POLS 395 (1): POLITICAL PROTEST &
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Northern
Department
of Political Science
Fall
2007 Professor: L. Kamenitsa; Office: Zulauf 107
MW
2-3:15 Office
Hours: M
DuSable 461 E-mail: LynnKam@niu.edu ; Phone: 753-7053
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This
course focuses on political participation that falls outside of the traditional
realm of institutional politics: political protest and social movements. We will examine social movements as political
actors seeking to shape public policy, public opinion, and political
institutions. We will discuss why people
turn to protest and movements as avenues for political participation, the
obstacles they confront in the process, and the outcomes of their efforts. A major focus will concern the elements of
successful (and unsuccessful) protest and how citizens can use protest to voice
their political concerns. The course is
structured chronologically around particular themes, with movements from the
1960s used to illustrate early themes and contemporary movements used to
illustrate later topics. The selection
of movements reflects the reality that most of the movements to emerge in the
REQUIRED
1)
Sidney Tarrow. 1998. Power in Movement. 2nd Edition.
2)
Required articles and book chapters are also assigned. Most are available on-line via Blackboard,
Electronic Reserve, Print Reserve, or other means. Most of these required readings and the means
of accessing them are indicated in the syllabus. Additional readings will be announced in
class or on Blackboard.
All
reading assignments should be completed before the class period for which they
are assigned. In the event that a student might miss a class, she/he is still
responsible for any assignments, schedule changes, or other information given
during that class period. The required text is available at the University
Bookstore in HSC, the Village Commons Bookstore, and on amazon.com.
GRADING:
Individual
course grades will be determined according to the following weighting:
Exam I: 30%
Exam II: 30%
Research paper: 20%
Participation: 10%
Group project: 10%
There
will be two exams for the
course. Each exam will draw primarily on
material from the preceding part of the course.
However, Exam II may require you to draw on materials from the course as
a whole in your assessments of political protest and social movements. Exam format will include essays, objective items,
and short answer questions. THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS GIVEN, except in cases of
emergencies and then only at the discretion of the professor. If there
are any problems or conflicts, contact the professor well in advance of the
exam.
The participation
grade will reflect the student’s individual preparation for each class
session as evidenced by her/his informed participation in the classroom. The student’s work in the student activism
fair and other classroom exercises will also be included here, as will her/his
work as part of an action group. That
evaluation will be based on the instructor’s observations of group dynamics and
confidential assessments of group work that each action group member will
provide at the end of the semester. At
any point in the semester, students should feel free discuss their
participation to date with me in office hours.
The
group project grade will include
both the mission statement/rationale and the final project presented in
class. All members of one action group
will receive the same group grade.
NOTE: All written assignments
must be typed or word-processed.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the specified
date. This means that work turned in
after
CLASS FORMAT:
The class will consist of lectures and discussions. Students will have ample opportunity to
participate in making the course interesting and relevant. Students' comments and questions on readings,
lectures, and current events are welcome and encouraged. Student comments about the social movement
organizations they are researching will help enrich each class meeting.
BLACKBOARD:
Most of the assignments and some of
the communication for this course is conducted through the Blackboard Course
Server. This course website can be
accessed only by students enrolled in this course. The URL for Blackboard is http://webcourses.niu.edu . Login to Blackboard with your student Z-ID and password. For
login questions go to http://www.helpdesk.niu.edu/
and click on “Blackboard” or contact ITS at 753-8100.
The system uses your NIU student webmail account (NetMail). If you wish to receive course-related
e-mails at another address, you need to forward mail from your NIU account to
another account. Learn how to do this on the ITS helpdesk home page (http://www.its.niu.edu/its/helpdesk/webmail_students.shtml). It is your responsibility to set this up --
do it today!
Blackboard sometimes goes down
unexpectedly. Therefore, do not wait
until the last minute to access materials you need on Blackboard. For example, if an assignment for a Monday
class has been posted for a week, an outage Sunday night will NOT be an
acceptable excuse for not preparing for class.
ACADEMIC HONESTY & PLAGIARISM:
Any
student found guilty of cheating or plagiarizing can receive an "F"
for the assignment or exam and the course.
Criteria for these offenses are described in the Student Judicial
Code and the Undergraduate Catalog.
If you have any questions about what needs to be cited, proper format or
process in citation, what sources may be consulted, or what constitutes
plagiarism or other forms of cheating, please ask the professor before the work
is turned in or the exam is taken.
SEMESTER PROJECT: Group
Action Project & Individual Research Paper
One goal of this course is to comprehend the
complexity and difficulty of efforts to influence politics through
protest. We will spend a good deal of
time analyzing the dilemmas faced by those who wish to create organizations,
recruit supporters, frame issues, build coalitions, develop strategies, and
plan protest actions. To help us understand
these dilemmas better, we will engage in some role playing and group work in
which students undertake all of these tasks in creating a fictitious
organization and planning a fictitious protest.
This project will take place over the course of the semester. It will
entail individual research and writing, group planning, and a group
presentation. The project has four parts.
Part One: Student
Activism Fair & Organization Formation (an in-class exercise in
recruitment, finding common purpose, and creating collective identity)
Early in the semester, fliers will
be posted (most likely on Blackboard) inviting POLS 395 students to a Student
Activism Fair. Each flier will invite
students concerned about a particular political issue or stance to meet each other
at the fair.
The actual fair will take place
during class on Monday, September 17. Students with similar interests will be
encouraged to recruit each other into “action groups.” Ideally, this will
entail some cajoling, compromising, even combining issue areas. There will be an element of pressure
here. Each action group must end up with
a specified number of members (probably 5).
This means that some students who choose an issue area will find there
is not enough interest to form an action group and will have to join another
action group. In other cases, too many
students may be interested in one issue area, so splinter groups will need to
be formed. [PLEASE NOTE: You do not need
to choose your action group based on your personal political interests. Indeed, you may want to choose a group that
is distinctly different from your own stance.
Remember, this is role-playing, not reality. The issue areas will
include a variety of options on the political spectrum.]
Resulting
work: A statement of the action group’s name,
its general issue or political orientation, and a list of members will be
turned in at the end of the Activism Fair.
This paper will also include a discussion of obstacles confronted in
group formation and strategies used to overcome those obstacles. (Students will
be graded individually on their general participation and effort expended in
this role-playing exercise.)
Part Two: Individual
research on real organization/movement (conducted on your own)
Each individual student will choose
a real-world social movement organization (or similar organization that seeks
to influence politics through some contentious means) on which to conduct
individual, original research. Your
final research paper will include an assessment of the organization’s political
goals, strategic choices, framing efforts, tactical choices, successes, and
failures. The research should be based
on a combination of scholarly sources, news reports, and available original
documents from the organization itself. Your analysis will also need to make
reference to specific arguments made by authors read in this course (with full
citations). The organization should be
one that has been active at some point in the last ten to fifteen years.
Selecting your research
organization: I strongly encourage each student to choose an organization that
is related to your action group project.
This will make you individual research more applicable to your group
project and save you research time. It also
means that you will want to look for some potential research topics before the Student Activism Fair.
Each student must turn in a written paper
proposal by Week 6. The proposal will
include a brief statement of which movement organization you will research,
which time period (or series of actions) you will examine and why, and a list
of likely sources to be consulted (with full citations for each source).
Additional details will be available
on Blackboard early in the semester.
Resulting
Work:
Paper proposal due Week 6; final research paper (7-9 pages) due Week 12. (Research papers will be graded on
originality, accuracy, and depth of research; quality of original analysis;
demonstrated comprehension of course material; the ability to integrate the
original research with course material; the clear articulation of points and
arguments; and the clarity and quality of the writing.)
Part Three: Devising an Action Group
Your action group will meet out of
class to develop a statement of purpose for your group and a presentation of
the policy (or other political) goals of the organization. The group must also include a rationale for
why they agreed upon the statement they did, which audience they intend to
reach with this statement, and the rationale for framing issues they way they
did. There must also be a discussion of
the process of selecting those goals and the prospects of success in achieving
them.
Resulting
work: Brief mission statement (one page) to be
posted on course Blackboard site; brief mission statement with appended
two-page rationale and justification to be turned in to the professor. Due Week 9.
Part Four: Planning a
Protest
(an out-of-class and in-class exercise in selecting protest goals, targets, and
tactics)
Each action group will meet outside
of class to design a political protest action.
Each group will present its protest action to other members of the
course during Weeks 13 and 14. The
protest planning needs to take into account the organization’s mission,
policy/political goals, targets, and other lessons for social movements
discussed throughout the semester. The
idea here is for student groups to demonstrate that, by studying other
movements and reading about protests, they have learned what makes a protest
successful. In the process, however, I
encourage students to have some fun with this assignment. After all, creativity
and originality are important elements of effective political protests. If time permits, the entire class will engage
in a critique of the each protest and its likely effectiveness on its target
audience and in bringing about the desired political outcome.
Resulting
work: A presentation of the protest
and the rationale/justification for it will be made to the class. Groups are
encouraged to be creative with this presentation. You can actually perform part
of the protest followed by a discussion of the rationale. You can make a
graphic presentation of what the protest would look like (you’ll have access to
whatever audio/visual/computer equipment you need). You may choose to actually
carry out the protest in class and distribute a handout with the
rationale. You could even perform the
protest elsewhere and show a video of it in class, along with a discussion of
the rationale. Be creative here!
PLEASE
NOTE:
If you choose to carry out the protest in class please make sure that it: is
not illegal, will not damage any property, will not harm any course participant
or other individual, will not result in the appearance of Campus Police or
university administrators in our classroom.
If students choose to carry out their protest in-class or elsewhere, I
will not be held responsible for any property damage, personal injury, or
arrest.
(The presentation will be graded on extent
to which it describes a realistic protest that demonstrates comprehension of
course material. Clarity and
effectiveness of presentation, along with demonstrated preparation, will also
be considered. Each group member should
participate equally in the preparation and presentation of the work.)
COURSE SCHEDULE: (Any changes will be
announced in class or on Blackboard)
The method of accessing
each reading is indicated in brackets [ ] after each citation.
Week 1: Introduction: Social Movements &
Extraordinary Politics
8/27 & 8/29
Required
Tarrow, Intro. & Chs.1-2
(“Introduction,” “ Contentious Politics and Social
Movements,” “Modular Collective Action”)
pp. 1-42
Week 2: Modern Social Movements: Some History & Theory [Civil Rights Movement]
9/3
– Labor Day – no class
9/5
Required
Tarrow, Chs.
3-4 (“Print and Association,” “
Euchner, Charles C.
“Beyond Ordinary Politics.” In Extraordinary
Politics: How Protest and Dissent Are Changing American Democracy.
Week 3: Why People Protest and When [Civil Rights Movement]
9/10 & 9/12
Required
Tarrow, Ch.5 (“Political
Opportunities and Constraints”), pp. 71-90.
Ling, Peter. 2000.
“Racism for Lunch.” History Today 50,
2 (Fall): 36-8. [Bb]
Week 4: The Power of Protest, the Question of Violence [Anti
9/17 Student Activism Fair -- DON’T MISS THIS CLASS!
9/19
Required
Tarrow, Ch 6. (“Acting
Contentiously”), pp. 91-105
Mark Barringer. “The Anti-War Movement in
the
Week 5: The Power of Protest, the Question of Violence (continued) [Anti Vietnam War]
9/24 & 9/26
Required
Sen, Rinku.
“Picking the Good Fight.” Chapter 3 in Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing
and Advocacy.
Week 6: Structure and Framing
[Feminist Movement ]
10/1
10/3 PAPER
PROPOSALS DUE
Required
Tarrow, Chs.
7-8 (“Framing Contention,” “Mobilizing Structures and Contentious Politics”),
pp.106-138)
Freeman, Jo. “From
Suffrage to Women’s Liberation: Feminism in Twentieth-Century America.” In Women: A Feminist Perspective, 5th
edition. Edited by Jo Freeman.
Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Position Paper. “Women
in the Movement.” November 1964. [Bb]
Freeman, Jo. 1970. “The
Tyranny of Structurelessness.” Essay reprinted at http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/hist_texts/structurelessness.html
[Bb]
Week 7: Strategy/Tactics: Conventional Means
& Direct Action
[Feminist Movement & Act Up]
10/8
10/10 MIDTERM EXAM
Required
Shaw, Randy. “Direct Action.” In The Activist’s Handbook.
Week 8: Strategy/Tactics: Crossing ideological lines [Operation Rescue]
10/15 & 10/17
Required
Leilani Corpus. “Operation Rescue & Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.”
The Forerunner International,
September 1988. [Bb]
“Abortion Haunts the
President.” The Economist, vol. 320,
issue 7720 (
T. Moreganthau
and P. Rogers. “Target Witchita.”
Newsweek, vol. 118, issue 8 (
Paul
Gray and Sarah Tippit. “Camp
for Crusaders.” Time, Vol.
141, Issue 16 (
Week 9: Strategy & Tactics: Mobilizing the
Grassroots for Politics [Christian Right Movement]
10/22
10/24 ACTION GROUP
Required
Green, John C. “The
Spirit is Willing: Collective Identity and the
Development of the Christian Right.” In Waves
of Protest: Social Movements Since the Sixties,
edited by Jo Freeman and Victoria Johnson.
Wilcox,
Reed, Ralph. “ What Do Religious Conservatives Really Want?” In Disciples and Democracy: Religious
Conservatives and the Future of American Politics. Edited
by Michael Cromartie.
Week 10: Nuts and Bolts of Protests
10/29 & 10/31
Required
Sanderson Beck. “Group Process” &“Creative Actions.” An excerpt from his
Non-violent Action Handbook available
at: http://www.san.beck.org/NAH3-Group.html
and http://www.san.beck.org/NAH4-CreativeActions.html.
[Bb]
Sen, Rinku.
“Ready, Set, Action!” Chapter 4 in Stir
It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy.
Week
11: Corporate and Transnational Targets [Anti-Sweatshop &
Environmental Movements]
11/5 & 11/7
Required
Tarrow, Chapter 11
(“Transnational Contention”), pp. 176-195.
Danaher,
Kevin and Jason Mark. “‘Would You Want Your
Sister to Work There?’ The Conflict Over Sweatshops”
and “Flipper vs. the WTO: The Fight for Dolphin-Safe Tuna.” In
Insurrection: Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power.
Week 12: Effective Protest: Lessons from the
Anti-Globalization Movement
11/12 - RESEARCH PAPERS DUE
11/14
Required
Smith, Jackie. “Globalizing Resistance: The
Hunter, Jennifer. “Rattled in
Neumann, Rachel. “
Week 13: Nuts & Bolts in Action: Protest Presentations
11/19 - Action Group
presentations
11/21 – Thanksgiving
Break – no class
Required
Action Groups’
Week 14: Nuts & Bolts in Action: Protest Presentations
11/26 Action Group presentations
11/28 Action Group
presentations
Required
Action Groups’
Week 15: Evaluating Movements: Do Movements Still
Matter?
12/3 & 12/5
Required
Tarrow, “Conclusion,” pp.
196-210.
Additional readings TBA
Final Exam (Exam II): Monday, 12/10,
____________________________________________________________________________
Undergraduate
Writing Awards: Papers written for 300-400 level
courses in the Department of Political Science (including this course!) are
eligible for the Department’s undergraduate writing award. Your hard work could earn you $50, a
certificate, and a nice line on your resume.
Papers written in calendar year 2007 are due in February 2008. See the
Department website for more details.
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