Social Change 

1.  The reading discusses the efforts to revitalize city areas that have historically been less affluent, the process of gentrification.  What are the potential effects of gentrification on the economy and current residents of the neighborhood? NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) protests occur when concerned citizens band together to speak up against something that will impact them negatively. Who is more likely to be involved in NIMBY protests and where do they occur?  Give an example of a NIMBY protest and whether you support it or not.

2.  Consider what you have learned about collective behavior, social movements, and social change this week. How is the global expansion of social media likely to affect how people pursue social change? How has it done so already? Use specific examples as you analyze social movements, social change, technology, and the media.

The Week 8 Forum meets the following course objectives:

• Apply a sociological perspective to the social world.
• Analyze contemporary social issues using the sociological imagination and use sociological theories and concepts to analyze everyday life.
• Explain collective behavior, social movements, and social change.

Instructions for all Forums:

Each week, learners will post one initial post per week.  This post must demonstrate comprehension of the course materials, the ability to apply that knowledge in the real world.  Learners will engage with the instructor and peers throughout the learning week.  To motivate engaged discussion, posts are expected to be on time with regular interaction throughout the week.  All posts should demonstrate college level writing skills. To promote vibrant discussion as we would in a face to face classroom, formatted citations and references are not required.  Quotes should not be used at all, or used sparingly.  If you quote a source quotation marks should be used and an APA formatted citation and reference provided.

this is my post:  

Introduction to Sociology 
Week 8 Social Institutions

Question 2: Consider what you have learned about collective behavior, social movements, and social change this week. How is the global expansion of social media likely to affect how people pursue social change? How has it done so already? Use specific examples as you analyze social movements, social change, technology, and the media?

  Social movements are groups working towards a common goal. This team might try to bring change or stop change (anti-globalization movement). This group creates social shift across the continents. The social change nowadays is greatly influenced by the expansion of social media and its acceptance the community. It is important to note that social movement originates typically where there is a dysfunction in the relationship between systems.
I believe that the global growth of social media will promote the social change due to high acceptance it receives by the groups around the world. Social media influence a high magnitude of people, sometimes social media is addictive if not controlled. A specific example is when women across the globe take to the street against trump win of the election of United States, even though the election happened in the United States, the demonstration occur around the globe. Social media plays a crucial role in organizing all the rally to fight for a universal call.
Social media expansion can also significantly influence a social movement, for instance recently across the United States of America; there was a movement duped “black lives matter”social media accelerated the growth of this movement. We saw this movement get support across the globe even from Africa. The most recent is HM clothing company, and a black child model who was modeling a cloth with writing “Coolest monkey in the jungle” .this did go well with the Africa-America community, we saw a significant outcry and organization of rallies across the world. All this happen due to the power of social media and its high acceptance.

References
.Diani, M. (1992). The concept of social movement. The sociological review, 40(1), 1-25.
Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. Sage

the instructor ask me this and she requires 100 word response:  Thank you for sharing your thoughts.  What else can you add that you learned from the textbook? ~ Dr. Avant 

Reed ask me a question and he requires 100 word response:  

We had an earth quake in AK last night. This state is always exciting! Maybe this will hinder our economic growth by dissuading large companies from establishing roots here.

There are plenty of social movements, several of which have honorable causes, which use social media as a platform. There are those that seem to be simple attempts at fear mongering and disinformation though. I see a lot of things on facebook that are titled ‘Not My President’ and then go on to describe something inflammatory that the administration has done. I don’t feel that these campaigns have any merit nor do they progress towards any positive outcome or solutions and are therefore useless.

Social media is expanding by leaps and bounds. In September of 2017 Facebook claimed to have 2.07 billion monthly users! (Facebook, 2018) That’s nearly a third of the world’s population. Quite a network by any definition. I do agree with you that there is a correlation between what is published via social media and how much support is given to a cause. I feel like there is another aspect to the equation though. There needs to be a socially acceptable reason or want to support a cause. Racism is of course terrible and should be given its due attention. I do think that there are other causes that do not get what they deserve however. These causes could be ignored for several reasons but I think that there has to be a villain to blame in order for them to gain media attention.

Let me explain. When there are riots and people are screaming about injustice due to a black person being killed by police there’s a bad guy, the police. Whether the specifics of the incident justify one side or the other don’t seem to matter. People just want something juicy to be upset about. Now if we look at people dying in another instance I see that there is a very different reaction, or really none at all. I think of military members dying in combat. Why isn’t there a huge outcry for these people who have been murdered? Is it because they volunteered and that’s a price they were willing to pay? Is it because we can’t blame the government for sending them to war or the anonymous enemy who killed them? It seems like there needs to be patsy or villain and a juicy topic for people to get involved. It seems more like entertainment that just causes to me.

This is reeds post and he requires 100 words:  

1.  What are the potential effects of gentrification on the economy and current residents of the neighborhood? 

Who is more likely to be involved in NIMBY protests and where do they occur?  Give an example of a NIMBY protest and whether you support it or not.

Gentrification is basically that attempt to revitalize old and poor neighborhoods. This is done either by tearing down and rebuilding old buildings or renovating them. These actions are made in an attempt to attract a higher social class of people to move to the area. (College, 2015)

The potential effects of gentrification are mixed. Some of the positive outcomes could be that there is more access to things like better education and a safer environment through a lower crime rate. There is also the potential for more racial integration.  (College, 2015)

Some of the negative, and more likely, effects of gentrification are the displacement of the current and poorer residents. With an urban area becoming more attractive to a higher social class the cost of living there will usually increase as well. This stands to drive the lower income residents out of the area. There are communities that are attempting to solve this issue by creating ‘mixed-income’ areas. This is an attempt to create a situation where the best of both worlds are combined. Meaning that the housing is affordable and that the area has good support and access to services. (College, 2015)

In found some interesting information about NIMBY. It has a mostly negative view from the perspective of urban development and progress in general. It also has the stigma of being mostly conducted by elitist communities opposed to racial integration and economic diversity. (Hager, 2017)

In several examples there has been a positive outcome to NIMBY stances held by citizens opposed to something harmful or hazardous to the area. In Germany there was a state sponsored plan to build a nuclear power plant near the small town of Wyhl. The residents of Wyhl opposed the plan due to the inherently dangerous operations conducted in a nuclear facility.

What is exceptional to me about this situation is that the citizens didn’t just protest. They also organized a campaign to offer a solution to the problem of needing more power. They also proved that the generally accepted social notion that expanding energy use was required for economic growth.

This opposition went on for several months and drew international attention. “Protesters staged an eight-month-long site occupation that drew participants from all over West Germany as well as France and Switzerland.” (Hager, 2017) The excellent solutions spawned by a NIMBY style protest have made at the town of Whyl an example for other nations to follow. “This area is now widely known as Germany’s “solar region.” Visitors from all over the world come here to learn about locally generated, environmentally sustainable energy solutions.” (Hager, 2017) It is a success story highlighting the fact that a protest with an offered solution can be much more effective than a protest based on principles alone.

As a result of this organized opposition a plan to integrate solar power was realized and adopted in the place of nuclear power. The German government also announced that it would move to phase out nuclear and coal-fired power plants. “Wyhl became the touchstone for ongoing nuclear protest nationwide and arguably the site at which Germany’s famed Energiewende (transition to renewable energy) was born.” (Hager, 2017) I fully support this type of resistance or protest. It ultimately served to better the area that was under development as well as the social state. It was a plan that benefited the environment and arguably everyone on the planet as well.