Seminar-Problems in Comm Studies (425-0-1)
Topic
Crowds, Riots, & the Politics of Direct Action
Instructors
Dilip P Gaonkar
847/491-5853
2240 Campus Dr. Rm 2-148 Frances Searle Building
Meeting Info
Frances Searle 1180-Dean Conf: Tues 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
The expression "direct action" was frequently deployed by Martin Luther King during the US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. In MLK's political imagination (which owes much to Gandhi), direct action refers to a mode of political mobilization, a "movement"-based mobilization and stagings of "the people" that function as an alternative to a parliamentary/electoral mode of acquiring power/influence over the state and its policies. Direct action is also regarded as an alternative to the legal route for redressing grievances when the court delays and denies social justice. MLK, like Gandhi, links or equates direct action with the non-violent modes of mobilization and stagings of the people.
In this seminar, we will explore a different and alternative genealogy (not necessarily violent) of direct action in terms of crowds, riots, and uprisings which are molecular and local rather than molar and national in terms of scope, temporality, and addressivity. This course will enable the students to rethink direct action—in all its ubiquity—in the context of our age, an era characterized by rapid growth, selective affluence, and abundance, all amidst deepening inequality across the globe. This seminar will involve extensive readings of "theoretical" texts as well as an in-depth exploration of case studies.
Class Materials (Required)
No textbook required.
Class Attributes
Graduate Students Only