Impact of Various Social Movements in Advocating for Change in the 21st Century

Abstract

The following study has been focused on evaluating the impact of social movements on driving social changes in the 21st century. Social movements involve conducting public campaigns with the common aim of leading a change in society or the implementation of a new policy or rule associated with social interest. In short, social movements are closely connected to achieving some determined social goals. Therefore, a secondary data collection method has been followed and relevant data has been collected from different journals, newspaper articles and websites. The findings suggest that social movements have become vital for driving a new change in society and the changing social, industrial and business contexts have led to several destructive impacts which are encouraging to conduct these social campaigns. These movements have been identified to be vital for society as well as for protecting public rights, environmental sustainability and inclusion in society. Several vital social movements of the 21st century have been explored, including “Black Lives Matter”, “Occupy Wall Street” and “MeToo Movement”. Additionally, their potential impact on contemporary society has been addressed and the changes brought by these movements have been explained. It has been identified that the “Occupy Wall Street” movement has not brought new changes in society, while the “MeToo” movement has convicted several persons accused of sexual exploitation, mainly in workplaces. The Black Lives Matter movement has changed the perception of racial discrimination, whereas the “MeToo” movement has increased the rate of “sex-crime reporting”. Keyword : 21st Century, Public Campaigns, Social Change, Social Movements.