Soc. 61.5 Collective Behavior

Understanding Seattle and the New Political Activism

Professor Alex Vitale

Fall 2000

Tues, Thurs: 4:40-5:55

Office: 3101 James, 951-5935

Office Hours: T 6-6:30pm, W 6-8pm, TH 2-4pm

Room 5301 James

avitale@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Course Description

Last November tens of thousands of people representing organized labor, environmental groups, human rights organizations, and workers and farmers from the third world converged on Seattle to protest the meetings of the World Trade Organization. They succeeded in disrupting the meetings and bringing national and international attention to the role of the WTO in undermining democracy, reducing the living standards of workers, and degrading the environment. They also sparked a wave of major protests by young people around the country and the world including protests at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C., the Democratic and Republican Conventions, and the upcoming IMF meetings in Prague. This class will explore the dynamics of social movements beginning with an in depth analysis of the Civil Rights Movement and then switching to more contemporary struggles. During this we will also look carefully at a number of different theoretical explanations of the forces that contribute to social movement development.

Books

Morris, Aldon. 1984. The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Free Press.

Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. New

York: Cambridge University Press.

Requirements

Class attendance, preparation, and participation are worth 20% of the grade. This means coming to class prepared to talk about the main ideas in each of the readings and how they relate to current events. There will be a midterm paper worth 30% of the grade. This will be a 4-5 page comparison of some contemporary social movement and the Civil Rights Movement. There will be final paper worth 50% of your grade that will be a 12-15 page research paper on some aspect of the social movements associated with the Seattle protests.

Course Schedule

Thurs. 8/31 Introduction, Video: Showdown in Seattle

Tues. 9/5 Morris: Intro and Ch.1

Thurs. 9/7 Morris: Ch.2

Tues. 9/12 Morris: Ch.3

Thurs. 9/14 Morris: Ch.4

Tues. 9/19 Morris: Ch.5-6

Thurs. 9/21 Morris: Ch.7

Tues. 9/26 Morris: Ch.8

Thurs. 9/28 Morris: Ch.9

Tues. 10/3 Morris: Ch.10

Thurs. 10/5 Morris: Ch.11

Thurs. 10/12 Video: Eyes on the Prize, Midterm Paper Due

Tues. 10/17 Tarrow: Intro, Ch.1

Thurs. 10/19 Tarrow: Ch.2

Tues. 10/24 Tarrow: Ch.3-4

Thurs. 10/26 Tarrow: Ch.5

Tues. 10/31 Tarrow: Ch.6

Thurs. 11/2 Tarrow: Ch.7

Tues. 11/7 Tarrow: Ch.8

Thurs. 11/9 Tarrow: Ch.9

Tues. 11/14 Tarrow: Ch.10

Thurs. 11/16 Tarrow: Ch.11

Tues. 11/21 Greider handout

Tues. 11/28 Chomsky handout

Thurs. 11/30 Gitlin handout

Tues. 12/5 Cavanagh handout

Thurs. 12/7 Mann and Lee handouts

Tues. 12/12 Evans and Meyer handouts

Thurs. 12/14 Review session

Tues. 12/19 Final Papers Due