weeks

Final Social Movement Analysis:

For the final, you will be required to analyze and deconstruct a social movement as described below. Your answers to the questions should be typed, and no longer than 12 pages total.  Your answers should reflect both thoughtful organization and argument, as well as scholarly use of the required readings in support of your arguments. Provide appropriate references (e.g. Blah & Blah, 1978), whenever you cite a work.  No reference list is necessary, as long as you are able to produce the citation.

Final Social Movement Analysis Guidelines

Choose a social movement or effort aimed at social change and deconstruct it utilizing the themes and theories discussed in class. In other words, apply the concepts, themes, and theories discussed in class to make sense of the social movement. In other words, analyze the movement using the theoretical perspectives discussed in class. How does each explain why the movement emerged and the trajectory it took? Develop an argument in which you describe the theoretical perspectives that best explain the formation and development of your movement – or alternatively, why one theory cannot provide a complete explanation on its own. Your essay should be 10-12 pages in length and should reference at least 8 readings from our course reader. As a general rule, you should have 2 references per written page. This should insure that your analysis is sufficiently theoretically framed.

Questions you should consider when examining the social movement or efforts aimed at social change include:

1. Why do individuals participate in movements? What are their motivations or interests? What are the structural conditions that shape these interests or motivations?

2. How does mobilization occur? What is the process?

3. How do people come to identify with and be committed to a movement (or not)?

4. How do people understand grievances and persuade others to agree with them?

5. How are movements organized? What networks do they draw on, what is their organizational structure?

6. How do movements draw on external resources or allies or take advantage of political opportunities (or not)? How are they constrained by social structure?

7. What tactics or strategies do movements employ? How are they constrained? What role does creativity or leadership play?

8. How do regimes, opponents, or other outsiders (including media) respond to movements?

9. What are the temporal dynamics of movements? What affects their trajectory over time?

Late Paper Policy: I do not accept late work.

Paper Format:

All papers must be vitally informed by the course discussions, lectures, activities, and readings. You should cite any references that inform your analysis; wherever possible, give specific page numbers, even if you are not citing the text directly. Other than that, it does not matter to me which citation system you use or whether you make up your own, as long as I can follow your system and can locate the passages you (should) have indicated. If you plan to write academic papers or a master's or doctoral thesis, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with whatever citation format is most common in your field (e.g., MLA, Chicago, APA), as it is best to have made formal citation habits more or less automatic before you get to the thesis stage. However, this is up to you. For my purposes, it is enough that you indicate the relevant author and page numbers of any work on the syllabus (e.g., Pratt, 35-36). Please do provide full bibliographic information, however, for any outside readings upon which your paper draws.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: Please be sure to make yourself aware of DePaul University's policy on plagiarism and academic integrity at http://studentaffairs.depaul.edu/handbook/code16.html or http://condor.depaul.edu/~tla/html/student_academic_integrity.htm.  Their guidelines include no cheating, no academic dishonesty, nor plagiarism. If you are uncertain of this policy or do not understand anything please see me before any assignment is done. An excuse of confusion is not an acceptable one. Any student who is caught engaging in academic dishonesty of any sort will be given a grade of '0' on the assignment and will be reported to the Dean of their college for further action.

Course Schedule & Reading

Date	Plan
March 30	Introduction: Introductions, sharing of interests, syllabus overview, initiation of plan of study, prior knowledge discussion; discussion lead sign up. Introductory Lecture
April 6	Topic: When and Why Do Social Movements Occur Goodwin: Part 2 Introduction Chapter 2: The Civil Rights Movement Chapter 3: The Women’s Movement Goodwin: Chapter 4: The Gay Liberation Movement
April 13	Topic: Who Joins or Supports Social Movements Goodwin: Chapter 6: The Free-Rider Problem Chapter 7: Recruits to Civil Rights Activism Goodwin: Chapter 8: Middle-Class Radicalism and Environmentalism In-Class Movie: American Experience Freedom Summer Reflexive Essay #1 Due
April 20	Topic: Who Remains in Movements and Who Drops Out? Goodwin: Chapter 10: Generating Commitment Among Students Chapter 11: Sustaining Commitment Among Radical Feminists Chapter 19: Social Movement Organizations
April 27	Topics: Who Remains in Movements and Who Drops Out? What Do Movement Participants Think and Feel? Goodwin: Chapter 13: Disengaging from Movements Chapter 15: Ideological Purity in the Women’s Movement Goodwin: Chapter 16: Are Frames Enough? Post Social Movement Overview by 8:00pm
May 4	Topics: What Do Movement Participants Think and Feel? How Are Movements Organized? Goodwin: Chapter 17: The Emotions of Protest Goodwin: Chapter 12: True Believers and Charismatic Cults In-Class Movie: Heaven’s Gate Cult Inside Story
May 11	How Are Movements Organized? Goodwin: Chapter 21: Transnational Environmental Activism Goodwin: Chapter 22: The Transnational Network for Democratic Globalization In Class Television Show: Whale Wars Exam
May 18	What Do Movements Do? Goodwin Chapter 23: Protest Tactics Chapter 24: Tactical Innovation in the Civil Rights Movement Topics: What Do Movements Do? Goodwin: Chapter 9: Who are the Radical Extremists Chapter 27: Suicide Bombing In-Class Movie: Vice News: The Islamic State
May 25	Topics: What Do Movements Do? Topics: How Do Institutions Influence Movements? Chapter 28: Everyday Life, Routine Politics, and Protest Goodwin: Chapter 31: What Shapes the West’s Human Rights Focus? Chapter 33: Global Corporations, Global Unions Reflexive Essay #2 Due
June 1	Topic: What Changes Do Movements Bring About? Topics: Why Do Movements Decline? Goodwin: Chapter 34: The Decline of the Women’s Movement Chapter 38: Defining Movement “Success” Goodwin: Chapter 39: How Social Movements Matter Final Paper due by 8PM

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