SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: THE HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY OF AMERICAN PROTESTS SOC 352 (Unique # 45625) AMS 321 (Unique # 30814) Spring 2012 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: 11:00-11:50 PM BUR 212 Instructor: Michael Young Email: myoung@austin.utexas.edu Office hours: Mon. & Wed. 12-1:30PM @ Burdine Hall 462 Teaching Assistant: Aun Ali Office Hours: Fri. 9:00-10:50am (and by appointment) Email: aunaliut@yahoo.com DESCRIPTION. Protests and social movements are vital to public life. They are important sources of social change. They may even be prophetic. This course explores why people rebel, demonstrate, riot, occupy public spaces, bomb buildings, sign petitions, organize trade unions, demand equal rights, block abortion clinics, burn draft notices. In this course, we will ask what are protests and social movements? Why do people start them and join them? What are protesters motivated by? Are they after personal or group rewards? Do protesters act rationally or emotionally? We will also ask what triggers protests and movements? What structures or shapes them? Do they follow regular patterns of development? What is the relationship between different movements? What affect do protests and movements have on society? Do they provide valuable insights into society? Do they advance social justice? Do they contribute to our social wellbeing? Or do they lead to disorder and exact costs that outweigh benefits? Might they foreshadow the future? We will explore these many questions and look for answers in an historical sociology of collective efforts to change America. This course will track American protests and social movements from the 18 th century to the present. In short, this course surveys the history of American protest and theories trying to explain their emergence, development, and impact. REQUIREMENTS. There will be two examinations of equal weight (each 45% of grade) and a field report (10%) on an event of activism or protest. The two exams will cover material from lectures, readings, and a series of documentaries that will be viewed throughout the semester. Although there is some overlap among these three components of the course, a thorough familiarity with each will be crucial to the doing well on the two examinations.
COURSE MATERIAL All the readings can be found through Blackboard. See the uploaded files for each week s reading. Make sure you check the readings listed the week they are assigned. These folders on Blackboard will change as we go. I will be adding and subtracting readings as we go. The readings on Bb are not final until the Sunday before the week they are assigned. These readings include, among others, the following articles and selections from the following books: Verta Taylor, Mobilizing for Change in a Social Movement Society. Mark Traugott, Reconceiving Social Movements. John D. McCarthy and Mayer Zald, Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory. Herbert Blumer. Collective Behavior. Peter K. Eisinger, Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities. David Snow et al. Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation. Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward. Normalizing Collective Protest. Michael Young, Bearing Witness Against Sin (Selections) Lawrence Goodwyn, Populist Moment (Selections) Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest (Selections) Piven and Cloward, Poor People s Movement (Selections) Aldon Morris, The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (Selections) Will Potter, Green is the New Red (Selections) Ziad Munson, The Making of Pro-Life Activists (Selections) Sara Diamond, Not by Politics Alone (Selections) Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement (Selections) Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency (Selections) Week 1: Introduction to Social Movements and Social Movement Theory Required Readings: See Week 1 on Bb Wednesday, January 18: Introduction to Course Friday, January 20: Classical Social Movement Theory Week 2. Contemporary Social Movement Theory Required Readings: See Week 2 on Bb Monday, January 23: Collective Behaviorism and Its Critics Wednesday, January 25: Contemporary Social Movement Theory
Friday, January 27: Film, Liberty! The American Revolution, Episode 1 Week 3. Overview of the American Revolution and Early American Protest Required Readings: See Week 3 on Bb Monday, January 30: American Revolution and Political Opportunity Structures Wednesday, February 1: Early 19th Century Protest and the Invention of the Modern Social Movement Friday, February 3: Film, Liberty! The American Revolution, Episode 2 Week 4. Mid- to Late 19 th Century Protest: Race and Class in America Required Readings: See Week on 4 Bb Monday, February 6: Civic Wars, Civil War, and Reconstruction Wednesday, February 8: Knights of Labor Friday, February 10: Film, Reconstruction Week 5. Populism and Its Collapse Required Readings: See Week on 5 Bb Monday, February 13: The Origins of Populism: Farm Alliance in Texas Wednesday, February 15: Race, Region, and Class in the Demise of Populism Friday, February 17: Film, Huey Long Week 6. Depression Era: Money Radicals Required Readings: See Week 6 on Bb Monday, February 20: Townsend Movement Wednesday, February 22: Huey Long s Share our Wealth and Father Coughlin Friday, February 24: Film, Eyes on The Prize, Episode 1 Week 7. Depression Era: Working Class and Poor People s Movements
Required Readings: See Week 7 on Bb Monday, February 27: The Role of Political Signals in Labor Protests Wednesday, February 29: The Role of Union Organizations in Labor Protests Friday, March 2: Film, Eyes on The Prize, Episode 3 Week 8. Review and Exam Required Readings: See Week 8 on Bb Monday, March 5: Are labor movements finished? Old versus New Social Movements Wednesday, March 7: Exam Review Friday, March 9: First Exam SPRING BREAK Week 9. Sixties I Required Readings: See Week 9 on Bb Monday, March 19: Origins of the Civil Rights Movement Wednesday, March 21: Organization versus Spontaneity in the Early Civil Rights Movement Friday, March 23: Film, Berkeley in the Sixties or Rebels with a Cause Week 10. Sixties II Required Readings: See Week 10 on Bb Monday, March 26: From Civil Rights to New Left Wednesday, March 28: The Sixties and Theories of Cycles or Waves of Movements Friday, March 30: Film, Chicano! Episode 1 Week 11. 1968 to the Seventies Required Readings: See Week 11 on Bb Monday, April 2: The women's movement: liberals versus radicals
Wednesday, April 4: Identity Movements: Women s liberation, Black Power, Chicano Movement, and Stonewall Friday, April 6: Film, Chicano! Episode 3 Week 12. The Eighties: Evangelicals mobilize, again Required Readings: See Week 12 on Bb Monday, April 9: Countermovement to the Sixties Wednesday, April 11: The Religious Right and Pro-life Friday, April 13: Film, Chicano! Episode 4 Week 13. Animal Rights, Earth First, and the Alter-Globalization Movement Required Readings: See Week 13 on Bb Monday, April 16: American Anarchism, Seattle, WTO and 9/11 Wednesday, April 18: Monkey wrenching or Domestic Terrorism? Capital fights back Friday, April 20: Film, God on Their Side Week 14. Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Required Readings: See Week 14 on Bb Monday, April 23: Tea Party, grassroots or ginned up, populism and the right. Wednesday, April 25: Occupy Wall Street, Anarchism and the Left. Friday, April 27: What might the future hold? Week 15: Review and Exam Required Readings: Re-read Week 1 and 2 on Bb. Monday, April 30: Social Movement Paper Due Wednesday, May 2: Exam Review Friday, May 5: Second Exam