Collective Action and Social Movements
G53.2533
ObjectivesIn this course participants will assess the achievements and problems of the principal approaches to the explanation of collective action and the emergence of social movements. Discussion will also explore the relationship between theory and research methods in the literature’s various approaches, including rational choice, collective identity, and structuralist approaches. Drawing on literature in political science, anthropology, economics, experimental psychology, and sociology, the course reading includes theoretical works as well as case-studies exploring the merits of these approaches in explaining collective action.
Class sessions will combine lectures by the instructor with seminar discussion of the assigned reading.
Office Hours: 715 Broadway, Rm 415, 998-8534. Monday 2:00 - 3:00, Tuesday 6:00- 7:00 (sign up for an appointment on office door).
Requirements
Reviews of the reading (25%): Each participant is expected to write a 2-3 page analysis of the reading for 5 of the 14 weeks. Reviews should briefly summarize the argument of the chosen article or book or set of readings but focus principally on analysis and critique of the works discussed, as well as pose questions for further discussion. Reviews are due by Monday at 6:00 pm (both email and hardcopy unless alternative arrangements are made).
Paper (75%): Participants will write a paper (20-30 pages), either an analytical essay or a research paper, on a relevant topic of their choosing but the topic must be approved by the instructor by Week V. Participants are encouraged to submit a draft of the paper in time to allow comment and revision. If appropriate, participants can choose to write a dissertation proposal to meet the paper requirement; the student will be required to consult with his advisor as well as with the instructor and the above deadlines still apply.
Course Materials
Books available for purchase at the Book Center:
Required:
Doug McAdam, 1982. Political process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago 1982.
Dennis Chong, 1991. Collective Action and the Civil-Rights Movement. Chicago.
Jeffrey Paige, 1975. Agrarian Revolutions: Social Movements and Export Agriculture in the Underdeveloped World
Roger Gould. Insurgent Identities: Class, Community and Protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune. Chicago, 1995.
Alison Brysk. 2000. From Tribal Village to Global Village. Stanford.
A course reader comprised of the remaining assigned texts will also be available.
I. January 16. Introduction to course
Film: At the River I Stand. David Appleby, Allison Graham, Steven John Ross. 1993.
II. January 23. The dominant paradigm in sociology: the political process model:
Doug McAdam, 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. Chicago 1982.
Recommended:
Charles Tilly, 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Addison Wesley.
Charles Payne. I've Got the Light of Freedom. California 1995.
Stewart Burns, ed. Daybreak of Freedom: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. University of North Carolina, 1997.
Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, 1996. "To Map Contentious Politics," Mobilization 1(1): 17-34.
Doug McAdam, 1986. "Recruitment to High Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer," American Journal of Sociology 92(July): 64-90.
Aldon D. Morris, 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for a Change. Free Press.
Lewis Killian, "Organization, Rationality and Spontaneity in the Civil Rights Movement," American Journal of Sociology, 49: 770-783 (1984).
III. January 30. The rational choice approach
Dennis Chong, 1991. Collective Action and the Civil-Rights Movement. Chicago.
Recommended
Michael Hecter, 1987. Principles of Group Solidarity University of California Press.
Russell Hardin, 1995. One For All: The Logic of Group Conflict.
Russell Hardin, 1982. Collective Action. Johns Hopkins.
Michael Taylor. 1987. The Possibility of Cooperation. Cambridge.
Michael Taylor, 1988. "Rationality and revolutionary collective action," in Michael Taylor, ed., Rationality and Revolution, pps. 63-97.
James S. Coleman (1994). "A Rational Choice Perspective on Economic Sociology," in Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg, eds., Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton 1994
Michael Hecter, 1992. "The Insufficiency of Game Theory for the Resolution of Real-World Collective Action Problems" Rationality and Society 4(1): 33-40.
Barry Barnes, 1995. Chapters 5 - 7, The Elements of Social Theory, pp. 129-192. Princeton.
Lichbach, Mark Irving. 1998. The Rebel’s Dilemma. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Jon Elster, 1989. "When Rationality Fails," from Solomonic Judgements: Studies in the Limits of Rationality. Cambridge
Mark Irving Lichbach, 1994. "Rethinking Rationality and Rebellion: Theories of Collective Action and Problems of Collective Dissent," Rationality and Society 6(1): 8-39. See also Lichbach 1995, The Rebel’s Dilemma. Michigan.
Albert Breton, et. al., 1995. Nationalism and Rationality. Cambridge.
Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science. Yale
Jane J. Mansbridge, ed., 1990. Beyond Self-Interest Chicago
IV. February 6. Experimental evidence on rational action
Elinor Ostrom. "A Behavioral Approach to the Rational-Choice Theory of Collective Action" American Political Science Review 92, 1: 1-22, 1998.
Fehr, Ernst and Simon Gächter. 1998. "Reciprocity and Economics: The Economic Implications of ‘Homo Reciprocans’," European Economic Review 4:845-859.
Fehr, Ernst and Simon Gachter. 2000. "Cooperation and Punishment: The Economics of Reciprocity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, forthcoming.
Recommended:
Toshio Yamagishi, and Karen S. Cook. 1993. "Generalized Exchange and Social Dilemmas," Social Psychological Quarterly 56(4): 235-48.
Haig R. Nalbantian and Andrew Schotter, 1997. "Productivity Under Group Incentives: An Experimental Study," American Economic Review 87(3):314-341.
John O. Ledyard, 1995. "Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research," Al Roth and John Kagel, eds., Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton.
Daniel Kahneman, 1994. "New Challenges to the Rationality Assumption," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 150 (1).
Linnda Caporeal, et. al, 1989. "Selfishness Examined: Cooperation in the Absence of Egoistic Incentives," Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12: 683-697.
V. February 13. Structuralist explanations I
Jeffrey Paige, 1975. Agrarian Revolutions: Social Movements and Export Agriculture in the Underdeveloped World
Recommended:
Claus Offe and Helmut Wiesenthal, 1980. "Two Logics of Collective Action: theoretical notes on social class and organizational form," Political Power and Social Theory 1.
Elinor Ostrom, 1990. Governing the Commons. Cambridge.
Robert Wade, 1988. Village Republics: Economic Conditions for Collective Action in India.
Ugo Pagano, "Can Economics Explain Nationalism?" in Albert Breton et. al., eds., Nationalism and Rationality. Cambridge.
Eric Olin Wright, Andrew Levine, and Eliot Sober, 1992. Reconstructing Marxism: Essays on explanation and the theory of history. Verso.
George A. Collier, 1994. "The New Politics of Exclusion: Antecedents to the Rebellion in Mexico," Dialectical Anthropology 19(1: May): 1-44.
Charles Bergquist, 1986. Labor in Latin America: Comparative Essays on Chile, Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia. Stanford.
Gary Becker, 1962. "Irrational behavior and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy LXX(1: February):1-13.
Amrita Basu, 1992. Two Faces of Protest : Contrasting Modes of Women’s Activism in India. University of California Press.
VI. February 20. Structuralist Explanations II
Roger Gould. Insurgent Identities: Class, Community and Protest in Paris from 1848 to the Commune. Chicago, 1995.
Recommended:
James S. Coleman, "Free Riders and Zealots: The Role of Social Networks," Sociological Theory, 1988. Volume 6, Spring: 52-57
Gay W. Seidman, 1994. Manufacturing Militance: Worker’s Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970-1985. University of California.
Roger Gould, 1991. "Multiple Networks and Mobilization for the Paris Commune," American Sociological Review.
VII. February 27. The Political Process Model Revisited
Goodwin, Jeff and James M. Jasper. 1999. "Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory" Sociological Forum 14(1):27-54, and selected critiques from same volume.
Recommended:
Sidney Tarrow, 1993. "Cycles of Collective Action: Between Moments of Madness and the Repertoire of Contention," Social Science History 17(2, Summer): 281-307.
Doug McAdam, 1996. "Conceptual origins, current problems, future directions," in Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, Cambridge.
Sidney Tarrow, 1996. "States and opportunities: The political structuring of social movements," in Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, Cambridge.
Donatella della Porta, 1996. "Social movements and the state: thoughts on the policing of protest," in Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, Cambridge.
Sidney Tarrow, 1994. Power in Movement: Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics. Cambridge.
Herbert P. Kitschelt, 1986. "Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies," British Journal of Political Science 16: 57-85.
Charles D. Brockett, 1991. "The Structure of Political Opportunities and Peasant Mobilization in Central America," Comparative Politics 23(3): 253-274.
VIII. March 6. Non-standard Preferences in Collective Action
Elisabeth Wood. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War: Redrawing Boundaries of Class and Citizenship in Rural El Salvador. Book manuscript.
Recommended:
James Jaspers. The Art of Moral Protest. Chicago, 1997.
Derrick Bell. Faces at the Bottom of the Well. Basic Books, 1992.
Deborah Levenson-Estrada, 1994. Trade Unionists Against Terror. Guatemala City, 1954-1985, pp. 1-13 and 105-234. University of North Carolina.
Gould, Jeffrey. 1990. To Lead as Equals: Rural Protest and Political Consciousness in Chinandega, Nicaragua, 1912-1979. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Guha, Ranajit, 1983. Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Christian Smith, 1996. Resisting Reagan. The U. S. Central America Peace Movement. Chicago.
Starn, Orin. 1999. Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
No class on March 14, Spring Break
IX. March 20. Collective Identity, Institutions, and Culture
Richard Wood. Faith in Action: Religion, Race, and Democratic Organizing in America. Unpublished book manuscript.
Recommended:
Jim Jasper and Francesca Polletta, forthcoming. "Collective Identity."
Sidney Tarrow, 1992. "Mentalities, Political Cultures, and Collective Action Frames: Constructing Meanings Through Action," in Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. Yale.
Verta Taylor and Nancy E. Whittier, 1992. "Collective Identity in Social Movement Communities: Lesbian Feminist Mobilization," in Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. Yale.
Alessandro Pizzorno, 1978. "Political Exchange and Collective Identity in Industrial Conflict," in C. Crouch and A. Pizzorno, eds. The Resurgence of Class Conflict in Western Europe since 1968, Vol. 2 (MacMillan): 277-298.
David A. Snow and Robert D. Benford, 1992. "Master Frames and Cycles of Protest," in Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds., Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. Yale.
Joshua Gamson, 1995. "Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma," Social Problems 42(3): 390-407.
Adam Przeworski, 1985. "Proletarian into a Class: The Process of Class Formation," Chapter 2 of Capitalism and Social Democracy. Cambridge
E.P. Thompson, 1971. "Moral Economy of the English Crowd," Past and Present 50: 76-136.
Alberto Melucci. "Getting Involved: Identity and Mobilization in Social Movements" International Social Movements Research 1 (1988): 329-348.
Alain Touraine, 1985. "An Introduction to the Study of Social Movements," Social Research 52 (4): 749-787.
Paul D’Anieri, Claire Ernst, and Elizabeth Kier, 1990. "New Social Movements in Historical Perspective," Comparative Politics 22(4: July):445-458.
Andre Gorz, 1982. Farewell to the Working Class. South End Press.
Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez, 1992. "Introduction: Theory and Protest in Latin America Today," in Arturo Escobar and Sonia E. Alvarez, eds., The Making of Social Movements in Latin America. Identity, Strategy and Democracy. Westview 1992.
Jean L. Cohen and Andrew Arato, 1992. Chapter 10 of Civil Society and Political Theory. Cambridge.
Jean L. Cohen, 1985. "Strategy or Identity: New Theoretical Paradigms and Contemporary Social Movements," Social Research 52 (4).
Josh Gamson, 1995. "Must Identity Movements Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma," Social Problems 42(3): 390-407.
Alberto Melucci, 1989. Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. Temple.
X. March 27. Institutionalist Approaches to Ethnic Conflict
Elise Giuliano. "Who Determines the Self in the Politics of Self-Determination? Identity and Preference Formation in Tatarstan’s Nationalist Mobilization." Comparative Politics 32(3): 295-316, 2000.
Daniel N. Posner. "The Institutional Origins of Ethnic Voting in Zambia." unpublished paper, 1998.
James Fearon. "Commitment Problems and the Spread of Ethnic Conflict," in David Lake and Donald Rothchild, eds. The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear Diffusion, and Escalation.
Pranab Bardhan, 1997. "Method in the Madness? A Political-Economy Analysis of the Ethnic Conflicts in Less Developed Countries," World Development 25(9): 1381-1398.
Recommended:
David Laitin. Identity in Formation. Cornell, 1998.
Rogers Brubaker and David D. Laitin, 1998. "Ethnic and Nationalist Violence." Annual Review of Sociology 24:423-52.
Beverly Crawford and Ronnie D. Lipschutz, eds. The Myth of Ethnic Conflict: Politics, Economics and Cultural Violence. Berkeley, 1999.
XI. April 3. Globalization and Social Movements
Alison Brysk. 2000. From Tribal Village to Global Village. Stanford.
Recommended:
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders. Cornell, 1997.
Manuel Castells, 1997. The Power of Identity. Blackwell Publishers.
Michael Burawoy et. al, 2000. Global Ethnography. California.
Marc Edelman. 1999. Peasants Against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica. Stanford.
Alison Brysk, 1993. "From Above and Below: Social Movements, the International System and Human Rights in Argentina," Comparative Political Studies 27(3): 259-285.
Jackie Smith et. al. 1997. Transnational Social Movements and Global Politics. Syracuse.
XII. April 10. Paper Presentations
Presentations on research papers by participants
XIII. April 17. A New Paradigm?
McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly, Unpublished book manuscript.
XIV. April 24. Conclusion.
Papers due May 1, 6:00 pm.