social movement

n. Any deliberate and organized attempt by a group of people to alter the structure or functioning of a culture. Such movements usually begin as ad hoc organizations which embody the aspirations and frustrations of a group of individuals, who gradually become conscious of the sharedness of their hopes and frustrations and organize in an escalating series of face-to-face meetings, which eventually expand to more public forms of communication. In the Internet age this appears to be expanding to include virtual movements.