PSCI 215
Social Movements in the United States Fall 2015
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

When and why do social movements occur? What motivates some individuals to participate in organized collective action? What role do strategies, values, decision-making structures, and leaders play? How have recent technological developments transformed recruitment efforts? Which tactics are most effective in pressuring legislators to respond to movement demands? What impacts have oppositional movements had on politics and society in the United States? In considering these (and other) questions, we will explore a range of movements which have both animated previous cycles of protest such as civil rights, women’s liberation, and antiwar mobilization along with several cases which characterize our own time including LGBT advocacy, Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, and the Black Lives Matter campaign. When examining the issue grievances and proposed remedies of both historical and contemporary political struggles, we will also focus close attention on media coverage of social movements, intra-movement disputes and inter-movement coalitions, the rise of counter-movements, and movement relations with political parties and presidential administrations.