Sociology

Social Action – Concept and Principles

Submitted to: Mr. Rohit Mishra

Submitted by: Himanshu Singh
LL.B. (Hons.)
Semester III
University Roll No.: 190013015075
Section A, Roll No.: 33
 Acknowledgement
I wish to extend my heartfelt and profound gratitude to all persons who in one way or
another have contributed efforts and support in the completion of this report.
I express my deep appreciation and indebtedness particularly to Mr. Rohit Mishra who gave
me the golden opportunity to work on this undertaking.

I am also immensely obliged to my friends for their elevating inspiration, encouraging

guidance and kind supervision without which the completion of this project would have
been an ordeal.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Introduction

 Concept of Social Action

 Principles of Social Action

 Critical Issues

 Conclusion

 References
Introduction
In professional social work, six methods of working with people have been identified.
Among them three are basic or primary methods. They are: casework, group work and
community organisation. In day-today practice, social workers use these three methods of
working with people – casework with individual clients, group work with small groups and
community organisation with sociologically definable communities. In addition, there are
three secondary or allied methods of social work. They are: social action, social work
research and social welfare administration. Social action seeks the betterment of masses
through social legislation, propaganda and appropriate action programmes. When there is a
need to bring about some change in the social structure or to prevent the negative change
from happening, which may influence the general population or a large number of people,
social action comes into play. Narmada Bachao Andolan is one of the finest examples of
social action carried out for the betterment of the masses. Let us look into the concept of
social action in some detail.

Concept of Social Action

Social action is considered an auxiliary method of professional social work. As one of the
methods of working with people, it has remained a debatable issue among the social work
professionals. Social action is a method of social work used for mobilizing masses in order to
bring about structural changes in the social system or to prevent adverse changes. It is an
organised effort to change or improve social and economic institutions.
Some of the social problems like dowry system, destruction of natural resources,
alcoholism, poor housing, health, etc. can be tackled through social action. As a method of
professional social work, social action has remained an issue with wide ranging of opinions
regarding its scope, strategies and tactics to be used, its status as a method and its
relevance to social work practice. Mary Richmond was the first social worker to use the
word ‘social action’ in 1922. She defines social action as “mass betterment through
propaganda and social legislation”. However, Sydney Maslin (1947) limits the scope of social
action by considering it as a process of social work mainly concerned with securing
legislation to meet mass problems. Baldwin broadens the scope of social action by
emphasizing on bringing about structural changes in the social system through social action.
Baldwin (1966) defines social action as “an organised effort to change social and economic
institutions as distinguished from social work or social service, the fields which do not
characteristically cover essential changes in established institutions.
Social action covers movements of political reforms, industrial democracy, social legislation,
racial and social justice, religious freedom and civic liberty and its techniques include
propaganda, research and lobbying”. In the same line Friedlander (1977) defines social
action as an individual, group or community effort within the framework of social work
philosophy and practice that aims to achieve social progress, to modify social policies and to
improve social legislation and health and welfare services. Similar views are expressed by
Lee (1937) who says “social action seems to suggest 216 Social Work Intervention with
Communities and Institutions efforts directed towards changes in law or social structure or
towards the initiation of new movements for the modification of the current social
practices”. According to Coyle (1937) social action is the attempt to change the social
environment in ways, which will make life more satisfactory. It aims to affect not individuals
but social institutions, laws, customs, communities. Fitch (1940) considers social action as
legally permissible action by a group (or by an individual trying to promote group action) for
the purpose of furthering objectives that are both legal and socially desirable.
A broad outlook has also been given by Hill (1951) who describes social action as “organised
group effort to solve mass social problems or to further socially desirable objectives by
attempting to influence basic social and economic conditions or practices”. Further, social
action is a term applied to that aspect of organised social welfare actively directed towards
shaping, modifying or maintaining the social institutions and policies that collectively
constitute the social environment (Wickendon, 1956). Solender (1957) states that social
action in the field of social work is a process of individual, group or inter-group endeavour,
within the context of social work philosophy, knowledge and skill.
Its objective is to enhance the welfare of society through modifying social policy and the
functioning of social structure, working to obtain greater progress and better services. It is,
therefore, evident that social action has been viewed as a method of bringing about
structural changes along with social legislation. Let us see some of the viewpoints of Indian
social work authors about the definition and scope of social action. Moorthy (1966) states
that the scope of social action includes work during catastrophic situations such as fires,
floods, epidemics, famines, etc., besides securing social legislation.
Nanawati (1965) views social action as “a process of bringing about the desired changes by
deliberate group and community efforts. Social action does not end with the enactment of
social legislation, but the execution of the policies was the real test of success or failure of
social action”. The institute of Gandhian studies defines social action as the term commonly
applied to social welfare activity which is directed towards shaping or modifying the social
institutions and policies that constitute the social environment in which we live. Similarly,
Singh (1986) maintains that social action is a process in which conscious, systematic and
organised efforts are made by some elites and/or people themselves to bring about change
in the system which is instrumental in solving problems and improving conditions which
limit the social functioning of weaker and vulnerable sections. It is, on the practical plane,
nearer to social reform than to social revolution, which aims at smashing the entire existing
social structure and to build up a new social setup. It is conflictual in nature but at the same
time non-violent. The objective of social action is the proper shaping and development of
socio-cultural environment in which a richer and fuller life may be possible for all the
citizens. Mishra (1992) has identified following goals of social action:
1) Prevention of needs;
2) Solution of mass problems;
3) Improvement in mass conditions;
4) Influencing institutions, policies and practices;
5) Introduction of new mechanisms or programmes;
6) Redistribution of power and resources (human, 218 Social Work Intervention with
Communities and Institutions material and moral);
7) Decision-making;
8) Effect on thought and action structure; and
9) Improvement in health, education and welfare.
Thus, we see that social action is seen as a method of professional social work to be used to
bring about or prevent changes in the social system through the process of making people
aware of the sociopolitical and economic realities that influence or condition their lives. This
is done by mobilising them to organise themselves for bringing about the desired results
through the use of appropriately worked out strategies, with the exception of violence.
Some examples of social action are socio-religious movements in the medieval period
targeted against superstition, orthodox religious practices and various other social evils. The
underlying philosophy of these social actions was humanitarian in nature based on the
principles of justice, equality and fraternity.

Principles of Social Action

Considering Gandhian principle of mobilisation as a typical example of the direct
mobilisation model of social action Britto (1984) brings out the following principles of social
action:
The principle of Credibility Building: It is the task of creating public image of leadership, the
organisation and the participants of the movement as champions of justice, rectitude and
truth. It helps in securing due recognition from the opponent, the reference public and the
peripheral participants of the movement. Credibility can be built through one or many of
the following ways:
1) Gestures of goodwill towards the opponent: To exemplify, when Gandhiji was in England,
World War I broke out. He recruited students for service in a British Ambulance Corps on
the Western Front. These gestures of goodwill towards the opponents projected the image
of Gandhiji as a true humanitarian personality. His philosophy of non-violence facilitated the
credibility-building process among his opponents, the British.
2) Example setting: Dr. Rajendra Singh, the Magsaysay award winner of 2001, had set
examples of water conservation in many villages of Rajasthan, by making check-dams,
through mobilisation of village resources (manpower, cash and kind) before starting water-
conservation movement at a much larger scale.
3) Selection of typical, urgently felt problems for struggles: The leaders gain credibility if
they stress on the felt-needs of the people. Scarcity of water has remained one of the
pressing problems of the people of Rajasthan. When Dr. R. Singh initiated his intervention
on this issue, his credibility was automatically established.
4) Success: Successful efforts help in setting up credibility of the leader and the philosophy
he/ she is preaching. Seeing the successful work of Singh in certain villages of Rajasthan,
State government also came forward to extend its support. Local leaders from various other
villages and NGO professionals also approached him for help.

Principle of Legitimisation: Legitimisation is the process of convincing the target group

and the general public that the movement-objectives are morally right. The ideal would be
making a case for the movement as a moral imperative. Leaders of the movement might use
theological, philosophical, legal-technical, public opinion paths to establish the tenability of
the movement’s objectives. Legitimisation is a continuous process. Before launching the
programme, 220 Social Work Intervention with Communities and Institutions the leaders
justify their action. Subsequently, as the conflict exhilarates to higher stages and as the
leader adds new dimension to their programme, further justification is added and fresh
arguments are put forth. Such justification is not done by leaders alone. In the course of
their participation, followers too, contribute to the legitimisation process. Following are the
three approaches to legitimisation:
1) Theological and religious approach to legitimisation: Gandhiji, used this approach during
freedom movement. He appealed to serve dharma by revolting against injustice of
Britishers.
2) Moral approach to legitimisation: People associated in the Campaign Against Child
Labour, through peaceful rallies, persuasive speeches, use of media, organising, drawing
competition among school children, have helped to create an environment against child
abuse in the country. As a result employing children in any occupation is considered morally
wrong and it becomes moral obligation to all conscious citizens to make sure that all
children below the age of 14 years go to school instead of earning a livelihood.
3) Legal-technical approach to legitimization: People engaged with the ‘Campaign for
People’s Right to Health’ have based their argument on the human rights issues,
fundamental rights and government’s commitment to ‘Health for All’. It gives credibility to
the movement.
Principle of Dramatisation: Dramatisation is the principle of mass mobilisation by which the
leaders of a movement galvanize the population into action by emotional appeals to
heroism, sensational news management, novel procedures, pungent slogans and such other
techniques. Almost every leader mobilising the masses, uses this principle of dramatisation.
Tilak, Marx, Guevara, Periyar and the Assam agitation leaders, resorted to this principle.
Some of the mechanisms of dramatisation could be:
1) Use of songs: Catchy songs, which put forth the cause of a movement, create a dramatic
effect. During freedom struggle, at Bardoli, local talent was tapped to compose songs to
stimulate the enthusiasm of the people. Several choirs were trained and they travelled from
village to village in a bullock cart to sing satyagrahic hymns at numerous meetings.
2) Powerful speeches: This is also a crucial way of motivating the masses and creating
drama-effect. Gandhiji’s appeal to sacrifice and martyrdom was thrilling and it had a special
appeal for the youth to work for this cause.
3) Role of women: Making prominent women lead marchers was a technique which gave a
dramatic effect to the movement. At Rajkot, Kasturba Gandhi herself inaugurated the civil
disobedience movement by courting arrest first.
4) Boycott: Boycott is also an effective way of influencing public opinion both when the
effort is successful and when it is crushed. Picketing and ‘hartals’– voluntary closure of
shops and other organisations, were used by Gandhiji to dramatise the issue.
5) Slogans: Bharat chodo, Jal hi Jeevan, Say no to Drugs, HIV/AIDS– knowledge is prevention,
etc. are some of the slogans used to give dramatic effect to various social movements.
Principle of Multiple Strategies: There are two basic approaches to development:
conflictual and nonconflictual. Taking the main thrust of a programme, one can classify it as
political, economic or social. The basket principle indicates the adoption of a Social Work
Intervention with Communities and Institutions multiple strategy, using combined
approaches and also a combination of different types of programmes. Zeltman and Duncan
have identified four development strategies from their experience of community
development. These have been framed for use in social action. They are:
1) Educational strategy: In this strategy, the prospective participants are educated at the
individual, group and mass level. This is one of the basic requirements of social action.
People or target groups are given necessary information about the issue. By creating
awareness people are motivated and persuaded to participate in the movement. During
campaign against child labour, a network of NGOs working with children was developed and
these NGOs in tune created awareness in their respective areas through educational
strategy. Education by demonstration is an important aspect of this principle.
Demonstration has deep impact on the knowledge retention of the target population.
2) Persuasive strategy: Persuasive strategy is the adoption of a set of actions/procedures to
bring about changes by reasoning, urging and inducing others to accept a particular
viewpoint. Gandhiji used this strategy by constantly seeking opportunities for dialogue with
his opponents. At every rally, stress was laid on winning new converts by oratory and gentle
presentation of arguments.
3) Facilitative strategy: This refers to a set of procedures and activities to facilitate the
participation of all sections of society in the mass movement. The programme Gandhians
devised was often so simple and devoid of any risk that even illiterate children could imitate
them and participate in the National Liberation Movement. In salt- satyagraha, Gandhiji did
not go into the technicalities of salt making. He simply asked the followers to make
consumable salt by boiling the sea-water. Its simplicity did facilitate greater participation.
4) Power strategy: It involves the use of coercion to obtain the desired objectives. The forms
of coercion may vary. Gandhiji used social ostracism as one of the techniques of power
strategy.
Principle of Dual Approach: Any activist has to build counter-systems or revive some
unused system, which is thought to be beneficial to the mobilised public on a self-help basis
without involving the opponent. This is a natural requirement consequent upon the attempt
to destroy the system established/maintained by the opponents. Gandhian constructive
work programme performed such a function, in a small measure, together with conflictual
programmes of satyagrahis. This cooperative effort indicates that Gandhians adopted or
attempted to a dual approach in their mobilization.
Principle of Manifold Programmes: It means developing a variety of programmes with the
ultimate objective of mass mobilization. These can be broadly categorized into three parts:
Social, Economic and Political programme. Dr. Rajendra Singh has taken up the issue of
water conservation as a composite of manifold programmes. His water conservation helped
the villagers, particularly women, who had to go miles to fetch water. It helped in better
development of crops, better animal husbandry, implying more economic benefits. During
the movement, there were direct and indirect conflict resolutions with the local leaders,
panchayat bodies and state government.

Skills Involved in Social Action

After understanding the concept and principles of social action, let us take a look at the skills
needed Social Work Intervention with Communities and Institutions by social workers for
social action. These skills are no different from the general skills; professional social worker
uses these skills by combining the ethics and principles of professional social work.
However, a social worker using social action, as a method of social work, requires certain
skills; the more important among these are briefly described below.
Relational Skills: The social worker should have skills for building rapport with individuals
and groups and skills for maintaining these relations. He/she should be able to develop and
maintain professional relationship with the clients. The social worker should have the ability
to identify the leadership qualities among the clientele and should be skilful to harness
these qualities for social action. Along with this working harmoniously with the established
local leaders is also needed. He/she should be able to deal with intra-group and inter-group
conflicts effectively. The ability to diagnose problematic behaviour among the clients and
providing counselling is needed to develop and maintain integration within the community.
The social worker should identify tension-producing situations and diffuse them before they
become serious. Developing and maintaining cordial relations with other agencies and NGOs
working in the same geographical area and those working for similar causes is also required.
Analytical and Research Skills: The social worker should have the ability to objectively study
the sociocultural and economic characteristics of the community. He/she should be able to
find out the pressing problems and needs of the clientele. He/ she should be able to analyze
the social problems, the factors contributing to the social problems and its ramifications on
the social, economic, political, ideological, cultural, ecological aspects of life. He/ she should
be able to conduct research and/or understand the likely impact of research studies in a
functional sense. Added to this, the social worker should be able to facilitate the community
people to speak out their own felt needs and prioritize them. The social worker should
never try to impose his/her own understanding of the social situation and problems on the
community.
Intervention Skills: After need identification, the social worker should have the ability to help
the clientele chalk out practical intervention strategies to deal with the problem. The social
worker should provide various options to the clientele and help them in analyzing pros and
cons of each option for taking up proper steps. Social action may require ‘confrontation’
with authorities. The social worker must inform the community about the consequences of
taking up hard steps like sit-ins, boycotts, strikes, etc. The social worker should be able to
maintain the desired level of feeling of discontent and emotional surcharge to bring about
the necessary change, enthusiasm and courage among the community people for a fairly
long time so as to minimize the possibility of failure of mass mobilization before the set
objectives are achieved. The social worker should be able to maintain patience and
composed behaviour as he/ she has to deal with emotional balance of the clientele in a
rational way. Added to this, the social worker should have the ability to create the
environment wherein individuals and groups can actively participate. The interventions
should be developed keeping in mind the pressing need, resources (human and material)
and sociocultural milieu of the community. He/she should be able to improvise situations
for targeted interventions.
Managerial Skills: The social worker also needs the knowledge and ability to handle
organisation, 226 Social Work Intervention with Communities and Institutions which may be
the outcome of the institutionalization of people’s participation. He/she should be able to
coordinate and collaborate with various groups and local leaders so as to unite the clientele
for the required intervention. He/she should be skillful enough to make policies and
programmes, programme planning, coordinating, recording, budgeting and elementary
accounting and maintenance of various records. He/she should be able to mobilize internal/
external resources in terms of money, men, materials, equipment, etc. The social worker
also requires the skills of supervising human and material resources and its effective
utilization for the welfare and development of the targeted community.
Communication Skills: These skills are highly crucial for social action. The social worker
should have the ability to develop effective public relations with local organisations and
leaders. He/she should be able to effectively communicate verbally (including public
speaking) and in writing as well. The social worker should be able to deliver or identify
people who can deliver powerful speeches. He/she should be able to devise indoor/outdoor
media for effectively communicating with the target audiences. The social worker should be
able to evaluate and use folk and mass media suited to diverse groups. These skills are used
for developing slogans and motivational songs, speeches and IEC materials for mass
mobilization. The social worker should have skills to educate, facilitate, negotiate and
persuade for necessary actions at needed places.
Training Skills: The social worker should be able to train local leaders and identified leaders
for taking up the charge of mass mobilization and confrontation with the authorities. He/she
should be able to train selected people at the local level aimed at imparting knowledge
about the social issue taken up for action and the modalities of carrying out the intervention
including the ‘confrontation process’. These people should be trained for creating public
opinion for or against the social issue taken up and identify and involve people in social
action. They should also be trained to utilize social action strategies and tactics
(confrontation, persuasion, negotiation, boycott, etc.) without the use of violence.

Critical Issues
Let us now take a look at some of the critical issues, which influence the success of mass
mobilization and in turn, the achievement of set goals through social action. As mentioned
earlier social action uses a number of strategies and tactics (details of these would be given
in subsequent units) and envisages the active role of many of stakeholders. This multiplicity
of strategies and involvement of different stakeholders demand meticulous planning and
careful implementation. If not addressed beforehand, these issues may lead to disruption of
the process and sometimes failure of planned interventions. The issues that a professional
social worker needs to keep in mind are:
Empowerment of the Clientele: The central theme behind any social issue for which social
action is being carried out is the ‘empowerment of the client group or the community’. In
the process of social action, the group whose cause is being advocated must get
empowered and develop the skills and strengths to gain access to common resources for
the development of the community. The end result of the social action should be equitable
partnerships between the interested stakeholders, allowing democratic decision-making
and actual access and usage of denied resources. The social worker must, from time to time,
evaluate and monitor the progress of social action in relation to the overall goal of
empowerment. Any deviation from this goal may lead 228 Social Work Intervention with
Communities and Institutions to failure of the philosophy of social action and accumulation
of power and resources in the hands of a few selfish people. It would mean injustice to the
entire group or community for whose cause social action is being carried out.
Dealing with Groupism: Social action questions the unjust power equations and unfair
distribution of resources. It implies confrontation with those having power and resources. In
the process, certain groups may develop having members with vested interests which might
not be apparent. These groups may try to take lead and influence the social worker to be on
their side. Any opposition may raise inter-group tensions and conflicts. Depending upon the
situation, the counter attack can be very fierce and challenging. At the level of planning
itself, the social workers must foresee this possibility and handle the situation very
judiciously and tactfully.
Accountability: The professional social worker has to ensure that there is consistent and
continued communication amongst all stakeholders and a process of clear accountability
and transparency is maintained in order to give the cause positive legitimacy. Any
miscommunication or negative communication may result in losing the credibility, and in
turn, may affect the entire social action process.
Building Right Alliances: Social action process calls for participation of various stakeholders
for the cause or issue. It is essential that the social worker uses skills to understand the
perceptions of these stakeholders and their levels of interests in social action. Only then the
social worker will be able to utilize their capabilities and skills in the social action process
effectively. While doing so the social worker may have to form alliances and partnerships
with several people and organisations to the cause. Therefore, he/she needs to be careful in
guarding against those who may use the activities for their own gain and may even dilute
the cause and thereby defeat the goal of social action. Indeed giving chance to those who
may jeopardize the cause may legitimate them as genuine social actionists, when in reality,
they would be fostering their personal rather than the group cause.
Balancing Micro-Macro Issues: Social action often entails a shift from the micro to macro in
addressing policy change and also legislative alterations. This can be illustrated by the
example of an organisation, which has been working with street children providing them
with education. However, as the work progresses the organisation shifts towards developing
coalitions with several such organisations with regard to formulation of and change in child
related policies.
Remaining Apolitical: Social action entails a clarity and understanding of political
environment. However, politics does not mean party politics or formal politics. Any kind of
political affiliations of the social worker will on the one delegitimize the activities and at the
same time jeopardize the real cause by ensuring the selling out of the cause for the
promotion of one party interest rather than group interest.

Conclusion
Social action is a secondary method of professional social work. It is used for mobilizing
masses in order to bring about structural changes in the social system or to prevent negative
changes. Certain social problems like ecological balancing, bonded labour, child labour,
women empowerment, substance abuse, etc., can be tackled through social action. The
primary objective of social action is to bring about solutions to mass problems, improve
mass 230 Social Work Intervention with Communities and Institutions conditions and
redistribute power and resources (human, material and moral).
Principles of social action are:
a) principle of credibility building;
b) principle of legitimization;
c) principle of dramatization;
d) principle of multiple strategies;
e) principle of dual approach; and
f) principle of manifold programmes.
A social worker using social action, as a method of social work, requires certain skills. They
are:
a) relational skills i.e., to relate effectively with the people to build rapport and credibility
building;
b) analytical skills i.e., ability to analyze the social situation and social problem objectively
and scientifically;
c) intervention skills are needed to help the clientele chalk out practical intervention
strategies to deal with the social problem;
d) managerial skills are required to coordinate and collaborate with various groups and local
leaders so as to unite the clientele for the required intervention;
e) communication skills to educate, facilitate, negotiate and persuade for necessary actions
at needed places;
f) training skills i.e., the social worker should be able to train leaders for taking up the charge
of mass mobilization and confrontation with the authorities. Some critical issues which
influence the success of social action are: empowerment of the clientele which is the
inherent goal of any social action, dealing with intra and inter group conflicts, accountability
and transparency, building alliances with the ‘right’ people and organisations, shifting vision
from micro to macro problems and avoiding political involvement.
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