From "I have a dream" to #metoo: Social movements & American society after II WW in a comparative perspective 4219-SH089
This course focuses on the history of social movements in United States after II WW. Students will get a chance to get acquainted with key concepts and theoretical traditions in social movement research, based on the cases such as the Civil Rights Movement, womens’ movement, Occupy, Black Lives Matter and onine mobilizations, including #metoo campaign. We will look closely at different concepts and approaches to social mobilizations, such as political opportunity structures, framing, collective identity, emotion work, the logic of connective action and media cultures. Emphasis will be placed on the constructionist school, which analyzes the role of culture for the movements’ emergence and developments, and looks at how these movements change culture and society. Readings include works of Deborah B. Gould, Myra Marx Ferree, Aldon Morris, Doug McAdam, Nancy Whittier, Alicia Garza and Noam Chomsky, who brought into focus issues such as the cultural origins of grievances, processes cementing the sense of solidarity, and the role of narratives and emotions for social change. We will be using not only academic texts but also features films, documentaries and popular media.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
Upon completing this course a student:
KNOWLEDGE:
- knows and understands the history of social movements in US after II WW (including civil rights movement, women’s movement, gay and lesbian/LGBTQ movement, Occupy, Black Lives Matter and online campaigns such as #metoo,
- knows and understands key concepts in social movement theory (e.g. resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, framing, collective identity, the logic of collective action, emotion work);
- has an understanding of the cultural and historical context, in which social movement theory emerged.
SKILLS
- is able to critically examine public debates on hot issues, taking into account the specificity of the US social and political context;
- can locate most important areas of disagreement between political positions in some of the key public debates;
- is able to formulate and present the history of movement-driven social change in the American society after II WW in a comparative perspective.
COMPETENCES:
- is open to conflicting opinions concerning the effects that social movements had on contemporary American society and politics;
- is able to cooperate in a group and engage in the debate;
- is able to formulate and defend his/her opinion with respect of other views
Assessment criteria
1. Class attendance, participation - 30%
2. 1 presentation in front of a group and a short paper assigment (ca 1000 words) or a short esey 2000 words - 30%
3. final test (20 minutes) - 40%
Bibliography
Martin Luther King, Jr.: “A Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” “I Have a Dream”
Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing: eLearning Support Initiative. http://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/21-3-social-movements/
William Little, Chapter 21. Social Movements and Social Change, in Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition. OpenStax College: Rise University. https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/
Morris, Aldon. 1999. A Retrospective on the Civil Rights Movement: Political and Intellectual Landmarks. Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 25, 517-539.
Morris, Aldon, 2010. Black Southern Student Sit-in Movement: An Analysis of Internal Organization. In: Readings on Social Movements. Origins, dynamics, and outcomes, Doug McAdam & David A. Snow, eds. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 209-230.
McAdam, Doug. 2003. Revisiting the U.S Civil Rights Movement: Toward a More Synthetic Understanding of the Origins of Contention. In: Goodwin, Jeff & James M. Jasper, Rethinking Social Movements. Structure, Meaning and Emotions. Rowman&Littlefield.
Marx Ferree, Myra. 2010. Resonance and radicalism: feminist framing in the abortion debates of the United States and Germany, Readings on Social Movements. Origins, dynamics, and outcomes, Doug McAdam & David A. Snow, eds. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 346-370.
Saurette, P., & Gordon, K. 2013. Arguing Abortion: The New Anti-Abortion Discourse in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 46(1), 157-185.
Deborah B. Gould. 2009. Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight against AIDS. University of Chicago Press (chapter 1&2).
Whittier, Nancy. 2001. Emotional Strategies: The Collective Reconstruction and Display of Oppositional Emotions in the Movement against Child Abuse, in: Passionate Politics. Emotions and Social Movements, Goodwin J., Jasper J.M. and F. Poletta eds, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London, 233-250.
Garza, Alicia. 2016. A herstory of #BlackLivesMatter Movement, in: Are All the Women Still White?: Rethinking Race, Expanding Feminisms, Janell Hobson ed. State University of New York Press: New York, 23-28.
Ransby, Barbara. "The Class Politics of Black Lives Matter." Dissent, vol. 62 no. 4, 2015, pp. 31-34.
Rickford, Russel. 2016. Black Lives Matter: Toward a Modern Practice of Mass Struggle, New Labor Forum Vol. 25(1) 34–42.
Bennett, Lance and Segerberg, Alexandra. 2012. „The Logic of Connective Action”, Information, Communication & Society, 15(5) 739-768.
Bennett, Lance and Segerberg, Alexandra. 2013 The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (chapter 6).
Costanza-Chock, Sasha. 2012. Mic Check! Media Cultures and the Occupy Movement, Social Movement Studies, 11:3-4, 375-385
Film: 99% - The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, 2013 or Noam Chomsky public lecture The Occupy
Baer, Hester. 2016. Redoing feminism: digital activism, body politics, and neoliberalism, Feminist Media Studies, 16(1) 17-34.
Dubravka Zarkov and Kathy Davis. 2018. Ambiguities and dilemmas around #MeToo: #ForHow Long and #WhereTo?, European Journal of Women's Studies, 25(1) 3 – 9.
Mendes, Kaitlynn ; Ringrose, Jessica ; Keller, Jessalynn. 2018. #MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism, European Journal of Women's Studies, 25(2) 236-246.
Additional information
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