Sociology 240A

Graduate Seminar on Social Movements

University of California-Irvine
Winter 2002

Professor David S. Meyer
Department of Sociology

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, social movements and protest are also common in democratic states, where we=d assume there were more direct routes to political influence. Movements represent not only grievances on a particular set of issues, but also frustration with more established political forms of making claims. 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 (although 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.

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

Doug McAdam. 1999. Political Process and the Origins of Black Insurgency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2nd ed.

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

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

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

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 vast 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 at reserve on the libary, 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. 1999. Critical Masses. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Russell J. Dalton. 1994. The Green Rainbow: Environmental Groups in Western Europe. New Haven: Yale 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 and Ryken Grattet. 2001. Making Hate a Crime: From Social Movement to Law Enforcement. New York: Russell Sage.

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

Claire Jean Kim. 2000. Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York. New Haven: Yale University Press.

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 & Politial Movements: The Lessons of the Nuclear Freeze. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.

David S. Meyer, Nancy Whittier, and Belinda Robnett, eds., 2001 (forthcoming). Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State. New York: Oxford University Press.

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?: African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights. New York: Oxford University Press.

David A. Snow. 1993. Shakubuku: A study of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Movement in America, 1960-1975. New York: Garland.

Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. 1996. Talking Union. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Judith Stepan-Norris and Maurice Zeitlin. 2002. Left Out : Reds and America's Industrial Unions. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Schedule:

I. January 7: Definitions and Orientation; Introduction to the Course and to Social Movements.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, Introduction, part 1.

II. January 14: Break-down and Acting Up; Protest Outside Institutions; Why Protest Sometimes Matters.

Edwin Amenta, APolitical Contexts, Strategies, and the Impact of Challengers on Public Policy: The Townsend Plan and U.S. Social Spending Challengers.@

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

Gamson, William A. 1975 (M/S). AThe Success of the Unruly.@

January 21: No Classes. Martin Luther King=s Birthday.

III. January 28: Organizational Forms and Political Protest.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, part 2.

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

* Voss, Kim and Rachel Sherman, ABreaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy: Union Revitalization in the American Labor Movement.@ American Journal of Sociology 106 (September): 303-349.

IV. February 4: Mobilization, Networks, and Micromobilization.

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

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

Oliver, Pamela E. 1984 (M/S). AIf You Don=t Do It, Nobody Else Will: Active and Token Contributors to Local Collective Action.@

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

Snow, David A., E. Burke Rochford, Jr., Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford. 1986 (M/S). AFrame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.@

 

V. February 11: Political Process and Protest.

McAdam, Political Process.

* McCammon, Holly J., Karen E. Campbell, Ellen M. Granberg, and Christine Mowery. 2001. AHow Movements Win: Gendered Opportunity Structures and U.S. Women=s Suffrage Movements, 1866-1919.@ American Sociological Review 66 (February) 1: 49-70.

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

February 18, No Classes. President=s Day.

VI. February 25: Cycles; Continuity and Discontinuity.

Tarrow, Power in Movement, part 3-end.

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

* Minkoff, Debra C. 1997. AThe 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.

VII. March 4: 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) ASocial Movement Continuity: The Women=s Movement in Abeyance.@

 

VIII. March 11: Outcomes, Political and Cultural Change.

Meyer, David S. and Nancy Whittier. 1994 (M/S). ASocial Movement Spillover.@

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

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