2012). Such information would be very significant in our study. Blogs like especially the e-commerce blog are updated very frequently with introduction of new posts. This blog has a very high chance of receiving blog posts related to the influence of political trends on ecommerce. Majority of the post that might be expected concerning the ecommerce would be related to social movements since social movements is believed to be the major cause of ecommerce. Moreover, social movement is believed to have significant effects on the factors that drive ecommerce. The posts of this blog have made individuals and organizations to be cautious when adapting information technology. This has greatly influenced technological and economic trend especially in ecommerce. Furthermore, the influence is expected to continue as the blog continue to receive this kind of posts. References Caren, N., Ghoshal, R. A., & Ribas, V. (2010). A Social Movement Generation: Cohort and Period Trends in Protest Attendance and Petition Signing. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Limited. Doowon, S. (2006). Civil Society in Political Democratization: Social Movement Impacts and Institutional Politics. Development and Society, Volume 35, Number 2, pp. 173-195. Ecommerce. (2012). Ecommerce Blog. Retrieved from: http://www.ecommerce-blog.org/. On 18 October 2012. Oliver, P. E., Cadena-Roa, J., & Strawn, K. D. (2003). Emerging Trends in the Study of Protest and Social Movements. San Jose, CA: JAI Press. Stewart, A. J., Settles, I. H., & Winter, N. J. G. (1998). Women and the Social Movements of the 1960s: Activists, Engaged Observers, and Nonparticipants. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Annotated Bibliography Doowon, S. (2006). Civil Society in Political Democratization: Social Movement Impacts and Institutional Politics. Development and Society. Volume 35, No. 2, pp. 173-195. In this article, Doowon explain a research undertaken to explain how revitalized social movements impact democratic progress. The article reveals that the institutionalization of movement as one of the major mechanism of advancing and consolidating democracy. However, the research presented by this article is based on the findings of other researchers. Caren, N., Ghoshal, R. A., & Ribas, V. (2010). A Social Movement Generation: Cohort and Period Trends in Protest Attendance and Petition Signing. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Limited. In this article, Caren, Ghoshal, and Ribas explore cohort and period trends in political participation in the United States. In their exploration, the authors use a survey undertaken on 34241 respondents. In their analysis, they found out that social movement activities have not become a widespread means of civil engagement. However, their exploration does not clearly distinguish between political engagement and civil engagement. Oliver, P. E., Cadena-Roa, J., & Strawn, K. D. (2003). Emerging Trends in the Study of Protest and Social Movements. San Jose, CA: JAI Press. In this article, the authors evaluate trends in the study of social movements. In their study, the Oliver, Cadena-Roa, and Strawn expand their evaluation to cover individuals from other regions of the world. Theories of social construction and structural accounts of movements are the tools that the authors use in their evaluation. However, the research presented by the authors in this paper is not based on primary data. Therefore, the paper is subject to critiques associated with use of secondary data. Stewart, A. J., Settles, I. H., & Winter, N. J. G. (1998). Women and the Social Movements of the 1960s: Activists, Engaged Observers, and Nonparticipants. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. In this article, Stewart, Settles, and Winter reviews to essential components of social `movements, which are political activists and engaged observers. The review undertaken by these researchers is based on a research undertaken to women that attended college during the 1960s. This article also explains how political trends initiated by political activism and engaged observations influence social movements of individuals. However, the research undertaken by these scholars is based on only a group of college educated white and black women. Ecommerce. (2012). Ecommerce Blog. Retrieved from: http://www.ecommerce-blog.org/. On 18 October 2012. Ecommerce blog is one of the most popular blogs used by organization that market their products online. This blog receives several posts annually. The posts that this blogs receive differ in terms of industry, product they promote, and the information they provide. Majority of the most recent posts found in this blog are related to information technology and political trends. That is why the blog is very significant for the research undertaken on the topic discussed in this paper. Read More