SOAN 225 Social Movements

Social Movements SOAN 225 / Winter 2015 M/W 1:50-3:00, F 2:20-3:20 Leighton 303

Professor: Daniel Williams Email: [email protected] Office: Leighton 234 Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:30-4:30 pm, Fridays 10-11 am, and by appointment.

“When John F. Kennedy sent the American Air Force to start bombing South Vietnam in 1962, he didn't have to keep it secret. It was on the front page of the New York Times and nobody cared. When Johnson sent twenty thousand Marines to the Dominican Republican to prevent a democratic revival there, it wasn't secret. When we subverted the only free election in Laos in 1959, it wasn't secret. Nobody ever cared about these things. The population was really marginalized. That changed as a result of the popular movements of the sixties, which had a dramatic and lasting effect on the country.”

- Noam Chomsky

The notion of social movements conjures up powerful images of protest and resistance carried out in the name of justice, democracy, and equality by ordinary people. Put in formal terms, social movements are defined as popular, collective action that take place outside of ordinary institutions. To many, social movements are evidence of hope that change happens and that people do not simply accept the world as it is. But there is a great deal going on within any social movement that is both not obvious from the movements themselves and yet important to understanding movements.

In this course, we will address a range of aspects of contemporary social movements, looking at several specific movements as “cases”—including the Civil Rights Movement, the LGBT movement, Immigrant rights movements, the Arab Spring, and Occupy. In approaching these questions and issues, we will adopt a decidedly comparative perspective—across types of movements, nationally/globally, and in part, historically. In doing so, we will consider numerous questions:

How do movements emerge? What do movements do? Who participates in social movements and how does it matter? How do media -- both mass and social -- influence and affect movements? Why do movements fail or succeed and how do we measure success? What role does violence play in movements’ outcomes? How might the culture, society, and era in which movements take place help or hinder movements?

We will first consider theories and scholarship on social movements, which will give us both a vocabulary and basis for discussing and comparing movements. 2

From there, the course is divided into three sections based on the type of movements. “Citizenship Movements” will examine movements that have been focused on inclusion and equality. We will examine the Civil Rights Movement, the LGBT movement(s), and the Immigrant Rights movement as examples. Next, we will examine “Democracy and Anti-Corporate Movements,” or movements which are directed at the lack of power, or power distributions in societies. Here we will focus on the Arab Spring (and other movements for democracy in the Middle East, time permitting), and the Occupy movement. Finally, we will briefly consider “Global Movements,” specifically the global women’s movement and global Islamic movements.

Course Texts

The Social Movements Reader. 3rd (2015) or 2nd (2009) Edition. Edited by Jeff Goodwin and James Jasper. Wiley-Blackwell.

Other readings posted on Moodle.

Course Logistics

Accommodation for Disabilities

Students who require an accommodation due to the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss their specific needs. The office of Disability Services for Students will also help coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Please visit this URL to learn more: https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/wellness/disability_services/

Academic Honesty

As stated in Carleton’s academic procedures and regulations: “It is assumed that a student is the author of all course work (quizzes, problem sets, online contributions, tests, papers, lab work, etc.) that he/she submits, whether for a grade or not, and that the work has not been submitted for credit in another class without the instructor’s permission. Images, ideas, data, audio clips, or phrases borrowed from others should be fully identified by standard procedures for making such acknowledgment. All permitted collaboration with others must still be acknowledged. Academic Honesty in the Writing of Essays and Other Papers is one source for information on proper citation.”

Any act of academic dishonesty will be referred for appropriate action to the Academic Standing Committee (ASC) via the Associate Dean of Students or the Associate Dean of the College. Further details can be found here: http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/dos/asc/academic_regs/?policy_id=21359. SOAN 225 Social Movements 3 Winter 2015

Course Assignments

Class Participation. (5%) Your active participation and attendance is critical to learning and the course going well. Of course, doing the readings and being prepared to discuss them in class is a crucial part of this.

Comparing Social Movements Memos. (15%) 3 @ 5% each. Length: 3-5 pages, double-spaced. Due dates: January 19, February 2, February 23

You will write three short memos on of social movements throughout the course. The purpose of the assignment is for you to look at a particular aspect of a social movement we study in class. . Each of these memos should have a different focus: o One memo should be on a comparative (global or historical) example of a similar movement (e.g. LGBT movement in Mexico, racial equality movement in Japan, women’s movement in the 19th Century, democracy movement in Thailand). o A second memo can be on any “aspect” of any movement. The ten sections/aspects of the Social Movements reader is a good place to start. o Your third memo should also be on the relations and borrowings of movements; specifically, consider how movements borrow frames, tactics, etc from each other, or how two or more movements speak to each other. . Your sources can be taken from news media, journalistic accounts, or academic articles. . In your memo, you should do the following: o Give a summary/brief narrative of your example; what aspect of social movements does it address; what is it about? o Discuss how the example adds and/or compares to two or more other readings from the course. Does it support the other readings’ findings, or challenge or change them in any way? . You will present one of your papers in class.

Moodle Posts. (10%) 3 @ 3.3 each Length: 1-1.5 pages single-spaced; Not longer! Due Dates: Any readings starting Week 2 or later. Posted to Moodle by 8 pm the evening before class. One must be posted before the midterm. You will write three short Moodle response papers to a single reading. In your paper, you should do the following:  Briefly summarize the reading.  Discuss a point or finding from the reading that you found particular interesting or important. 4

 Pose one discussion question for the class based on the topic, findings, or argument that the article presents.  Keep your paper under 1.5 pages! It’s not easy, but succinct and concise writing is a good skill to learn.

Midterm Exam. (35%). The midterm will be a take home exam that will be largely or entirely essay-based. It will be due Tuesday, Feb. 10th.

Final Paper (35%). Each of you will write a paper on a movement or aspect of a movement, in consultation with me. I will meet with each of you individually prior to your submitting the final paper, to give you feedback, suggestions and critique. Papers will be due on the last day of class. Papers are expected to be 12-15 pages in length and use sources outside of course readings. Other expectations and details will be provided by the third week of the course.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS and TOPICS*

* Course reading schedule is tentative (GJ) Readings in the Social Movements Reader

Week 1 Studying Social Movements: Concepts and Approaches

Jan 5 Introduction to Course

Jan 7 Social Movement Concepts

. GJ, Introduction . Tarrow, Power in Movement, Introduction, pp. 8-12, 21-33 . GJ 36: Meyer, “How Movements Matter” . GJ 35: Gamson, “Defining Movement Success” . Gitlin, “Where are the Occupy Protesters now?” http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jun/17/where-occupy-protesters- now-social-media

. Is #blacklivesmatter a Social Movement?

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/12/ferguson-new-civil-rights- movement-113906.html#.VKnNzkh94Vw

Jan 9 Movement Emergence . GJ 2: “The Civil Rights Movement” . GJ 5: “The Egyptian Revolution” . Rimmerman, “The Lesbian and Gay Movements,” pp. 13-29 . GJ 2: “The Women’s Movement,” SOAN 225 Social Movements 5 Winter 2015

Week 2 Concepts and Aspects of Social Movements

Jan 12 Contentious Action . Tarrow, “Acting Contentiously,” pp. 95-118

Jan 14 Frames, Names, and Claims: Making Meaning in Social Movements . Best, “Activists as Claimsmakers,” pp. 64-96 . GJ 16: Ryan and Gamson, “Are Frames Enough?” pp. 136-142 . Gamson, “The Dilemmas of Identity Politics,” pp. 354-362

Jan 16 Organizations and Networks . GJ, Part V, “How are movements organized?” . GJ 19: “Social Movement Organizations” . Gladwell, “The Revolution will not be Tweeted” http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-3 . Abdalla, “The Revolution will be Tweeted” http://www.aucegypt.edu/gapp/cairoreview/pages/articledetails.aspx?aid=89 . Whites in the Ferguson Protests: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/White-voices-dominate-Bay-Area- protests-of-racial-5953977.php

Optional: . Kuumba, “Social Movements through a Gender Lens,” Gender and social movements, pp. 13-22

II. Citizenship Movements: Race, Immigration, and Sexuality

Week 3 The Civil Rights Movement

Jan 19 . McAdam, “The Generation of Black Insurgency, 1955-1961,” pp. 117-145 . Kuumba, “Civil Rights and Black Power,” in Gender and Social Movements, pp. 32-39

Film: Awakenings

Tuesday, Jan. 20, 5 – 7 pm - Special campus event on Ferguson.

Jan 21 6

. GJ 20: Morris, “Tactical Innovation in the Civil Rights Movement” . McAdam, “The Heyday of Black Insurgency, 1961-1965”

Jan 23 The Selma March and Freedom Summer . GJ 7: “Recruits to Civil Rights Activism”

Week 4 The LGBT Movement

Jan 26 . Race movements in Brazil, “Breaching Brazil’s Pact of Silence,” . GJ 21: Seidman, “Armed Struggle in the Anti-Apartheid Movement,”

Jan 28 . Rimmerman, “Aids Activism and ACTUP Fight back”

Film: Stonewall Uprising

Jan 30 . Rimmerman, “Jilted at the Altar: Same Sex Marriage,” . GJ 25: Taylor, “Tactical Repertoires: Same Sex Weddings”

Week 5 The Immigrant Rights Movement

Feb 2 . Trans* folk and the LGBT movement . LGBT movements abroad

Feb 4 . Rallying for Immigrant Rights Ch. 1, “The Protests of 2006,” . “Spanish-language Media and Mobilization,” Ch. 2, Rallying for Immigrant Rights

Feb 6 . Ch. 4, “The Immigrant-Labor-Clergy Alliance”

III. Democracy and Anti-Corporate Movements

Week 6 The Arab Spring and Fighting for Democracy

Feb 9 MIDTERM BREAK

. Please watch documentary, “How Facebook changed the World: the Story of the Arab Spring,” SOAN 225 Social Movements 7 Winter 2015

http://vimeo.com/45410957

Feb 11 . Castells, “The Egyptian Revolution,” 53-93

Feb 13 . “The Arab Uprisings,” 93-110

Week 7 Arab Spring; Gezi Park; Occupy

Feb 16 . Arab Spring (cont.)

Feb 18 . Gezi Park

Feb 20 . Gitlin, Occupy

Week 8 Occupy

. Gitlin, Occupy . Chomsky, Occupy . Castells, Occupy

Week 9 Global Movements: Islam, Women’s Movement

. Moghadam, Globalization and Social Movements

Week 10 Conclusion, Reflection, Presentations

. Readings TBA