 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss the role of social movements in producing social change. Social movements are a form of collective behaviour that arises when a group of individuals feel a societal condition needs to be addressed, thereby leading to the social change. These movements often arise in response to perceived injustice and seek to alter, resist or reverse certain social aspects. For example, if you take the example of Pakistan, we can see that the law's movement in Pakistan in 2005, also known as the Movement for Restoration of Judiciary, was a social movement that played a crucial role in the resignation of President Pravesh Mushara showcasing how social movements can bring significant social or political change. The success of social movements often relies on the source mobilisation. This includes not only financial resources, but also the human capital, time, organisational skills and access to media, all of which help propagate the movement's message and affect that social change. For example, the success of Pakistan-Tarikin staff in the previous general election was largely due to the effective resource mobilisation including the use of social media to gather the social support for them as well as the political support for them. Social movements can also contribute to social change by shaping public opinion and public policy. They can raise awareness about certain issues leading to changes in public perception and ultimately policy reform. Contemporary sociologists emphasise the role of new social movements, movements centred around the social and cultural issues as opposed to the traditional movements which were primarily focused on the economic or political issues. These new movements play a critical role in shaping social change. For example, the movements for climate change awareness in Pakistan led by a group like Climate Action Pakistan signifies the emergence of new social movements in the country. Lastly, the social movements can often trigger counter movements resulting in the dynamic process that derives social change. These counter movements can either lead to a consolidation of the changes brought about by the original movements or the reversal of the same. For example, the rise of ideological confusion in Pakistan can be viewed as the counter movement to the growth of secularisation and liberalisation in the certain sections of the society thus contributing to the dynamics of negative social change. Because when we see that the social change occurs in society it is not necessarily a positive social change. Social change can also be considered the negative social change where it depends on the point of view of the people through which or the lens of the people through which they are seeing that social change. So role of social movements is very crucial in bringing about the social change either positively or negatively.