Collective Action:
Social Movements and Revolutions
V53.0580
Spring 2001
Elisabeth J. Wood Monday and Wednesday 12:30-1:45
Department of Politics Main 808
New York University TA: Michael Nest
elisabeth.wood@nyu.edu mqn7362@is.nyu.edu
In this course we will analyze strikes, demonstrations, revolutions, and other forms of collective action. We will study several cases, including the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the women's movement in the US as well as revolutionary social movements in Central America, South Africa, and elsewhere. We will also consider a case of genocide as an example of collective action. Over the course of the semester, we will analyze several theoretical approaches to the understanding of social movements and revolutions, including sociological as well as rational choice approaches. We will ask why people engage in collective action, how different forms of collective action emerge and evolve, and explore the conditions for the emergence of revolutionary social movements from social protest. In light of the theoretical and empirical issues addressed in the course, at the end of the semester we will discuss the recent patterns of what we might call the globalization of protest as well as the protesting of globalization.
Office Hours:
Instructor. Elisabeth Wood. Monday 2:00 - 3:00, Tuesday 6:00- 7:00 (sign up for an appointment on office door). 715 Broadway, Rm 415, 998-8534.
TA. Michael Nest. Wednesday, 3:00 - 4:00, 715 Broadway, Cubicle 411A.
Section Meetings:
Wednesday 2:00 - 2:50. Kaplan 218.
Thursday 8:25 - 9:15. 25 West Fourth Street, C2.
Course Requirements: There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final exam (each 25% of the final grade). Exams will consist of multiple-choice and short essays on the course lectures and readings. Each participant is required to write a paper (12-15 pages, 30%) analyzing a social movement of her choice in light of the issues discussed in the course. Each participant will submit in section five one-page responses to questions asked in lecture or section. The section grade (20%) will also depend on participation in section.
Books available for purchase at the Book Center (and on reserve in Bobst):
Aldon Morris. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movements: Black Communities Organizing for Social Change. (Free Press, 1984)
Barbara Kingsolver. Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983. (ILR Press, 1989)
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague. (Vintage, 1993)
Mary Katzenstein. Faithful and Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest Inside the Church and Military. (Princeton, 1999).
Philip Gourevitch. We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow We will be Killed with our Families. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998).
In addition, a course reader (two volumes) will be available for purchase at University Copy and Graphics, 11 Waverly Place.
Course Outline
January 17. Introduction
Film: At the River I Stand. David Appleby, Allison Graham, Steven John Ross. 1993.
January 22 and 24. The US Civil Rights Movement
Aldon Morris. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movements: Black Communities Organizing for Social Change. (Free Press, 1984)
January 29 and 31. The Labor Movement: Workers and Worker Communities
Barbara Kingsolver. Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983. (ILR Press, 1989)
film, With Babies and Banners (45 minutes)
February 5 and 7. Democratic Revolutions in East Europe
film, from A Force More Powerful, Poland 1980 (30 minutes)
Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague. (Vintage, 1993)
February 12 and 14. Theoretical perspectives I: Rational Choice Approaches to Collective Action
Jon Elster, Chapter 1 of The Cement of Society. (Cambridge 1989)
February 19 No class, holiday
February 21. Experimental patterns of collective action
Ernst Fehr and Simon Gachter. 2000. "Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14, 3: 159-181.
February 26. Theoretical perspectives II: The Political Process Model
excerpts from Doug McAdam. Political process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. (Chicago 1982). Reprinted in Doug McAdam and David A. Snow, eds., Social Movements: Readings on Their Emergence, Mobilization, and Dynamics (Roxbury 1997).
February 28 and March 5. Theoretical perspectives III: Normative and Emotional Bases of Participation
Elisabeth Wood. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. (Unpublished book manuscript; Volume II of course reader).
March 7. Mid Term Exam
March 12 and 14. Spring break
March 19, 21, and 26. Revolutionary Mobilization
Read one of the following books (on reserve in Bobst):
Marilyn Young. The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990. (Harper, 1991)
Marifeli Perez-Stable. The Cuban Revolution (Oxford, 1993)
Lynn Hunt. Politics, Culture and Class in the French Revolution. (Berkeley, 1984)
John Markoff. The Abolition of Feudalism. (Penn State, 1996).
Elizabeth Perry. Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945. (Stanford, 1980)
Theda Skocpol. States and Social Revolutions. (Cambridge, 1979)
Timothy Wickham-Crowley. Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Insurgents and Regimes Since 1956. (Princeton, 1992)
Eric Selbin. Modern Latin American Revolutions. (Westview, 1993)
Neil Harvey. The Chiapas Rebellion. (Duke, 1998)
March 28, April 2 and 4. Women's Movements
March 28 and April 2.
Mary Katzenstein. Faithful and Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest Inside the Church and Military. (Princeton, 1999).
April 4. Film: When Women Unite
April 9 and 11. Genocide
Philip Gourevitch. We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow We will be Killed with our Families. (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998).
April 16 and 18. Globalization of Protest
selections from Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Cornell, 1998)
April 23 and 25: Protesting Globalization
Papers due in section
Film: This is What Democracy Looks Like
Guest Lecturer: Lesley Wood, Columbia University
April 30. Conclusion
Final exam