Social Movement Culture Research Articles

Gregory Sholette. Delirium and Resistance: Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press, 2017. 224 pp.

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe CI ReviewGregory Sholette. Delirium and Resistance: Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism. London: Pluto Press, 2017. 224 pp.Eric TriantafillouEric Triantafillou Search for more articles by this author Eric Triantafillou is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the intersection of activist art, social movement culture production, and political economy. His “All the Instruments Agree” appears in Perspectives on Contemporary Printmaking: Critical Writing Since 1986 (2018).PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 45, Number 1Autumn 2018 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/699583 Views: 218Total views on this site © 2018 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Disobedient Objects: Towards a Museum Insurgency

Abstract Assembling a wide range of protest objects produced since the late 1970s, Disobedient Objects at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2014–15) aimed to present the expansive material culture of social movements from a global perspective while charting a ‘people’s history of art and design from below’. This article examines the critical intentions behind the exhibition, compares it to other recent large-scale exhibitions on activist art and situates it within a broader field of museum activism, demonstrating how it displayed not only a collection of disobedient objects but also a model for disobedient curating by directing institutional resources towards ongoing movements and campaigns.

Interference Archive: a free space for social movement culture

This paper discusses activist archives within the context of community archives and the practices of archiving activism. Interference Archive (IA), a volunteer-run independent archive in Brooklyn, New York, is presented as one example of an activist archive. We explain the manner in which IA functions as a transmovement and prefigurative “free space” under Francis Poletta’s typology of movement spaces. Through this explanation, we illustrate how the structures of free spaces can help us understand the way activist archives forge connections between communities and the ways that they create new networks of solidarity through the archival process.

Revolutionary Romanticism

This article examines Henri Lefebvre's concept of revolution-as-festival, its textual sources and its relationship to contemporary notions developed by Georges Bataille and the Situationist International. It is a companion-piece to the examination of Bataille's revolution-as-festival in Third Text 104, vol 24, no 3, May 2010. The author argues that Lefebvre's revolution-as-festival embodies the multiple methodological ambiguities of his ‘open’ dialectical approach, and his attempt to transplant Surrealist and Dadaist concerns into a Marxian framework. It is, paradoxically, these ambiguities that allow his revolution-as-festival to become a useful concept: firstly as a discursive making-visible and valorization of the art and culture of social movements; and secondly as a term through which to critically re-imagine this art and culture's limits and possibilities. This potential is borne out, not least, in the influence of Lefebvre's essay ‘Revolutionary Romanticism’ on the founding debates of the Situationist International.

Music and Social Movements

Music is a key component of social movements. This article addresses the relationship between music and social movements through four foci: collective identity, free space, emotions, and social movement culture. Collective identity is developed and nurtured within free spaces through the use of music. These spaces are often rife with emotions that are instrumental in development of collective identity. A social movement culture may develop as these processes unfold. Music is part of this culture and serves as an important mechanism for solidarity when participants move beyond free spaces to more contested ones. Examples of song lyrics demonstrate these processes. Research on music and social movements, it is argued here, can be enhanced by addressing technology and popular culture.

Theorizing the Role of Culture in Social Movements: Illustrated by Protests and Contentions in Modern China

This article provides an initial step toward an explanatory analysis of the role of culture in social movements. It argues that culture shapes collective actions through three ideal-typical mechanisms: as problem-solving tool-kits, as scripts, and as instincts and taken-for-granted routines. While any concrete collective actions may involve the working of all three mechanisms, the relative importance of the three mechanisms in a social movement varies with the structural conditions of a society. In particular, actors in poorly organized social movements are more likely to follow certain cultural scripts or even their culturally embedded emotions and instincts, while actors in a well-organized movement are more able to take the cultural repertoire as a tool-kit to pursue the targeted benefits. This distinction sets social movements under Western democracies apart from many collective actions under more repressive regimes with poorly organized society.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Political Elites and the Culture of Social Movements

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Political Elites and the Culture of Social Movements

Political Elites and the Culture of Social Movements

AbstractWhile sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to how political elites matter for the emergence and development of social movements, they have focused less explicitly on how political elites matter for the culture of social movements. This essay reviews work that directly and indirectly addresses this relationship, showing how political elites matter for various aspects of movement culture, like collective identity and framing. It also reviews literature that suggests how movement culture comes to impact political elites. The essay concludes by drawing from very recent scholarship to argue that to best understand political elites and the culture of social movements, we need to think about culture and structure as intertwined and to understand how relations matters in the construction of meaning.

Ritual, strategy, and deep culture in the Chechen national movement

This paper probes the dichotomy between strategic performance of cultural text and a strong approach to culture that sees fundamental texts as encompassing and determining social action. The central question posed is whether the paradigmatic emphasis on strategy in cultural analysis of protest and social movements misses the compelling influences that cultural texts may exert under certain conditions. Regarding protest movements and political contention, I am especially interested in the ‘deep textual grammar’ of the conflict, which can strongly constrain and guide social action. By identifying and analysing the deep cultural text of the Chechen nationalist movement for the period 1989–1999, this study shows that, in addition to strategic decisions, movement trajectories are sometimes strongly – almost ritualistically – culturally determined. As a first step towards reconceptualising the role of culture in social movements and to spur further investigation, this paper offers several propositions derived from the Chechen case about the relationship of deep culture and mobilisation.

White Supremacists, Oppositional Culture and the World Wide Web

Over the previous decade, white supremacist organizations have tapped into the ever emerging possibilities offered by the World Wide Web. Drawing from prior sociological work that has examined this medium and its uses by white supremacist organizations, this article advances the understanding of recruitment, identity and action by providing a synthesis of interpretive and more systematic analyses of thematic content, structure and associations within white supremacist discourse. Analyses, which rely on TextAnalyst, highlight semantic networks of thematic content from principal white supremacist websites, and delineate patterns and thematic associations relative to the three requisites of social movement culture denoted in recent research - namely identity, interpretational framing of cause and effect, and political efficacy. Our results suggest that nationalism, religion and definitions of responsible citizenship are interwoven with race to create a sense of collective identity for these groups, their members and potential recruits. Moreover, interpretative frameworks that simultaneously identify threatening social issues and provide corresponding recommendations for social action are employed. Importantly, and relative to prior work, results show how the interpretation of problems, their alleged causes and the call to action are systematically linked. We conclude by discussing the framing of white supremacy issues, the organizations' potential for recruitment, and how a relatively new communication medium, the Internet, has been cheaply and efficiently integrated into the white supremacist repertoire. Broader implications for social movement theory are also explored.

Whiteness and political purpose in the noose, an antilynching play by Tracy Mygatt

The article examines the first known US antilynching play by a white woman, Tracy Mygatt's The Noose (1919). Early takes up the notion of the antilynching drama as a site of political struggle, exploring the interface between social movement culture and personal identity and art production. Specifically, she explores how Mygatt, a feminist, socialist, and pacifist activist, sought to connect the politics of lynching in the South with that region's hegemonic white supremacist patriarchal system. She argues that Mygatt found white women complicit in lynching and used her play as a vehicle for urging politically aware white women to develop a strategy of resistance to it well before the formation in the 1930s of an organized white women's movement against lynching.

Music, culture and social movements: song and southern textile worker mobilization, 1929‐1934

Highlights the importance of music in ritual and culture generally, extending the focus to collective action. Argues that music and its emotional and cognitive impacts can be fundamental to the construction of social movement culture. Analyses song lyrics from the southern textile strikes of 1929‐1934 in an attempt to show how music and song helped construct a collective identity across relatively dispersed mill villages, shifted accountability for mill workers problems towards the labour process and its beneficiaries and suggested to the listener a collective solution. Discusses the implications of the findings for understanding music, culture and their relation to subordinate group challenge.

Demons, Karmies, and Non-devotees: Culture, Group Boundaries, and the Development of Hare Krishna in North America and Europe

Research on new religious movements in the West has given little attention to the role of culture. yet many new faiths represent cultural as well as spiritual alternatives. The author considers the interrelationship between social movement culture, group boundaries, and the North American and European development of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), more widely known as the Hare Krishna movement. The author argues that in failing to develop an internal domestic culture in support of family life, ISKCON's communal structure is eroding as householders are forced outside the movement's ranks to seek employment and raise their families. Outside the supportive environment of the devotee community, members' religious and ISKCON commitments and involvements have been adversely affected. In making peace with the conventional world, house-holders have moved ISKCON toward becoming a congregationally-based movement in North America and Europe.

Riding The Crest of a Protest Wave? Collective Action Frames in The Gay Liberation Movement, 1969-1973

The major collective action frames of the U.S. gay liberation movement between 1969 and 1973 are described and their development traced. The origins of these frames lie in either the sixties protest wave or in the older homophile movement. These frames—gay is good, sexual liberation, heterosexism, oppression is everywhere—emerged dialectically and creatively from these two protest streams. Their emergence illustrates the utility of a focus on both social movement continuity and cycles of protest in explaining how social movement culture is created. This creative convergence did not produce a unitary ideology or a master frame from which the movement drew its strategy, goals, and collective identity. Instead, it created a tension between the notion of gay people as a minority group and the notion of gay people as cultural critics.

Theorizing Meaning Construction in Social Movements: Symbolic Structures and Interpretation during the Irish Land War, 1879–1882

Though the process of meaning construction is widely recognized to be a crucial factor in the mobilization, unfolding, and outcomes of social movements, the conditions and mechanisms that allow meaning construction and cultural transformation are often misconceptualized and/or underanalyzed. Following a “tool kit” perspective on culture, dominant social movement theory locates meaning only as it is embodied in concrete social practices. Meaning construction from this perspective is a matter of manipulating static symbols and meaning to achieve goals. I argue instead that meaning is located in the structure of culture, and that the condition and mechanism of meaning construction and transformation are, respectively, the metaphoric nature of symbolic systems, and individual and collective interpretation of those systems in the face of concrete events. This theory is demonstrated by analyzing, through textual anlaysis, meaning construction during the Irish Land War, 1879–1882, showing how diverse social groups constructed new and emergent symbolic meanings and how transformed collective understandings contributed to specific, yet unpredictable, political action and movement outcomes. The theoretical model and empirical case demonstrates that social movement analysis must examine the metaphoric logic of symbolic systems and the interpretive process by which people construct meaning in order to fully explain the role of culture in social movements, the agency of movement participants, and the contingency of the course and outcomes of social movements.

Female Freemasons: Gender, Democracy and Fraternalism

Voluntary and nongovernmental associations are getting increased attention as part of popular culture: world of ideas, civil society is hot. It is almost impossible to read an article on foreign or domestic politics without coming across some mention of concept.... At heart of concept of civil society lie `intermediate institutions,' private groups that thrive between realm of state and of family.' There is little doubt that building of social trust through fostering of voluntary organizations is contributory to democracy, and to gender freedom: In a society that is looking for alternatives to a way of life dominated by corporations and state, social movements suggest other choices. A network of organizations that encompass broad constituencies can change our understanding of what is possible and desirable. Little by little we can build a new political culture based on our own questions about existing order. Meeting human needs neglected by state and market is basis for social movements. By working together they promote positive change and stretch our understanding of democracy and justice. The values of everyday world, including friendship, respect and concern for others, combined with shared hopes and aspirations, and healthy does of courage and patience, characterize what is best about culture of social movements.2 The debate about contribution of intermediate organizations to democracy should also include a discussion of contribution of such organizations to gender issues. Certainly more attention is needed to role of nongovernmental organizations, including those for women.3 This includes not only business luncheon clubs but ritualistic secret societies. Contrary to claims of Professor Robert Putnam of Harvard, who argues that civic life is collapsing and has popularized phrase bowling alone, volunteerism remains a strong force in American culture. An estimated seventy percent of American population belong to at least one association and twenty-five percent belong to at least four.4 I came to know hundreds of people who found meaning and satisfaction in performing community services, wrote Stephen Bailey about his years of residence in Middletown, Connecticut: ...volunteer firemen, members of library boards, organizers of community chests and United Fund drives, hospital aides, readers for blind. These activities were frequently in addition to service on PTA committees or church boards and participation in service-club benefits for crippled....no reform of bureaucratic and political system can possibly obviate need for intimate expressions of caring that are associated with voluntary performance of works of obligation and service.5 There has been little discussion despite this revival of interest in volunteerism of place that oldest of voluntary international societies, Freemasons, might have in years ahead either on democratization or gender viz culture. The generally held opinion is that Freemasonry is an adamantly male institution, but historically that is untrue. Those who claim, to intense irritation of some Masons, that women were involved in very beginnings of Masonry have substantial evidence to sustain their position. There is, for example, a record from 1408 where newly initiated Masons swore to obey the Master, or Dame, or any other ruling Freemason. In records of Lodge of Mary's Chapel in Edinburgh, dated 1683, lodge was actually presided over by a Dame or Mistress. The records of Grand Lodge of York in 1693 speak about male and female initiates.6 By eighteenth century anecdotes about women Masons take on a different tone. The women now are interlopers who become Masons by accident and are made members to protect secrets. A woman who found out secrets by spying was initiated in a lodge in English town of Barking in 1714. …

The Contentious French: Four Centuries of Popular Struggle.Charles Tilly

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Contentious French: Four Centuries of Popular Struggle. Charles Tilly Arthur L. StinchcombeArthur L. Stinchcombe Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 92, Number 5Mar., 1987 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/228649 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 3Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1987 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Sun-Chul Kim The Trajectory of Protest Suicide in South Korea, 1970–2015, Journal of Contemporary Asia 51, no.11 (Jul 2019): 38–63.https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1607889Dingxin Zhao Theorizing the Role of Culture in Social Movements: Illustrated by Protests and Contentions in Modern China, Social Movement Studies 9, no.11 (Jan 2010): 33–50.https://doi.org/10.1080/14742830903442493Sidney Tarrow Cycles of Collective Action: Between Moments of Madness and the Repertoire of Contention, Social Science History 17, no.22 (Jan 2016): 281–307.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0145553200016850

Robert D. Storch, ed., Popular Culture and Custom in Nineteenth-century England; Ian Watson, Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements

Robert D. Storch, ed., <i>Popular Culture and Custom in Nineteenth-century England; Ian Watson, Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements</i>

Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements

Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements

&lt;sc&gt;ian watson&lt;/sc&gt;. &lt;italic&gt;Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements&lt;/italic&gt;. London: Croom Helm or St. Martin's, New York. 1983. Pp. vii, 247. $25.00

Journal Article ian watson. Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements. London: Croom Helm or St. Martin's, New York. 1983. Pp. vii, 247. $25.00 Get access Watson Ian. Song and Democratic Culture in Britain: An Approach to Popular Culture in Social Movements. London: Croom Helm or St. Martin's, New York. 1983. Pp. vii, 247. $25.00. Janet Oppenheim Janet Oppenheim American University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 89, Issue 4, October 1984, Page 1081, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/89.4.1081 Published: 01 October 1984