The Civil Rights Movement and the Logic of Social Change
Series: Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics
Joseph E. Luders
Yeshiva University, New York
Paperback (ISBN-13: 9780521133395)
For price and ordering options, inspection copy requests, and reading
lists please select:
Europe, Middle East and Africa | Americas | Asia | Australia and New
Zealand
Please note local prices may apply
Social movements have wrought dramatic changes upon American society.
This raises the question: Why do some movements succeed in their
endeavors while others fail? Luders answers this question by
introducing an analytical framework that begins with a shift in
emphasis away from the characteristics of movements toward the targets
of protests and affected bystanders and why they respond as they do.
This shift brings into focus how targets and other interests assess
both their exposure to movement disruptions as well as the costs of
conceding to movement demands. From this point, diverse outcomes stem
not only from a movement’s capabilities for protest but also from
differences among targets and others in their vulnerability to
disruption and the substance of movement goals. Applied to the civil
rights movement, this approach recasts conventional accounts of the
movement’s outcome in local struggles and national politics and
clarifies the broader logic of social change.
• Revision of social movement theory. Recasts how we approach the
investigation of social movement outcome (applicable to all social
movements in democratic polities) • Analytical breadth. Presents an
analytic framework that clarifies an enormous range of movement-target
interactions, encompassing both political and economic actors.
Further, the analytical framework described in the book explains the
behavior of third parties, such as white opponents of the civil rights
movement • Empirical scope. Addresses (a) local civil rights
struggles, (b) regional patterns of success in three domains (voter
registration, school desegregation, and the integration of public
accommodations), (c) national political successes
Contents
1. The logic of social movement outcomes; 2. Civil rights and reactive
countermobilization; 3. The calculus of compromise; 4. Local
struggles; 5. Patterns of regional change; 6. Federal responses to
civil rights mobilization; 7. Conclusion.
----------------------------------------
Tommaso Vitale
Dipartimento di Sociologia e della Ricerca Sociale
Università di Milano Bicocca
via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8
20126 Milano
tel: ++39.02 6448 7477
skype: tomvita
CV and webpage:
http://www.sociologiadip.unimib.it/dipartimento/ricerca/scheda.php?idUser=136
New book:
www.carocci.it/politichepossibili
New issue of the Scientific Journal "Partecipazione e conflitto":
http://www.francoangeli.it/Riviste/sommario.asp?IDRivista=152
