SOCIAL PROTEST AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:

Selected Analytical Approaches

Ant 483/683

Fall 2000

Instructor: John Burdick

Office phone: 443-3822

Office: 404C Maxwell Hall

Home phone: 423-8722

Office Hours: MW 1;30-3:00 pm (and by appointment)

E-mail: jsburdic@maxwell.syr.edu

(Note: this site is still under development. Soon it will have a nifty table of contents, links, etc.)

Social protest and activism are profoundly important parts of modern society. Most people, at one time or another in their lives, have found themselves supportive of, and sometimes involved in, collective efforts to challenge the status quo. While the success of such efforts is often difficult to measure, their very existence brings important issues into the public eye and offers new ways of thinking about them. Social protest may thus be regarded as essential to the working of a democratic society.

The objective of this course is to help you understand major processes at work in the formation, growth, and impact of social protest and activism. To do so, we will follow the main phases of social movement development, and apply to each phase a key set of concepts. While these concepts can refer to activism anywhere in the world, our focus will be the United States. There are two reasons for this. First, many of the concepts covered in the course will be new to you; it will therefore ease the task of understanding to apply them to relatively familiar situations. Second, this course can be taken as the first in a sequence of two courses (the next is in the spring of 2001), for students who wish to conduct research in an upstate New York social movement organization; familiarity with US cases is therefore relevant to students who wish to pursue local research projects.

Over the course of the semester, we will cover the following topics:

1. Sources of Collective Challenge to the Status Quo

1. Why do people become challengers?
2. Historical contexts of collective challenge

1. Processes of Activism

1. Articulating anger and hope
2. Constructing and sustaining collective identity
3. Problems of organizational growth
4. Creating new modes of thought
5. Activism and the "life-world"

1. What Difference Does Activism Make?

1. The theory of "protest cycles"
2. How activism affects policy and law
3. How activism affects culture

1. New Forms of Activism?

1. Cyber-activism
2. Transnational activism

Books to purchase

Please purchase the following books at Follett’s Orange Bookstore (Marshall Square Mall):

Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach (1991)

James Jasper, The Art of Moral Protest (1997)

Thomas Rochon, Culture Moves (1998)

Randy Shaw, The Activist’s Handbook (1996)

Christian Smith, Resisting Reagan (1996)

Verta Taylor, Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-help, and Postpartum Depression (1996)

Reader

Please purchase the "Course Reader" at Campus Copy, Marshall Square Mall

1. Participation in weekly discussion……………………....…………………...…20%
2. 10 weekly reading notes……….……….…..…………………………………...30%
3. 1 thematic presentation……………..… ….………………………….…. …….10%
4. 1 book presentation and report (Oct 24)…….……………………….………...10%
5. Final paper (Dec 15)...…………………………………………………………..30%

1. Participation in weekly discussion (20%)

The quality of our time together depends on the level of preparation you bring into the classroom. I will do my part; I expect you to do yours. It is important for you to have completed the reading on time, reflected on it, and be ready to engage in a lively class discussion about it. "Lively discussion" doesn’t mean trashing authors and preaching to your classmates; it means taking the topics seriously, and engaging in thoughtful exchanges of views. I expect you to participate in discussions both of the main readings, and of your colleagues’ presentations. Each week I will distribute a set of questions to help stimulate your thinking about the reading. We will rarely get to discuss every single reading we have done.

 2) 10 weekly reading notes (30% of final grade)

This is a heavy reading course. I have assigned in the vicinity of 100-140 pages of reading per week; there are several weeks when I have assigned a whole book. I have chosen readings each week that convey key theoretical approaches, and that apply those approaches to specific bodies of empirical material. This way you will be able to get a sense of the utility (and limits) of specific theories, and evaluate their potential usefulness in conducting your own analyses and (later) conducting your own research.

Of the 13 weeks that we have joint readings, I expect you to hand in 10 sets of reading notes. (And I expect you to read the assigned texts even on weeks that you do not hand in reading notes). For each week you hand in notes, I expect them to be 3-4 pages of thoughtful response to that week’s reading.

Content of the notes. The objective of the notes is to prime you for class discussion. My experience over the years is that discussions are greatly improved when participants have had a chance to write out some of their thoughts beforehand. I do not want descriptive "book reports", nor do I expect finely-worked out analyses. Rather, I am looking for commentary that identifies and explores key issues, points out strengths and weaknesses in arguments, and raises questions for discussion. Although ideally you should respond to all the week’s reading, it is also acceptable to focus on that part of it you found especially illuminating or problematic. Here are a few ideas about how to structure the notes, which you can mix and match, depending on your mood: a) Explore one or two of the questions on the list I will have provided. In addition, raise 1 or 2 questions yourself (without necessarily exploring them). b) Explore one or two questions that you raise yourself. Feel free to be either critical of the readings, or inspired by them, or both. c) Work through your understanding of key points in the readings, to see if you’ve "gotten them right". Along with this kind of paper, however, I also expect you to raise questions at the end, too. d) Any combination of the above, as long as it engages seriously and carefully with the reading. (By the way, not everything "goes". Unreasoned denunciation is not OK. Commentary with no reference at all to the readings is not OK.)

Evaluation of the notes. Remember, you may miss three weeks of reading notes (I expect 10 notes from each of you over the course of the semester). The 10 notes together are worth 30% of your final grade. I will grade the notes according to this scale: "A range" -- Displays serious and energetic engagement with the material; "B range" -- I appreciate the effort, but I want you to be braver, and push yourself further; C -- You seem mainly to be going through the motions. I will give you your papers back each week with written commentary, so that if you are writing "B"-level notes, I can help you think about how to raise them to "A"-quality.

3. In-class thematic presentation (10% of final grade)

Each student will, over the course of the semester, make an in-class presentation on a specially selected reading that extends, complements, and enriches the topic of the week. On the first day of class, each student will receive a presentation assignment card. On each card there will be a date, a presentation topic, and an assigned reading. Please go to Bird library as soon as you can to locate your presentation reading, or, if necessary, get it from me. The week you present you must hand a written version of your presentation, of 3-4 pages. That week you may skip your other reading notes; but please DO NOT skip reading the jointly assigned texts themselves, as these will be directly relevant to your presentation. You have a total of 40 minutes to make your presentation and lead a discussion. 20 minutes should be devoted to presenting the reading, and 20 minutes should be devoted to leading the discussion. Please prepare your presentation carefully. You’ll be amazed at how quickly time goes by.

Content of the presentations. The presentations must communicate a) the content/chief points of the presentation reading, b) how it reveals strengths, weaknesses, or complications in the theoretical perspective(s) being discussed for the day, and c) important issues for the class to discuss and think about. The ensuing discussion should include fielding questions and stimulating students to draw connections between what you have presented and what they already know. Presenters are free to use handouts and other audiovisual aids. If you wish to use a video, please ask me first. Videos are best used when you show only a few minutes of them. If you would like me to help you prepare your presentation, I will be happy to do so. I am also happy yot schedule a follow-up meeting to reflect on the presentation with you.

Evaluating the presentations.I will send you my evaluation of the presentation (by e-mail) in the day or two after it. In general, my system of evaluating these resembles that for weekly reading notes. The difference is that I will be looking to see specifically that you have satisfied the expectations mentioned above.

4. Final research paper (30% of final grade)

Everyone in the course must research and write a paper that engages analytically with some social movement. The objective is to produce a piece of analysis that potentially could be interesting and useful to activists in the movement itself. The topics of the papers must be selected in consultation with me before the end of September. The papers cannot be merely descriptive: they must be analytical. That is, they must seek to understand some aspect of the social movement through the application of analytical concepts. The concepts applied most likely will include some from this course; but students are free to apply concepts they have learned through other sources and reading.

For undergraduates, the final papers should be 14-16 page long; for graduate students, they should be 18-20 pages long. Undergraduate papers must be based on at least two books and four articles; graduate papers must be based on a minimum of three books and six articles.

1. First meeting with me on your papers: by the end of September
2. Interim research report (oral and written – see below)
3. Final draft of paper, due December 15

Note: I encourage and welcome first drafts of papers after November 19^th. I will be happy to read and critique your first draft after that date.

3. Interim research report (10% of final grade)

On Tuesday, October 24^th, everyone in the seminar is responsible for making a 7-minute presentation on your developing research project. You must tell the class what your topic is, and report on one book (chosen in consultation with me) which you will have read by that time on your topic. You must hand in to me that day a 5-page report: 1 page setting forth the research project’s theme; 1 page identifying key bibliographic references; and 3 pages reporting on the book. How does the book help to focus your project? What issue or questions does it raise that you hope to address in your project?

General format of class meetings:

10-10:20: My opening comments (20 min, max)

10:20-11:30: Discussion of common reading (70 min)

11:30-11:40: break (10 min)

11:40-12:00: Student presentation (20 min)

12:00-12:20: Discussion of presentation (20 min)

12:20-1:00: Exercises and/or film clips (40 min)

Relationship of course to the Syracuse Social Movements Initiative(SSMI)

While the course is free-standing, it may also be approached as part of the program called the Syracuse Social Movements Initiative (SSMI). SSMI is a project of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC), in the Maxwell School. SSMI has two components: an outreach component, and a curricular component. The outreach component is a series of educational events that seek to bridge the gap between the University and the non-University social activist community. You will hear more about these events as the semester proceeds. The curricular component is a set of three courses, including this one (ANT 483/683), one on social movement research methods (ANT 484/684), and one on follow-up and evaluation (ANT 485/685). Interested graduate students may earn a Certificate of Achievement in Social Movement and Conflict Studies from PARC if they successfully complete these three courses, along with one elective and the core PARC course in conflict studies. If you are interested in this set of courses, I will be happy to discuss it with you.

Tuesday, August 29

Introduction to course

Some time in our lives, most members of this class have or will become angry enough about some aspect of our society to participate, if only temporarily, in a collective challenge to the status quo. The anger that leads to protest is the anger of righteous indignation: we are confronted with something that outrages our sense of morality. This feeling is the bedrock upon which social protest builds. But of course not everyone who feels outrage becomes involved in collective protest. Thus, this week we will examine the personal "social structure" of becoming active: what kinds of background conditions and "triggering" experiences increase the likelihood that a person will transform their outrage into involvement in social protest?

James Jasper, The Art of Moral Protest, 1-16

Chris Smith, "The Social Structure of Moral Outrage", and "The Individual Activists", in Resisting Reagan, 133-208 (also look at the photographs on the eight pages immediately following page 208)

Historical contexts of collective challenges

What creates a receptive potential constituency for social activists? What social and historical conditions improve activists’ chances of appealing to and recruiting a following? What are some of the opportunities presented to them by evolving social and political circumstances?

Read:

Doug McAdam, "The Political Process Model" [In reader]

"The Historical Context of Black Insurgency" [In reader]

Christian Smith, "Grasping the Big Picture", in Resisting Reagan, 87-132

Student presentation:

Anne Costain, Inviting Women’s Rebellion: A Political Process Interpretation of the Women’s Movement (Baltimore 1992), pp. 26-78.

Articulating anger and hope

One of the key tasks of the activist is to claim publicly, and (at least to some audience) convincingly, that something about the way things are is seriously wrong. His or her job is to say out loud what some may already have started to say, but privately; what others may be feeling in silence; what others may suspect, but be unsure of; and still others may never have thought of before. He or she also often pairs the act of denunciation with an act of constructive hope: the definition of an alternative, the expression of a value that counters the current reality. Both of these tasks, in order successfully to resonate and appeal to some public, are very challenging indeed. They are the task of ARTICULATION.

In the jargon of sociology, this task has fallen under the rubric of "framing", which is how we shall be approaching the topic. How do activists use language and symbols to "frame" issues so that they resonate with some (hopefully their intended) audience or public? How do they crystallize their targeted constituency’s sense of grievance and stimulate their insurgent consciousness? What cultural resources do they have at their disposal to do the job?

As you read, I would like you also to apply the concepts used here to your own SM study case, or to one that you know. Be ready to discuss in class the question of how a SM frames its rhetoric in order to resonate with targeted constituencies, conduct outreach, appeal to a wider public, a define its identity.

Reading:

David P. Snow and Robert Benford 1988 (handout)

Rhys Williams, "Movement Frames and the Cultural Environment: Resonance, Failure, and the Boundaries of the Legitimate" [in Research in Social Movements, Conflict and Change (1999) Vol. 21: 225-248 (handout)

James Jasper, "Recruiting Animal Protestors", in The Art of Moral Protest, 152-180

Betty Dobratz, "Ideology and the Framing Process in the White Separatist/Supremacist Movement in the United States", Quarterly Journal of Ideology (1996) vol. 19 (1-2): June, 3-29. (handout)

Student presentation:

How do social movements try to use the news media to advance their framing of issues? Under what conditions does the media cooperate? Please read and report on the following two pieces:

William Gamson and Gadi Wolfsfeld, "Movements and Media as Interacting Systems," in Russell Dalton, ed., Citizens, Protest, and Democracy (Sage, 1993)

Chris Smith, "Fighting Battles of Public Discourse" in Resisting Reagan

 Tuesday, September 26

Constructing and sustaining a movement’s collective identity

Participation in collective efforts to bring about social change can be very exciting, but it can also be very tough. There are always competing things to do with your time, there are often considerable sacrifices, meetings can be deadening bores – and often you’re not even sure what the long-term outcomes will be! Moral virtue helps, but its power is limited if you feel unsure about the convictions and purposes of your co-activists. And then there is always the problem of "newcomers". Sudden media attention and short-term victories always attract new sympathizers and participants – not unlike "World Series" baseball fans. Who are they? Will they stick out the thin times, as well as the fat ones? After all, the life of protest is not always the "World Series".

These questions and anxieties lead directly to the question of defining what people involved in a movement share in common. Activist and scholars alike agree: over the longer haul, a key reason for continued, sustained involvement is that people come to have strong feelings of identification with the movement. Put in the jargon of sociology, they "stick it out" because they feel included (or wish to feel included) in the movement’s collective identity.

This week we will be looking closer at the role and importance of collective identities in the work of social protest. The key here is to realize that no ‘collective identity" ever runs perfectly smooth. Far from it. We are a society filled with diversity – of identifications, values, opinions, ideologies, identities. Given this diversity, it is a wonder that groups of activists can get themselves to unify around anything at all. Put another way, lasting "collective identity" in activist work doesn’t just occur automatically or spontaneously: it must be built, carefully, deliberately, and against considerable odds.

This week I have assigned more reading than usual – a total of about 200 pages. It is all very interesting stuff. Read as much of it as you can. The reason I have assigned so much is that the "construction of collective identity" remains frustratingly abstract unless it is connected to very concrete (and consequently lengthy) accounts.

I have included for your reading pleasure this week: three analyses of identity-construction in the lesbian feminist movement (Whittier and Taylor; Whittier, and Eder and Staggenborg), the anti-nuclear movement (Jasper), and the peace movement (Smith). I want you to wend your way through these accounts and see in concrete terms how activists go about managing difference through unity – through defining "consciousness", marking insidership, juicing people up through ritual, and negotiating with each other’s differences on matters of ideology, strategy, and tactics. Clearly there are various axes of difference that activists must grapple with it they are to forge the sense of identification and togetherness they want to preserve and build unity of purpose and solidarity.

Joint reading:

Whittier and Taylor 1992 [In reader]

Whittier, 1995: 55-115 [In reader]

Eder and Staggenborg, "The National Women’s Music festival" [In Reader]

Jasper, The Art of Moral Protest, 183-209

Smith, Resisting Reagan, 211-230

Student presentation:

Sustaining identity by transferring it to new contexts: Nancy Whittier Feminist Generations, pp. 116-154

Challenges of organizational growth

In their struggles, activists generally regard various forms of organization as a crucial tool for communicating with and mobilizing their own direct constituencies, and for reaching out and mobilizing money, expertise and other resources from "outsiders". One of the longest debates in social activism has to do with the strengths and dangers of organizational growth. There are two issues here. As a movement grows, seeks allies, and becomes more hierarchical, it can broaden its message and gain access to more resources. At first glance these are obvious plusses. Yet "broadening the message" and gaining access to more resources also run the risk of coming at a cost. How do movement organizations tap allies and mobilize resources? What compromises and sacrifices are sometimes made in the name of these processes?

Joint reading:

McCarthy and Zald 1977 [in Reader]

Oliver and Marwell 1992 [in reader]

Cress and Snow, "Mobilization at the Margins" (1996) [In reader]

Jasper, The Art of Moral Protest, pp. 269-292

Student presentation: The process of mobilization leads to increasingly structured organization, dependence on outsiders, the dilution of message, and the loss of the power to disrupt. Piven and Cloward, 1977: intro, chapter 5 on NWRO

 Tuesday, October 10

Do social movements create new modes of thinking?

Joint reading:

Jasper, "The Necessity of Protest", in The Art of Moral Protest, pp. 367-379.

Eyerman and Jameson, Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach, whole book, except Chapter 5

Student presentation:

Eyerman and Jameson, chapter 5 ("A Case Study: The American Civil Rights Movement").Show how Eyerman and Jameson apply their theory to this case. How successful is the analysis?

How is the personal linked to larger social change?

Joint reading:

Jurgen Habermas, "New Social Movements" [In reader]

Verta Taylor, Rock-a-by Baby, whole book.

Student presentation:

Schneirov, "A Diagnosis for Our Times"

Research reports and discussion of last week’s topic

This week you are responsible for reading one book on your chosen research topic for the course. You must write a 5-page report on the book, and make a 10-minute presentation on the book in class. This session will serve two functions: it will dramatize for all class participants the range of possibility of social movements and social activism; and it will help us in deciding what the final topic for the semester will be. The session will be organized as follows:

10:00-11:00: 5 presentations

11:00-11:10: break

11:10-12:20: 7 presentations

12:20-1:00: discuss and agree on topic for last class

Some possibilities: (I’ll be glad to distribute readings)

1. The tension between reform and structural change
2. Counter-movements
3. Police tactics and repression
4. More on Gramsci’s theory of counter-hegemony
5. Raymond Williams’ theory of the archaic, residual, dominant, and emergent
6. Conservative or reactionary movements
7. Activism within powerful institutions (such as the military or the World Bank)
8. Transnational linkages between labor movements
9. Individual and biographical outcomes of activism: "activist careers"
10. Utopian and prefigurative communities
11. Local and self-empowerment vs. structural change
12. The use of ritual in building activist solidarity

 III. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES ACTIVISM MAKE?

How they can broaden demands, build alliances, socialize activist cohorts

Joint reading:

Sidney Tarrow, "Cycles of Collective Action" in Traugott, ed. [handout]

Staggenborg 1998 [reader]

Snow and Benford 1992 [In reader]

Carroll and Ratner 1996 [In reader]

Student presentation:

Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer, selections

The activist perspective: How does activism affect public policy?

Joint reading:

Randy Shaw, The Activist Handbook, whole book

Chris Smith, "What did the Movement Achieve?" in Resisting Reagan, 365-377.

Student presentation:

Diane Bush, "Women’s Movements and State Policy Reform"

The "longue duree": activism and changes in culture

Thomas Rochon, Culture Moves, 22-91; 165-199; 239-251

Student presentation:

David Meyer and Sidney Tarrow, "A Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century"; and Mary Katzenstein, "Stepsisters". Address the question: Are there pressures in the United States for the "institutionalization" of protest?

Cyber-activism

Joint reading:

Harry Cleaver, "Computer-Linked Social Movements and the Global Threat to Capitalism" [In reader]

Craig Calhoun, "Community without Propinquity Revisited" [In reader]

Randy Stoecker, "Cyberspace vs. Face-to-Face" [In reader]

Dirk Slater, "Low-Income Grassroots Organizations Work to Close the Digital Divide". Be sure to follow up and read ALL the links on the article. Your job is to report on this remarkable experiment in linking grassroots organizing to the Internet, and to proffer your assessment of it in light of the issues, questions, and criticisms raised in the discussion of the first three articles.

 November 28

Transnational activism

Jackie Smith, et al, "Social Movements and World Politics" [In Reader]

Jackie Smith, "Global Politics and Transnational Social Movement Strategies" [In Reader]

Robert O’Brien, et al, "The World Bank, the WTO, and the environmental social movement" [In reader]

Student presentation:

Jonathan Fox, "Assessing Bi-national Civil Society Coalitions"

Please search the Web to get as much as you can on the conflict between Earth Island Institute and Greenpeace in relation to the tuna/dolphin controversy off the Mexican Coast, 1990-2000.

Topic and reading to be determined in class session of October 24