They are as diverse as America. Young and old. Of color and white. Urban and rural. Immigrants and native born. They are students and teachers. Athletes and artists. Lawyers, doctors, politicians, farmers, architects, novelists, and more. Names familiar and unfamiliar. Superheroes, figuratively...and in one case real! They have founded major corporations and grassroots organizations or struck out on their own. They are institutionalizes and agitators. And in some cases both! But as diverse a lot as they may be, the people who tell their stories on these pages share one thing in common. Each is committed to fighting inequality and injustice. Each, too, can pinpoint a moment when they were moved to action, when it became impossible to sit on the sidelines and just watch: when the teacher uttered racial slurs, when no one in the college club looked like they did, when the city was on the brink of disaster, when the authorities came for their undocumented mother, when they discovered their ancestors had owned slaves, when the cop stopped them in their own driveway, when there was no fresh food in their community, when their right to vote was threatened. In The Moment, New York Times bestselling author Steve Fiffer presents an oral history from today's social justice activists-many of them still under 30-that is pitch perfect for these dissonant times. First person accounts that will inspire us to act, offer a blueprint for making change, and perhaps, most importantly, give us hope for the future.

In the moralistic texts of jeremiadic discourse, authors lament the condition of society, utilizing prophecy as a means of predicting its demise. This study delves beneath the socio-religious and cultural exterior of the American jeremiadic tradition to unveil the complexities of African American jeremiadic rhetoric in antebellum America. It examines the development of the tradition in response to slavery, explores its contributions to the antebellum social protest writings of African Americans, and evaluates the role of the jeremiad in the growth of an African American literary genre. Despite its locale within an unreceptive environment, the African American jeremiad maintained its power, continuing to influence contemporary African American literary and cultural traditions.

How did African Americans gain the ability to apply Gandhian nonviolence during the civil rights movement? Responses generally focus on Martin Luther King s pilgrimage to nonviolence or favorable social contexts and processes. This book, in contrast, highlights the role of collective learning in the Gandhian repertoire s transnational diffusion. Collective learning shaped the invention of the Gandhian repertoire in South Africa and India as well as its transnational diffusion to the United States. In the 1920s, African Americans and their allies responded to Gandhi s ideas and practices by reproducing stereotypes. Meaningful collective learning started with translation of the Gandhian repertoire in the 1930s and small-scale experimentation in the early 1940s. After surviving the doldrums of the McCarthy era, full implementation of the Gandhian repertoire finally occurred during the civil rights movement between 1955 and 1965. This book goes beyond existing scholarship by contributing deeper and finer insights on how transnational diffusion between social movements actually works. It highlights the contemporary relevance of Gandhian nonviolence and its successful journey across borders.

The book is a very detailed work on the relationship between movements for autonomy by indigenous peoples (the so-called 'tribes') and violence in Assam, in northeast India. The book addresses some of the reasons for the failure of ethnic conflict management and for the frequent emergence of violence in the region. In particular, the historical description of movements by the Dimasas, Misings and Bodos is well compiled and provides a good summary for the readers. At the same time, the work offers a good understanding of ethnic violence in contemporary India. The volume offers some new research data based on comparative analysis of different trajectories followed by three important movements among Assam's ethnic minorities. While the pieces of the argument are based on the existing literature on ethnic violence and contentious politics, they are effectively connected to materials drawn from northeast India. Furthermore, the book raises significant concerns on the debates on crafting of decentralised institutions and executive opportunities that may facilitate ethnic accommodation thereby reducing the likelihood of such groups to pursue their goals through channels that are radical or extreme.

Social movements in the United States are important political actors because of their scale and duration, their generation of new ideas and understandings of existing problems, their ability to mobilize those who were previously passive citizens, and the impetus they provide for restructuring and broadening the agenda of American politics. This volume combines chapters by a distinguished group of social movement scholars, from both sociology and political science, who use perspectives ranging from political process theory to rational choice and collective action approaches to evaluate the functioning of institutions of American government and the public policies that they produce. A diverse group of movements and interests are featured: women, public interest, native America, the environment, the Christian Right, abortion, gay rights, and homelessness among them.

With the passing of Zane L. Miller in 2016, academia lost a renowned scholar and one of the key founders of new urban history-a branch of the discipline that placed urban life at the center of American history and treated the city as an arena for civic and political action. He was a devoted, tireless mentor who published or fostered dozens of books and articles on urban history. He also co-founded Temple University Press' foundational series Urban Life, Landscape, and Policy. Bringing the Civic Back In provides a critical overview, appreciation, and extension of Miller's work as scholar, editor, mentor, colleague, and citizen. Included are three excerpts from Miller's final, unfinished work, in which he presented cities as the source of a civic nationalism he viewed as fundamental to the development of American democracy. The editors-along with contributors Robert B. Fairbanks and Charles Lester-reflect on the life and work of their friend as well as his role in creating a Cincinnati school of urban history. These original essays by practitioners of Miller's approach highlight the power of ideas to shape social change.

The site of Recife's Brasilia Teimosa favela emerged as a flash point of economic and political interests in the 1930s and the scene of subsequent strife into the 1980s. The name of this district is a contemptuous allusion to the new capital of Brazil, with its forward-thinking planning policies and urban design, in stark contrast to the favela. This concise account unearths events surfacing through periods of revolution, dictatorship, populism, Cuban Communism, the 1964 military coup d'etat and crackdown to the amplified reverberation of civil society voices and engagement decades later. Shifting ideologies and jolting transitions between regimes directly affected what occurred on this 110-acre parcel of urban land. Between 1934 and 1984 competing groups and individuals came to covet this space because of its strategic location and political consequence. Brasilia Teimosa is about the politics of ouster and the power of resistance. What took place there still resonates in squatter settlements throughout Brazil; deplorable living conditions prevalent in favelas are the result of deprivation of access to market resources. This work examines the interactions between the state and neighborhood associations regarding the allocation of public goods and services in the context of urban resources and their system of supply. In particular it focuses on the political struggles of shanty residents of Brasilia Teimosa that are pertinent to the provision of and access to urban land tenure. Control and use of public lands have functioned as instruments of the state to pursue political projects in coalition with private real estate partners, to undermine the strength of opposing factions, or to seal populist pacts with the urban poor who, as illegal occupants of public land, are locked into a dependency relationship with the state. As will be shown, the residents of Brasilia Teimosa discovered and exploited "space" for political maneuvers in order to secure permanence on a centrally located, publicly-owned site.

Politics constructs gender and gender constructs politics: this is a central theme in this collection of essays which seek not only to write a history that focus on women's experiences but seeks also to analyse those dynamic forces that have shaped that history.It examines the 'making' of the other half of the working class - women - as workers, trade unionists and political activists, and seeks to weave together intricate relationship between class and gender, particular within the process of industrialization. It is because the class/gender relationship has often been either ignored or misunderstood that it has been possible to write general histories of the labour movement in which women are hardly mentioned. Featuring contributions from leading and up-and-coming women labour historians, essays are in three sections: the labour market/work (typical and atypical); trade unions; and politics

This book is open access under a CC BY license. This book explores the impact that professional volunteers have on the low resource countries they choose to spend time in. Whilst individual volunteering may be of immediate benefit to individual patients, this intervention may have detrimental effects on local health systems; distorting labour markets, accentuating dependencies and creating opportunities for corruption. Improved volunteer deployment may avoid these risks and present opportunities for sustainable systems change. The empirical research presented in this book stems from a specific volunteering intervention funded by the Tropical Health Education Trust and focused on improving maternal and newborn health in Uganda. However, important opportunities exist for policy transfer to other contexts.

This title was first published in 2003. Drawing on literary, art historical and historical studies, this essay collection explores the complex encounter between culture and politics within Surrealism. The Surrealist movement was one of the first cultural movements to question explicitly the relation between culture and politics, and its attempt to fuse social and cultural revolution has been a critical factor in shaping our sense of modernity. This anthology addresses not only the contested ground between culture and politics within Surrealism itself, and within the subsequent historical accounts of the movement, but also the broader implications of this encounter on our own sense of modernity. Its goal is to delineate the role of radical politics in shaping the historical trajectory of Surrealism.

Information and influence campaigns are a particularly cogent example of the broader phenomenon we now term strategic political communication. If we think of political communication as encompassing the creation, distribution, control, use, processing and effects of information as a political resource, then we can characterize strategic political communication as the purposeful management of such information to achieve a stated objective based on the science of individual, organizational, and governmental decision-making. IICs are more or less centralized, highly structured, systematic, and carefully managed efforts to do just that. Strategy in Information and Influence Campaigns sets out in comprehensive detail the underlying assumptions, unifying strategy, and panoply of tactics of the IIC, both from the perspective of the protagonist who initiates the action and from that of the target who must defend against it. Jarol Manheim's forward-looking, broad, and systematic analysis is a must-have resource for scholars and students of political and strategic communication, as well as practitioners in both the public and private sectors.

This book focuses on global activism and uses a power perspective to provide an in-depth and coherent analysis of both the possibilities and limitations of global activism.

Bringing together scholars from IR, sociology, and political science, this book offers new and critical insights on global activism and power. It features case studies on the following social and political issues: China and Tibet, HIV/AIDS, climate change, child labour, the WTO, women and the UN, the global public sphere, regional integration, national power, world social forums, policing, media power and global civil society.

It will be of interest to students and scholars of globalization, global sociology and international politics.

Situated among the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State, in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area, Miners Ridge contains vast quantities of copper. Kennecott Copper Corporation's plan to develop an open-pit mine there was, when announced in 1966, the first test of the mining provision of the Wilderness Act passed by Congress in 1964. The battle over the proposed ""Open Pit, Big Enough to Be Seen from the Moon,"" as activists called it, drew the attention of both local and national conservationists, who vowed to stop the desecration of one of the West's most scenic places. Kennecott Copper had the full force of the law and mining industry behind it in asserting its extractive rights. Meanwhile the U.S. Forest Service was determined to defend its authority to manage wilderness. An Open Pit Visible from the Moon tells the story of this historic struggle to define the contours of the Wilderness Act - its possibilities and limits. Combining rigorous analysis and deft storytelling, Adam M. Sowards re-creates the contest between Kennecott and its shareholders on one hand and activists on the other, intent on maintaining wilderness as a place immune to the calculus of profit. A host of actors cross these pages - from cabinet secretaries and a Supreme Court justice to local doctors and college students - all contributing to a drama that made Miners Ridge a cause celebre for the nation's wilderness movement. As locals testified at public hearings and writers penned profiles in the nation's magazines and newspapers, the volatile political economy of copper proved equally influential in frustrating Kennecott's plans. No law or court ruling could keep Kennecott from mining copper, but the pit was never dug. Identifying the contingent factors and forces that converged and coalesced in this case, Sowards's narrative recalls a critical moment in the struggle over the nation's wild places, even as it puts the unpredictability of history on full display.

In light of the recent rise of right-wing populism in numerous political contexts and in the face of resurgent nationalism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, and demagoguery, this book investigates how historical and contemporary cultural producers have sought to resist, confront, confound, mock, or call out situations of political oppression in Germany, a country which has seen a dramatic range of political extremes during the past century. While the current turn to nationalist populism is global, it is perhaps most disturbing in Germany, given its history with its stormy first democracy in the interwar Weimar Republic; its infamous National Socialist (Nazi) period of the 1930s and 1940s; and its split Cold-War existence, with Marxist-Leninist Totalitarianism in the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany's barely-hidden ties to the Nazi past. Equally important, Germans have long considered art and culture critical to constructions of national identity, which meant that they were frequently implicated in political action. This book therefore examines a range of work by artists from the early twentieth century to the present, work created in an array of contexts and media that demonstrates a wide range of possible resistance.

First published in 1991. The volume reprints excerpts from six radical feminist journals of this crucial decade:The Lily, the Genius of Liberty, the Pioneer and Women's Advocate, the Una, The Woman's advocate and The Sybil

First published in 1987. This collection brings together important articles written by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters during the Suffragette Campaign, 1903-14. Includes a transcript of the 1908 trial of the suffragette leaders, their speeches, and major pamphlets of the Women's Social and Political Union.

The transition paradigm has traditionally viewed civil society activism as an essential condition for the establishment of democracy. The democracy promotion strategies of Western policy-makers have, therefore, been based on strengthening civil society in authoritarian settings in order to support the development of social capital -to challenge undemocratic regimes.

This book questions the validity of the link between an active associational life and democratization. It examines civil society in the Arab world in order to illustrate how authoritarian constraints structure civil society dynamics in the region in ways that hinder transition to democracy. Building on innovative theoretical work and drawing on empirical data from extensive fieldwork in the region, this study demonstrates how the activism of civil society in five different Arab countries strengthens rather than weakens authoritarian practices and rule. Through an analysis of the specific legal and political constraints on associational life, and the impact of these on relations between different civic groups, and between associations and state authorities, the book demonstrates that the claim that civil society plays a positive role in processes of democratic transformation is highly questionable.

Offering a broad and alternative vision of the state of civil society in the region, this book will be an important contribution to studies on Middle Eastern politics, democratization and civil society activism.

Social Movements: The Key Concepts provides an insightful, contemporary introduction to some of the frequently encountered terms and groups that are central to the study of collective action and social and political activism. Following an A-Z format, the entries defined and discussed are drawn from the following areas:

• the ?old? social movements of the nineteenth century
• the ?new? social movements of the 1960s and 1970s
• the rise of contemporary ?network? movements.

Key American, European and global social movements are addressed, with each entry related to contemporary developments and emergent tendencies within the field. Including helpful references for further study, this concise and up-to-date guide is of relevance for those studying a range of disciplines, including sociology, politics, cultural studies and human geography.

Constructive Anarchy, the result of more than a decade of direct study within a variety of anarchist projects, provides the most wide-ranging and detailed analysis of current anarchist endeavours. The compelling discussions of anarchism and union organising, anti-poverty work and immigrant and refugee defence represent truly groundbreaking undertakings from a rising scholar of contemporary anarchism. Organised to illustrate the development of the diversity of anarchist strategies and tactics over time, the book begins with a discussion of alternative media projects before turning attention to anarchist involvement in broader community-based movements. Case studies include a discussion of anarchists and rank-and-file workplace organising, anarchist anti-borders struggles and "No One Is Illegal" movements in defence of immigrants and refugees since 9/11, and anarchist free schools and community centres. Jeff Shantz's analysis demonstrates serious and grounded practices rooted in anarchist organising: practices that may draw on previous traditions and practices but also innovate and experiment. The varied selection of case studies allows the author to compare groups that are geared primarily towards anarchist and radical subcultures with anarchist involvement in more diverse community-based coalitions, an approach that is otherwise lacking in the literature on contemporary anarchism.

What do people make of their own development? In Educating Activists, Rebecca M. Klenk illuminates a reality that is far more complex than either development planners or critics commonly assume. This gracefully written, accessible ethnography shows how rural women accept, refuse, reinterpret, and negotiate development's terms in a quest to improve their own communities. Klenk offers an account of Lakshmi Ashram, a remarkable Gandhian educational initiative for women and girls in Himalayan India. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, Educating Activists blends memories and stories with historical research and richly detailed ethnographic analysis to craft a compelling portrait of how women across two generations have engaged with issues of sustainability, poverty, gender equity, autonomy, and progress.

This book is a personal account of the daily lives of the people of the frontline of the Palestine / Israel conflict, giving us an insight into the deadly, seemingly never-ending rounds of violence. Ramzy Baroud tells his father's fascinating story. Driven out of his village to a refugee camp, he took up arms and fought the occupation at the same time raising a family and trying to do the best for his children. Baroud's vivid and honest account reveals the complex human beings; revolutionaries, great moms and dads, lovers, and comedians that make Gaza so much more than just a disputed territory.

In recent years immigration and the integration of migrants and minorities have become politicised in public and policy debates in Britain, the rest of Europe and the United States. In such debates, migrants are commonly treated as objects of politics and spoken in terms of management, national interest, control and contention. This treatment has characterised not only policy makers and politicians but also many academics. Existing scholarly research on migrants as subjects of politics is limited and largely carried out through detached and structural approaches. These approaches have focused on the institutional environments in which mobilisations develop. They have, however, overlooked migrants? conditions, experiences, subjectivities and practices as well as the focus of their engagement.

This volume contributes to the study of migrants? mobilisation through theoretically informed original empirical papers focusing on current forms and aspects of migrants and minorities practices of citizenship in an engaged and people-centred manner. In particular, the book addresses issues of change both in the forms assumed by migrants? and minorities political engagements and in the transformations these engagements produce as well as exclusion-inclusion dynamics that migrants experience with regard to the political process and more generally.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

In the late nineteenth century, monumental technological innovations like the telegraph and steam power made America and the world a much smaller place. New technologies also made possible large-scale organization and centralization. Corporations grew exponentially and the rich amassed great fortunes. Those on the short end of these wrenching changes responded in the Populist revolt, one of the most effective challenges to corporate power in American history.
But what did Populism represent? Half a century ago, scholars such as Richard Hofstadter portrayed the Populist movement as an irrational response of backward-looking farmers to the challenges of modernity. Since then, the romantic notion of Populism as the resistance movement of tradition-based and pre-modern communities to a modern and commercial society has prevailed. In a broad, innovative reassessment, based on a deep reading of archival sources, The Populist Vision argues that the Populists understood themselves as--and were in fact--modern people, who pursued an alternate vision for modern America.
Taking into account both the leaders and the led, The Populist Vision uses a wide lens, focusing on the farmers, both black and white, men and women, while also looking at wager workers and bohemian urbanites. From Texas to the Dakotas, from Georgia to California, farmer Populists strove to use the new innovations for their own ends. They sought scientific and technical knowledge, formed highly centralized organizations, launched large-scale cooperative businesses, and pressed for reforms on the model of the nation's most elaborate bureaucracy - the Postal Service. Hundreds of thousands of Populist farm women soughteducation, employment in schools and offices, and a more modern life. Miners, railroad workers, and other labor Populists joined with farmers to give impetus to the regulatory state. Activists from Chicago, San Francisco, and other new cities provided Populism with a dynamic urban dimension
This major reassessment of the Populist experience is essential reading for anyone interested in the politics, society, and culture of modern America.

This book tells the remarkable story of Bierzeit University, one of Palestine's foremost educational institutions. When Dr. Gabi Baramki co-founded Birzeit's first degree program in 1972, he was determined to create a Palestinian national university despite Israel 's occupation. Democracy and tolerance would be among its mandatory subjects. The West Bank institution quickly became a beacon of learning, open to the best students irrespective of income. It continues to produce scholars, administrators, leaders and confident, idealistic young people. The cost of achieving this has been shocking. Israel first tried to break the university through forced closures. Since its establishment as a university, staff and students have been detained, often without trial, throughout the period even during the 15 times of closure. Israeli soldiers have stormed the university, shooting unarmed students. Dr. Baramki has been dragged from his home at night, beaten and arrested. As Vice-Chancellor, he has been liaising with Israeli prisons and comforting bereaved Palestinian parents. This memoir should be required reading for anyone concerned about the right to learn.