Social Movements

URB

642

Social Movements

This course explores the crucial role that social movements play in achieving change in the United States. We will consider fundamental principles that apply to all successful social movements, including how movements (1) are animated by vision, spirit, and imagination; (2) analyze power relations and develop sophisticated strategies to win; (3) depend on recruitment, organizing, and leadership development of large numbers of everyday people; (4) change how oppressed people understand their identity and their sense of agency by mobilizing powerful emotions. We will also discuss how movements of ?underdogs? sometimes prevail against ?overdogs,? by drawing on five different kinds of power including disruptive power, solidarity power, political power, economic power, and ideological power. We will conclude the term by examining the challenges that progressive social movements face today, including: internal conflict within movements, opposition from right-wing, authoritarian movements, and the role of money and philanthropy in social change.

Fall, Spring

Graduate

Yes