In the last 10 years, we’ve seen four significant protest movements emerge in America. From Tax Day and the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street and the language of the 1%, to Black Lives Matter in the wake of increased public scrutiny over fatal shootings of African Americans, and then the Women’s March and the #metoo movement. A question for the protests that launch these movements into the public eye is often “Did they work” (whatever that means). A recent paper submitted for the 2019 Mobilization Conference attempts to answer this question.
Farrah has written this analysis of the paper here: Lessons (and Questions) from the Women’s March
The paper itself analyzes efficacy in terms of three factors common in the analysis of protests: movement building, policy making and electoral outcomes. It uses the protests as a kind of natural experiment in the places where it took place.
The full analysis and completed study is still in progress. But from what we’ve read and learned, here are some observations:
We need to understand more about what a “social movement organization infrastructure” is and how one is formed. What are the networks of influence and collaboration that make up that infrastructure? Who leads them? How do people join them? What is expected of them? How developed should they be to get people who are not usually politically active involved?
How do participants understand their participation — do they see themselves as members of a movement, or simply as having shown up? What stories do they tell themselves about the role they played (or didn’t play)? How do members become or feel more or less included in such a movement over time? The Women’s March has now become its own set of organizations with volunteers playing different roles. How does this kind of infrastructure come into being, and specifically, how does it influence inclusion and participation?
Again, the full analysis is available here: Lessons (and Questions) from the Women’s March
Interested more in civil resistance? This is the blurb for Erica Chenoweth’s book: Why Civil Resistance Works
Rachel G. McKane and Holly J. McCammon wrote this paper: “Why We March: the role of grievances, threats, and movement organizational resources in the 2017 Women’s Marches”
SDSU’s Mobilization Conference 2019 Social Movements and Nonviolent Protest
Work on how we understand civic engagement by immigrants. A backgrounder, as well as some analysis from our pilot study in the area looking at participation by New York City non-citizens.
Approaching the “Ladder of Participation” as referred to in civic engagement discourse. Where it works and how it doesn’t, and contextualizing our own research in terms of that model.
Thank you to all those who have already dropped a line and shared your thoughts. And thanks in advance to sharing this with anyone else you think might be interested.
If you think of feedback, suggestions, or people we should meet, please get in touch! You can email us at: 1stpersonprojects@thedifferenceengine.co