more. Have students take the “Environmental Footprint Quiz” that measures the impact
of their lifestyle on the environment, letting them know how many planets would be
needed if everyone in the world lived their lifestyle.
7. Inner City Poverty. Take a field trip to a local homeless shelter or invite a guest
speaker from a local neighborhood shelter to speak to the class. Afterwards, have them
8. Homeland Security. Assign students to search the website of the Department of
9. Social Service versus Social Change. Assign student teams to research local
organizations relating to social issues and problems in the community. There is
probably a continuum of such organizations, ranging from the classic social service
10. Imagining Futures. The World Future Society sponsors a number of forums
11. Service Learning. Provide students with a service-learning option with a social
movement in place of a term paper. As a capstone project, students could devote 10–20
hours during the term or semester to work with a social movement. Such work could
provide opportunities to reflect on sociological themes and issues relevant to several
topics in an introductory sociology course, which they could do through a journal or a
series of reflective papers on specific topics. For their final project, they could write a
comprehensive analysis of the movement’s origins, organization, mobilization,
strategies, tactics, phases of development, and their own thoughts about the future
direction of the movement.
12. Social Movements Online. Have students investigate a variety of websites
representing major social movements. Examples might be those such as MoveOn
13. Fads, Fashion, and the Media. Have students write a report about changing fashion
and fads in the last two decades. Have them collect pictures of different recreational
trends such as frisbees, Pokémon, iPods, and so on, and have them weave the power of
rumors into a discussion about fashion and fads and its power to coerce behavior.
14. Change: A Personal Story. Have students interview their grandparents or some elder
in your community and ask them to tell you how the world has changed since they were
15. Gemeinschaft. Have students review the concept and discuss how it still applies to
places they are familiar with. In their discussion have students point out the main ways
the idea of a community survives in modern society.
16. Housing in Inner Cities. Investigate the housing opportunities that are available to the
poor, minorities, and other social cohorts such as families with moderate incomes on
17. World Population. Have students research the topic of world population growth and
answer the question as to the causes of world population growth in recent years (say the
last 50 years). Also, what are the leading causes of death in the underdeveloped nations
VIDEO SUGGESTIONS (Videos with a * next to them have corresponding activities
below.)
Change and Social Movements, including for example:
• A Riot of Its Own: The Punk Rebellion of the 70’s (47 min.)
V for Vendetta (2005, 132 min.)
This film, based on a comic book series, explores the dynamics of a fictional, future,
fascist British government. This film could provide a starting point for a discussion on
deviance, social control, or collective behavior.
The Simpsons, Season 2, Episode 4: Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every
Fish (1990, approx. 25 min.)
The nuclear power plants safety violations impact the environment, and Mr. Burns runs for
public office in order to change policy to accommodate the plants’ pollution.
Black Gold (2006, 78 min.)
This documentary follows the path of coffee beans from grower to drinker,
highlighting the exploitative nature of the traditional coffee markets and describing the
benefits of fair trade coffee for both drinkers and growers. Provides a useful tool for
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006–2007, 255 min.)
This Spike Lee film looks at the racial and class-based ways that Hurricane Katrina
affected New Orleans residents differently.
Demographic Bomb (2009, 55 min.)
This documentary looks at falling fertility rates in the developed world and hypothesizes
World in the Balance (2004, 120 min.)
This PBS/NOVA special looks at the consequences of an exploding global population
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1985 (14 one-hour episodes)
This excellent, critically acclaimed documentary miniseries contains one of the most
comprehensive collections of video footage from the civil rights movement ever
* Malcolm X (1992, 201 min.)
This movie portrays the life of Malcolm X, a well-known black activist who used
reactionary methods of mobilizing collective to get behind cause and empower black
people in this country. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X’s life involved him in
gang and drug behavior.
* The Last Mountain (2011, 60 min.)
Powerful: Energy for Everyone (2010, 52 min.)
This movie looks at alternative energy sources. It discusses people who are off the grid
and the rise of energy insecurity. It is excellent for generating discussion on U.S. energy
policies.
* The Interrupters (2012, 2 hrs., 5 min.)
The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who
VIDEO ACTIVITIES
Watch Malcolm X and analyze it in terms of issues of power and feelings of alienation
from mainstream access to opportunities. Compare this style of social movement with
that of Gandhi and King, and Rosa Parks, for similarities and differences. This could be a
final term paper or a class discussion.
INTERNET EXERCISES
Population, Urbanization, and the Environment:
entitled “Window to My Environment,” through which you can identify resources, like
watersheds, and problems, like superfund sites. Complete the exercise, print out a map, and
write a short analysis, indicating what surprised you and how safe you now feel in your
neighborhood.
interests you from the major categories like agriculture and food, biodiversity, climate
change, population and health, or water resources. Report on your findings. This
would be a great resource if you are doing a term project on an issue in this area.
presentations, fact sheets, and more. It also publishes reports on world population
trends and issues. Depending on your course assignments, write a short report on a
topic that interests you, or use the site for a longer project on the same topic.
sites therein and prepare a report about a topic of their choice such as the aging
population of China and compare it to the aging population in other post-industrialized
nations. That material could be the backdrop for studying the possible effects that
global aging will have on our world and this could be examined from the varying
5. Three Mile Island and Love Canal (https://www.nrc.gov)
Search this site and others for information about the nuclear meltdown that occurred in
Pennsylvania in March of 1979. This was the worst commercial nuclear disaster in
U.S. history. Compare this to accidents such as the Chernobyl disaster at the
Social Change and Social Movements
government, economics, transportation, communications, military, and transnational
issues of that country. Select a particular country that interests you and summarize the
major characteristics of the country. Based on this information, would you categorize
the country as a core, semi peripheral, or peripheral country according to world
systems theory? Explain.
Review the latest State of the World’s Children report, and review the Executive
Summary. Based on this report, how would you describe the major issues confronting
most of the world’s children today?
4. Culture Politics Social Movements
5. Jo Freeman’s website
SUGGESTED READINGS
Population, Urbanization, and the Environment:
Brown, Lester R. 2005. Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age
of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures. Earth Policy Institute (www.earth-
policy.org). Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, documents how human
demands outstrip the earth’s capacities, and how the resulting environmental damage
undermines food production.
Gore, Albert. 2006. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming
and What We Can Do About It. Emmaus, PA: Rodale.
Jacobs, Jane. 2011 [1961]. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York:
Modern Library. This book (the 50th anniversary edition) is an attack on current
methods of city planning and rebuilding. It is also an explanation of new principles and
an argument for different methods from those now in use. It is the first real alternative to
conventional city planning that we have had in this century. Its author, herself a city
dweller and an editor of Architectural Forum, is direct and practical in her approach.
What, she asks, makes cities work?
Lappé, Frances Moore and Anna Lappé. 2002. Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small
Planet. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. Frances Moore Lappé, co-founder of
Food First and other national organizations concerned with food and the roots of
democracy, together with her daughter, presents a challenge to corporate globalization
and a vision of social and environmental transformation.
Speth, James Gustave. 2004. Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global
Environment. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Speth, Dean of the Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, argues that current approaches to major
environmental issues, like climate change, global warming, and biodiversity depletion,
are not working, explains why, and sets out directions for change.
Social Change and Social Movements:
Ali, Tariq. 2002. The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads, and Modernity.
New York: Verso Books. Ali looks at rival fundamentalisms in the post 9-11 world and
analyzes the social, economic, and political forces fueling the clash.
Castells, Manuel. 2012. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet
Age. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press. This book is an exploration of the new forms of
social movements and protests that are erupting in the world today, from the Arab
uprisings to the indignadas movement in Spain, and the Occupy Wall Street movement in
the United States. While these and similar social movements differ in many important
ways, there is one thing they share in common: they are all interwoven inextricably with
the creation of autonomous communication networks supported by the Internet and
wireless communication.
Years or Five Thousand? New York: Routledge. This collection adopts a non-European
perspective on the issue of historical and social change, thereby raising many interesting
questions. The volume includes contributions by Immanuel Wallerstein and Samir Amin.
Goodwin, Jeff and Jasper, James (eds). 2003. The Social Movements Reader:
Cases and Concepts. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. This collection of
articles is organized around basic sociological questions about social movements.
Isbister, John. 1998. Promises Not Kept: The Betrayal of Social Change in the Third
World. (Fourth Edition). Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press. This book examines the plight
of underdeveloped countries in the post-Cold War era, and demonstrates how the promise
of a “peace dividend” to be shared by all nations continues to recede.
Mullard, Maurice and Spicker, Paul. 1998. Social Policy in a Changing Society. New
York: Routledge. This is a fascinating application of classic and contemporary theories to
issues of social, economic, and political policy and social change.
Zinn, Howard. 1995. You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our
Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. This engaging autobiography of a great American
historian and social activist explores the civil rights and anti-war movements and
addresses the basis for hope in social movements. See also his A People’s History of the
United States.
WEBSITE SUGGESTIONS
In addition to the Internet Exercises and other websites mentioned throughout this
chapter, you might find the following websites a useful resource for student research or
discussion:
resources on the site can be usefully combined with environmental resources from other
sites noted above.