Part 2: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement

Wisconsin 2011 Tax Day Tea Party Rally
Credit: WisPolitics.com | Wikimedia Commons

Defining a Cultural-Political Movement

Based on notes from a sociology class lecture, cultural or social movements can be defined as a type of group action focused on bringing about social change. Cultural movements are generally of long duration and attract many participants who share common goals for changing a specific societal construct.

The participants attracted to social movements often disagree on the specific tactics and strategies that should be used to affect the desired changes in a specific structure of society. As an example some may favor achieving change through peaceful demonstration while others advocate violent confrontation.

The means by which participants in a social movement choose for affecting the desired social change whether it be peaceful demonstration or violent confrontation is in part where the political enters into the equation. A purely cultural or social movement takes on the character of a political movement when there is a focus on the political process as an opportunity for social change. The present-day "Tea Party" I think serves as a useful example of a social, political movement.

Types of Cultural or Social Movements

Cultural and social-political movements can be categorized as reform movements or radical movements. Examples of reform movements include:

• American labor union movement
• Environmental movement
• Tea Party movement
  

Examples of radical movements include:

• American Civil Rights movement
• South African Anti-Apartheid movement
• Current Libyan revolt
  

One of the key parts of any social, political movement is what social theorists term the "mobilization process." Identification of an ongoing mobilization process is one good way of identifying a cultural-political movement. During this process movement leadership:

• Attempts to build a power base among sympathetic political and economic elites
• Recruits new participants for the movement from among the members of general society who share similar beliefs
• Actively motivates group participants to action
• Removes barriers to participation to aid the recruitment effort
• Creates a collective identity among participants
  

Once we have defined what a cultural-political is, observed what it looks with the aid of examples, and identified the chief attributes we can easily use simple comparison to determine whether nudism & naturism meet the criteria as a cultural-political movement. Look for Part 3: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement on Friday to learn whether nudism fits the category.

Part 1: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement

Credit: Abernathy Family Photos | Wikimedia Commons
American Civil Rights Movement

While doing the research for my recent eBook I noticed something that I wanted to revisit after the book was published. I began writing this on Monday evening and before I knew it, the piece was nearing 1,800 words! So, out of compassion for my readers, I decided to break this discussion down into three, more easily digestible parts.

Usually I don't use Wikimedia articles as sources for the things I write, even when writing a blog post, but today I'm making an exception.

It isn't that I have the kind of disdain for Wikimedia that's common in academic circles. Quite the contrary I have read some excellent, scholarly Wikimedia articles where the quality of the research and references were impeccable by any standards. But since everyone from public school teachers to college professors to editors forbid the use of Wikimedia as a source, as a writer who writes sometimes for pay, I'm just not in the habit of citing from there myself.

The citation from Wikimedia that is pertinent to my topic today is, "Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practicing, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public." It is the opening sentence in the article, "Naturism" last modified on April 23, 2011. I chose to use it because even though I have read the exact sentence elsewhere in the past from a source that even the pickiest professor or editor would consider credible, I have been unable to find it again.

Whichever collaborator that supplied the sentence cited the 2002-2003 World Naturist Handbook, published by the International Naturist Federation as the source. If memory serves, I do believe that it was the International Naturist Federation website where I originally read it. But that isn't really material to the points of discussion today.

What I wanted to weigh in on was the question, "Is naturism and nudism a cultural and political movement?" While I completed fifteen semester hours of undergraduate Sociology courses that of course doesn't come close to qualifying me as an expert on the study of human social behavior. Yet human social behavior has always fascinated me and so I like to research it, read about it, and discuss it, especially when it comes to trying to define naturism and nudism within the framework of social behavior.

At various times, in various places I have seen naturism and nudism categorized in sociological terms as a lifestyle, a subculture, a deviant subculture, a counter-culture, a social movement and as a social, political movement. There is an argument I think for all of those classifications save cultural movement and cultural-political movement. And on Wednesday, I'll tell you why in Part 2: Nudism as a Cultural-Political Movement.

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Book Notes

Just a short note on American Nudist Culture. It is now on sale at Amazon in the Kindle edition. I'm heartened that in just a few days since publication several copies have already been sold and even more people have viewed the sample available at Smashwords. Since this was the first forum in which I shared information on the book I assume that the kind readers of TEN are responsible for the early sales and I am very grateful for that. I am eager to hear your opinions on the book be they good, bad, or indifferent.