Social Protests, History of

Abstract

Social protests have been integral to collective life since the first complex communities were formed. Social protest is defined here as contentious action undertaken collectively in response to perceived injustice or unfair action on the part of those who hold legitimate political and economic power. It seeks to achieve social (as opposed to political and economic) ends, or alternatively to restore or return to earlier ways of life. Examples of such aims are a more equitable distribution of privilege or wealth, reducing inequality among persons or groups, changing or restoring religious beliefs or other cultural practices, and reversing cultural change. Early forms of social protest, in the West and elsewhere, included the grain riot, protesting the limited supply or high price of bread, tax revolts, and religious protests. Such protests often called for a return to traditional rights. Beginning in the nineteenth century, social protests shifted to more modern forms, such as demonstrations, strikes, and boycotts, which over time became routinized.