Unit 5 Overview Page: Enacting Social Movements

Module 5 Overview

The purpose of this unit is to practice what we preach, focusing on making social movements happen well. The readings in this section are designed to support your final project, the consultant report, in which you are hypothetically offering real recommendations to a social movement organization to help them succeed in their mission.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation for this module.

Objectives

Bring it all home; put it to work; make a difference
Think and act strategically and purposefully about change
Asses a strategy's suitability and purchase for a particular social movement
Synthesize course concepts into actionable, communicative interventions

Weekly Materials & Assignments

Week 12

These next few weeks will be a bit of a grab bag of material. Please take these readings and videos as synthesis, as culminating ideas. You will catch onto themes and ideas we have talked about in previous weeks in terms of groups, identity, and forms of resistance.

Too, I hope these next few weeks will serve as inspiration moving forward. Many of these resources are practical (hence the title of the unit, Praxis). I hope that they serve you in your social movement involvement beyond this course.

Note that this week you'll have two discussion board posts, the regular weekly discussion post and the project planning post.

Read & View

WATCH: Davis, D. (2017). "Courage is Contagious." Ted Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/damon_davis_courage_is_contagious?referrer=playlist-the_power_of_protest
WATCH: Elworthy, S. (2012) "Fighting with nonviolence" Ted Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/scilla_elworthy_fighting_with_nonviolence
Useem, B., Goldstone, J.A. (2022). The paradox of victory: social movement fields, adverse outcomes, and social movement success. Theory and Sociology 51, 31–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-021-09460-2 This article is published under CCBY 4.0
White, J. (2020). "Success and Failure of Indigenous Social Movements: a Comparative Case Study of Ecuador and Chile." Honors Theses. 1353. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1353 (read intro & lit review, skim rest) This article is published under CCBY 4.0
Levine, R. (2019). “Closing the Gap between Social Movements and Policy Change.” Hewlett Foundation (blog). https://hewlett.org/closing-the-gap-between-social-movements-and-policy-change/.

Assignments

Discussion, Week 12: Effectively Enacting Social Change
- initial post by Wednesday
- replies to peers on 2 days across Thurs - Sun
Project Planning: Concepts in Consultant Project

Looking Ahead

Please note that you will have a draft for peer review due after break. Please plan ahead and begin working on your draft this week.

Week 13

Read & View

Daly, D. (2021). Activism. In Humans R Social Media. University of Arizona. This book is published under CCBY 4.0
Mehmood, M. (2016). Successful Social Movements -- A Blueprint. Humanity in Action. https://humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/successful-social-movements-a-blueprint/
The University of Kansas. (n.d.). 15 ways to advance social justice in your community. https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/15-ways-to-advance-social-justice
Do so now if you haven't yet looked over the available Project: Consultant Report Student Examples

Assignments

Project: Draft Sharing - Peer Review
- post draft: April 19
- post feedback for peers: April 23

Week 14

This is our final week (and it's short!). I've so appreciated our time together in this course. The enthusiasm, depth, and engagement you've shown over this brief course have impressed me!

Assignments

Due Thursday: Project: FINAL REPORT - Social Movement Org Consultants