Rhetoric of Social Movements (315-0-20)
Instructors
Dilip P Gaonkar
847/491-5853
2240 Campus Dr. Rm 2-148 Frances Searle Building
Meeting Info
Frances Searle Building 2407: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
Social movements are a ubiquitous feature of political life, both historically (especially since the onset of modernity) and in the present. They may be long, short, general, specific, civil, transgressive, violent, and non-violent. They are often protest movements seeking to bring about social change. They are usually concerned with rectifying an existing social "wrong"—something unjust, oppressive, discriminatory, or exclusionary—by directly mobilizing people through non-traditional political and judicial routes. In many cases, social movements involve "demands" that aim to capture public attention and pressure governmental action.
This course will seek to further our understanding of social movements by posing and exploring a series of questions: Why do social movements occur, often in clusters, more frequently in some periods than in others? What are the main theories of social movements? How have social movements changed over time? How has our understanding of social movements changed over time? What are social movement organizations (SMOs) and how do they function? Why do some people, not others, become active participants in social movements? How has globalization affected social movements? How have new technologies of information and communications influenced the scope and function of social movements? What are the strategies and tactics, both discursive and non-discursive, that social movements deploy to publicize their goals and demands? Why do some social movements succeed while others fail? Why do so many social movements decay, decline, and disappear?
Class Materials (Required)
No textbook required.