Course Content and Objectives
Stories about one or another type of social movement are ubiquitous in print, broadcast, and internet-based news media, and most people have taken part in, observed, or read about some form of collective action aimed at social, political, economic or other kind of change. Given that social movements are so prevalent and have been the drivers of much social transformation, why do most people understand so little about them, starting with the very term itself? This course addresses this deficit in understanding and analysis.
One of the aims of the course is to give students a good foundation in the main theories that scholars have employed to understand social movements. The course will consider the usefulness of these theories in relation to several different types of social movements including those that resist oppression rooted in race/ethnicity, gender, and other subordinated identity categories; climate and the environment; affordable and livable housing, and more. In readings and lectures, there will be considerable international focus, but Canada and North America will feature prominently.
Required Readings
- Rodgers, Kathleen. 2017. Protest, Activism, and Social Movements. Canada: Oxford University Press. Available through the University’s campus bookstore.
- Broad, Robin and John Cavanagh. 2021. The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed. Beacon Press.
- A small set of academic articles, and audio and video materials available online via ARES and Courselink)
Evaluation
(NOTE: These assignments and their weights may be modified prior to the start of the W25 semester)
In-class quizzes 20%
Discussion posts 10%
Mid-term exam, in class 25%
Book review 20%
Final take-home exam 25%