Cleveland, John. (2003). "Does the New Middle Class Lead Today’s Social Movements?" Critical Sociology, 163-88.

The conventional wisdom that today's movements are led by a section of the `new middle class' is really the old functionalist theory of (post)modernizing elites that denies class analysis. The `young adult nucleus' thesis is proposed as an alternative theory. The leading social forces in movements in affluent countries are intellectual radicals and `advanced elements' from groups that experience some form of exploitation, oppression or collective hurt.

Questions to Consider:

1)What is the main difference, according to this article, between the New Middle Class thesis and the Young Adult Nucleus thesis as it pertains to social movements?

 

2)The authors of the article end with this question, “Who leads social movements?”  Why is an important question to answer?  What implications does it have for our society to know the answer to this question?

 

Biggs, M., & Andrews, K. (2015). “Protest Campaigns and Movement Success: Desegregating the U.S. South in the Early 1960s.” American Sociological Review, 416-443.

Can protest bring about social change? Although scholarship on the consequences of social movements has grown dramatically, our understanding of protest influence is limited; several recent studies have failed to detect any positive effect.  The researchers investigate sit-in protest by black college students in the U.S. South in 1960, which targeted segregated lunch counters. An original dataset of 334 cities enables us to assess the effect of protest while considering the factors that generate protest itself—including local movement infrastructure, supportive political environments, and favorable economic conditions. 

Questions to Consider:

1)The authors of the article refer to the civil rights movement as “the movement of movements”.  What are some of the reasons why this is so?  In your opinion, why were lunch counters so popular as a place for the sit-in’s during the 1960’s?

 

2)What information can be gained by comparing the case studies of cities where protests took place compared to the cities which were absent of protests?  Why has little research been conducted on cities where no protests took place?

 

Davis, M., Hall, J., & Meyer, M. (2003). The First Year: Influences on the Satisfaction, Involvement, and Persistence of New Community Volunteers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 248-260.

This investigation tests an elaborated form of Omoto and Snyder’s volunteer process model, which explains how the helping behavior of volunteers is influenced by antecedent factors and by subjective experiences while volunteering. Two-hundred-thirty-eight community volunteers from nine different organizations were recruited at the time of initial orientation and completed measures of personality and motivation. They were contacted at four times during their first year of volunteering and queried regarding their emotional reactions (sympathy, distress), satisfaction, and degree to which their motivations for volunteering were being fulfilled.

Questions to Consider:

1)One of the results of this study, as it pertains to volunteers, “minimizing distress may be the most important factor in increasing their satisfaction”.  How can organizations minimize distress for their volunteers?  What are some factors that might lead to distress?

 

2)How can the results of this study aid organizations in implementing policies to recruit more volunteers? 

 

3)Have you ever volunteered for an organization?  If so, what were some of the issues you faced during your time as a volunteer?

 

 

Boler, M., Macdonald, A., Nitsou, C., & Harris, A. (2014). Connective Labor and Social Media: Women’s Roles in the ‘leaderless’ Occupy Movement, Convergence, 436-460.

This article draws upon the insights of 75 Occupy activists from Toronto and across the United States interviewed as part of the 3-year study ‘Social Media in the Hands of Young Citizens’. This article highlights three major roles adopted by women in the so-called leaderless, horizontally structured Occupy movement – both within the offline, face-to-face General Assembly meetings held during the Occupy encampments and within the online spaces of Facebook pages, Web sites, affinity groups, and working committees. As key participants in the movement, women used social technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and livestreaming as modes of activist engagement, developing unique roles such as that of the ‘Admin’ (Social Media Administrator), the ‘Documentarian’, and the ‘Connector’. 

Questions to Consider:

1)A comparison is made in this article between women who participated in the Occupy movement and the second wave of feminism.  Are there any other comparisons, besides the ones that were addressed in this article that you can make between these two movements?

 

2)Taking note of the various roles that women have played in the Occupy movement how do these roles mirror the roles that women in general play in our society today?