Sociology 240A
Graduate Seminar on Social Movements
University of California-Irvine
Spring 2000

Professor David S.Meyer
SSPB 2214
Department of Sociology
Mondays, 12:00-2:50

Protest politics and social movements have become almost permanent features of the contemporary political landscape. In contexts where there is little hope for institutional redress, activists often stage protests to open up democratic avenues for affecting political influence. At the same time, even in democratic states, social movements and protest are common. Movements represent not only grievances on a particular set of issues, but also frustration with more established political forms of making claims in advanced industrialized societies. Those employing social movements for political goals include people who want to increase democracy, and others who want to limit it. When actors on different sides of political issues employ the same social movement forms and tactics to advance their causes, we are witnessing a growth in public distrust of more institutional democratic politics. To the extent that social movement politics have become increasingly routinized and institutionalized element of contemporary politics, they reflect a permanent skepticism about more conventional democratic procedures. Protest outside institutions is closely linked to the politics inside institutions.

Course Objectives: In this course, we will engage with some of the large theoretical debates in the study of social movements, reading both empirical treatments of particular movements and theoretical treatments of key issues. We will be particularly concerned with the social and political context of protest, focusing on basic questions, such as: under what circumstances do social movements emerge? how do dissidents choose political tactics and strategies?; and, how do movements affect social and political change? By the end of the quarter, students should have sufficient mastery of the theoretical literature to ground their own research.

Course Requirements: Students are expected to attend all of the classes having completed the reading, prepared with thoughtful questions and/or comments, and prepared to listen to, and respond to, each others' comments and concerns. All students will also be responsible for presenting portions of the reading to the rest of the class. (These presentations should be based on the assumption that everyone has done the reading, and oriented to thoughtful criticisms, reactions, implications, and alternatives.) Students will also be expected to submit 4 of 9 possible weekly papers (though you may submit more), and to submit a final project. There are two basic choices for the final project. First, you may submit a research design on some issue that you want to study, perhaps as a warm-up for your second year paper or your dissertation. Alternatively, if you already have a case you would like to explore, you may write a term paper (15-30 pages). Midway through the term, you are welcome to submit a brief (1-3 pages) proposal for your final project. If you attend the class meetings and offer informed and thoughtful participation, your grade will be based on the following percentages:

Short papers 40%
Project Proposal 0
Final Project 60

With extensive informed participation, and/or significant improvement over the course of the term, your grade may be higher.

Required Reading: I have ordered the following books, which will be on reserve in the library, and available for purchase in the bookstore.

Elisabeth S. Clemens. The People's Lobby. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Faye Ginsburg. Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1989.

Mary F. Katzenstein. Faithful And Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest inside the Church and Military. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Doug McAdam and David A. Snow, eds. Social Movements: Readings on their Emergence, Mobilization, and Dynamic. Los Angeles, Roxbury, 1997.

Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. Poor People's Movements. New York: Vintage, 1977.

Thomas R. Rochon. Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Christian Smith. Resisting Reagan: The Us Central America Peace Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

The reading load is relatively heavy, but the material should be interesting and accessible. Partly, this is a function of a literature which is growing very quickly and touches upon many interesting issues. Partly, it is a function of the tyranny of the quarter system. With only ten weeks, we will be giving short shrift to certain areas of the world and certain areas of inquiry in the study of social movements. Remember that the major course objective is developing a working knowledge of the important theoretical debates among people who study social protest. Most of the assigned articles are contained in the McAdam and Snow (M/S) reader. Additional articles, which will be made available, are marked with an asterisk (*).

By the way, UCI is a great place to study social movements. Many faculty here have published important books in the area, employing a variety of approaches. Many others are interested in areas that intersect with social movements, such as political participation and public policy. Check out these books, if you're interested. You can search for the numerous articles as well, or just go talk to people about their interests.

Alison Brysk. 1994. The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina: Protest, Change, and Democratization, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994.

Russell J. Dalton and Manfred Kuechler, eds. 1990. Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements in Western Democracies. New York: Oxford UP.

Russell J. Dalton. 1994. The Green Rainbow: Environmental Groups in Western Europe. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hector Delgado. 1993. New Immigrants, Old Unions: Organizing Undocumented Workers in Los Angeles. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Valerie Jenness and Kendal Broad. 1997. Hate Crimes: New Social Movements and the Politics of Violence. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Valerie Jenness. 1993. Making it Work: The Prostitute's Rights Movement in Perspective. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Cecelia Lynch. 1999. Beyond Appeasement; Interpreting Interwar Peace Movements in World Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

David S. Meyer. 1990. A Winter of Discontent: the Nuclear Freeze and American Politics. New York: Praeger.

David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow, eds. 1998. The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Thomas R. Rochon and David S. Meyer, eds. 1997. Coalitions and Politial Movements: The Lessons of the Nuclear Freeze. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.

Nancy A. Naples, ed. 1998. Community Activism and Feminist Politics: Organizing Across Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Routledge.

Nancy A. Naples. 1998. Grassroots Warriors: Activist Mothering, Community Work, and the War on Poverty. New York: Routledge.

Belinda Robnett. 1997. How Long? How Long?: AfricanAmerican Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press.

Judith StepanNorris and Maurice Zeitlin. 1996. Talking Union. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Schedule:

I. April 3: Definitions and Orientation; Introduction to the Course and to Social Movements.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, Introduction, part 1.

II. April 10. Break-down and Acting Up; Protest Outside Institutions.

Piven and Cloward, Poor People's Movements, ch. 1, and one substantive chapter.

McAdam and Snow (M/S), Social Movements, introduction.

Goldstone, Jack A. 1991 (M/S). "A Demographic/Structural Model of State Breakdown."

Gamson, William A. 1975 (M/S). "The Success of the Unruly."

III. April 17. Protest inside Institutions; Institutionalization and Abeyance.

Katzenstein, Faithful And Fearless,

* Sawyers, Traci M. and David S. Meyer. 1999. "Missed Opportunities: Social Movement Abeyance and Public Policy." Social Problems 46 (2): 187-206.

Taylor, Verta. 1989 (M/S) "Social Movement Continuity: The Women's Movement in Abeyance."

IV. April 24. Organizational Forms and Political Protest.

Clemens, The People's Lobby,

Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1988 (M/S). "The Consequences of Professionalization and Formalization in the Pro-Choice Movement."

V. May 1. Mobilization, Networks, and Micromobilization.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, part 2.

Gould, Roger V. 1991. (M/S) "Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune."

Morris, Aldon D. 1981 (M/S). "Black Southern Student Sit-In Movement: An Analysis of Internal Organization."

Oliver, Pamela E. 1984 (M/s). "If You Don't Do It, Nobody Else Will: Active and Token Contributors to Local Collective Action."

* Robnett, Belinda. 1996. "African American Women and Leadership in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement." American Journal of Sociology 101 (May) 6: 1661-1693.

VI. May 8 Political Process and Protest.

Smith, Resisting Reagan,

Jenkins, J. Craig and Charles Perrow. 1977 (M/S). "Insurgency of the Powerless: Farm Worker Movements (1946-1972)."

*"Minisymposium on Social Movements." Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper. 1999. "Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory." and responses. Sociological Forum 14 (March) 1: 27-136.

VII. May 15: Cycles; Continuity and Discontinuity.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, part 3-end.

Koopmans, Ruud. 1993 (M/S). "The Dynamics of Protest Waves: West Germany, 1965-1989."

McAdam, Doug. 1982 (M/S). "Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency."

* Minkoff, Debra C. 1997. "The Sequencing of Social Movements." American Sociological Review 62: 779-799.

* Whittier, Nancy E. 1997. "Political Generations, Micro-Cohorts, and the Transformation of Social Movements." American Sociological Review 62 (October): 760-778.

VIII. May 22. Countermovements and Conservative Movements.

Ginsburg, Contested Lives,

* David S. Meyer and Suzanne Staggenborg. 1996. "Movements, Countermovements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity." American Journal of Sociology 101 (May) 6: 1628-1660.

IX. May 29: Outcomes.

Taylor, Verta and Nicole C. Raeburn. 1995 (M/S). "Identity Politics as High-Risk Activism: Career Consequences for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Sociologists."

Meyer, David S. and Nancy Whittier. 1994 (M/S). "Social Movement Spillover."

Amenta, Edwin, Bruce G. Carruthers, and Yvonne Zylan. 1992 (M/S). "A Hero for the Aged? The Townsend Movement, the Political Mediation Model, and U.S. Old-Age Policy, 1934-1950."

*McAdam, Doug. 1989. "The Biographical Consequences of Activism." American Sociological Review 54: 744-60.

X. June 5. Culture; Social and Political Change.

Rochon, Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values.