GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Proposed Syllabus

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1 GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE Proposed Syllabus Course Description This course examines the global dimensions of campaigns for social justice, exploring their formation, activities, and strategies for change, weighing the opportunities and constraints in mobilizing against inequality in the global and national arenas. The course is organized chronologically and thematically. The first half covers movements active through the 1980s and early 1990s, including campaigns for the end of slavery, women s suffrage, civil rights, peace, and democracy. The second half considers examples from the 1990s through to the present day, like those on violence, health, labor rights, and citizen participation. In promoting a dialogue between theories and empirical evidence, the course seeks to inspire critical reflection over the means and ends of achieving greater justice at home and abroad. Course Requirements This course seeks to introduce students to basic concepts and debates on globalization and social justice via several interrelated course assignments: Class participation, which includes not only coming to class and participating in the discussions, but also co-leading one session with the professor Research paper, which involves in-depth research on one movement in particular Submission and comments on news items, which entails posting links and discussing news items touching on course-related themes at least once a week on a group Facebook page COURSE SCHEDULE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES Week 1: Social Movements and Transnational Activism This week introduces a variety of theoretical frameworks in the study of social movements, including recent modifications and extensions inspired by the dynamics of transnational contention, as activists come together across national borders to lobby governments and international organizations for change. McAdam, Doug et al Introduction. In Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, ed. Doug McAdam et al. New York: Cambridge University Press, Tarrow, Sidney The New Transnational Activism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 15-34, 59-76, , Week 2: Global Diffusion and International Norms This week presents a variety of models for understanding the global diffusion of new political values and policy innovations, exploring the role of domestic and transnational social movements and international organizations vis-à-vis state actors. 1

2 Finnemore, Martha and Kathryn Sikkink International Norm Dynamics and Political Change. International Organization 52 (4): Risse, Thomas and Kathryn Sikkink The Socialization of International Human Rights Norms into Domestic Practices: Introduction. In The Power of Human Rights, ed. Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink. New York: Cambridge University Press, Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn Sikkink Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics: Introduction. In Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Week 3: Norms and Hierarchy in International Society This week addresses critiques to traditional models of norm diffusion, emphasizing inequalities in the global system shaping which states are most vulnerable to international pressures and ways in which domestic activists take steps to influence how global norms are translated locally. Towns, Ann E Women and States: Norms and Hierarchy in International Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, selections. Russo, Ann The Feminist Majority Foundation s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid: The Intersections of Feminism and Imperialism in the United States. International Feminist Journal of Politics 8 (4): Hertel, Shareen Unexpected Power: Conflict and Change Among Transnational Activists. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, selections. Week 4: Abolitionist and Women s Suffrage Campaigns This week explores two early examples of transnational mobilization for social and political justice, the anti-slavery and women s suffrage campaigns of the eighteenth century. David, Huw T Transnational Advocacy in the Eighteenth Century: Transatlantic Activism and the Anti-Slavery Movement. Global Networks 7 (3): Rupp, Leila J Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women s Movement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Week 5: Civil Rights Campaigns This week offers a new perspective on the U.S. civil rights movement, connecting it to the international politics of the Cold War, and examines efforts to connect the concept of civil rights to the disabled. Dudziak, Mary L Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Shapiro, Joseph P No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement. New York: Three Rivers Press, selections. 2

3 Week 6: Student Movements This week provides a survey of student activism globally, drawing on both historical and contemporary examples, to map links between student movements and broader social, economic, and political change. McAdam, Doug Freedom Summer. New York: Oxford University Press, selections. Boren, Mark Edelman Student Resistance: A History of the Unruly Subject. New York: Routledge, selections. Week 7: Anti-Nuclear and Peace Movements This week presents an overview of several inter-linked campaigns of the international peace movement, analyzing differences in how anti-nuclear mobilization developed across various countries. Kleidman, Robert Organizing for Peace: Neutrality, the Test Ban, and the Freeze. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, selections. Koopmans, Ruud and Jan Willem Duyvendak The Political Construction of the Nuclear Energy Issue and its Impact on the Mobilization of Anti-Nuclear Movements in Western Europe. Social Problems 42 (2): Week 8: The Protests in Tiananmen Square This week examines the events leading up to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in China in 1989, focusing on various firsthand accounts as well as the role of the international media. Calhoun, Craig Tiananmen, Television and the Public Sphere: Internationalization of Culture and the Beijing Spring of Public Culture 2 (1): Zhao, Dingxin The Power of Tiananmen: State-Society Relations and the 1989 Beijing Student Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, selections. Week 9: The Fall of Communism in Eastern and Central Europe This week maps the events associated with the fall of Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the diffusion of popular uprisings across the region and the various methods of protest used. Kuran, Timur Now or Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of World Politics 44 (1): Vesilind, Priit The Singing Revolution. Tallinn: Varrak Publishers, selections. Week 10: Global Norms and the Spread of Human Rights This week explores the global diffusion of human rights, focusing in particular on the calculations made by authoritarian regimes when signing international human rights declarations. 3

4 Risse, Thomas, Stephen C. Ropp, and Kathryn Sikkink, eds The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. New York: Cambridge University Press, selections. Thakur, Ramesh Human Rights: Amnesty International and the United Nations. Journal of Peace Research 31 (2): Vreeland, James Raymond Political Institutions and Human Rights: Why Dictatorships Enter into the United Nations Convention Against Torture. International Organization 62 (1): Week 11: Women s Human Rights and Violence Against Women This week examines how discourses of human rights were linked to efforts to combat violence against women via an international campaign arguing that women s rights are human rights. Peters, Julie and Andrea Wolper Women s Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 11-35, , Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn Sikkink Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Montoya, Celeste The European Union, Capacity Building, and Transnational Networks: Combating Violence Against Women Through the Daphne Program. International Organization 62 (2): Week 12: Health and Human Rights This week addresses intersections between health and human rights, linking political and economic justice to the suffering and illness of the powerless and exploring options for a better future. Mann, Jonathan M., Lawrence Gostin, Sofia Gruskin, Troyen Brennan, Zita Lazzarini and Harvey V. Fineberg Health and Human Rights. Health and Human Rights 1 (1): Farmer, Paul Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. 2 nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, selections. Week 13: Anti-Sweatshop Activism and Corporate Codes of Conduct This week reviews campaigns for social justice in the garment industry, covering the roles played by among others students, consumers, and multinational corporations. Micheletti, Michele and Dietlind Stoll Mobilizing Consumers to Take Responsibility for Global Social Justice. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 611 (1): Harrison, Ann and Jason Scorse Multinationals and Anti-Sweatshop Activism. American Economic Review 100 (1): Spar, Debora L The Spotlight and the Bottom Line: How Multinationals Export Human Rights. Foreign Affairs 77 (2):

5 Week 14: Social Networking and the Arab Spring This week addresses the role of new media like Facebook and Twitter in shaping popular protest today, focusing on the democratic uprisings across the Middle East in the Arab Spring of Rasler, Karen Concession, Repression, and Political Protest in the Iranian Revolution. American Sociological Review 61 (1): Howard, Philip N The Arab Spring and Its Cascading Effects. Miller-McCune.com, Arab Spring - The Ultimate Social Media Guide Before It s News, Randeree, Bilal Inside the Arab Spring. Al Jazeera, Bradshaw, Tim Facebook s Arab Spring Role Overplayed, Says Zuckerberg. Financial Times, Week 15: Conclusions and Student Presentations This week will focus on reviewing the materials covered during the semester via short presentations by each student on their respective research projects. Students will prepare an overview of their theoretical ideas and their main empirical findings, for comments from the class prior to handing in the final version. 5