Social Movements

by Suzanne Staggenborg and Howard Ramos

Published 6 September 2007
Social Movements, third edition, is a core or supplemental text suitable for upper-year undergraduate social movements courses offered out of sociology, labour studies, and political science departments in both colleges and universities. It offers a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the field's historical background and major theories. Key issues are explored in the context of specific social movements and counter-movements active within Canada and around the world, showing how these movements originate, mobilize participants, and bring about social change. Chapters on the women's, Indigenous, LGBT, environmental, and global justice movements reveal exactly how these groups maximized their resources to attract followers and further their goals. The text also discusses the cluster of protest movements that arose in many countries in the 1960s and how the strategies and changes implemented then continue to influence collective action in the twenty-first century. The third edition is enhanced with photographs to help students visualize various social movements and includes content on recent movements such as the Arab Spring, Idle No More, the Quebec student movement, and Occupy.

Engaging and innovative, Seeing Politics Differently: A Brief Introduction to Political Sociology provides students with a concise introduction to political sociology-the study of how power is distributed within society-with a particular focus on the Canadian context. Using a unique approach designed to help students to understand theory as it applies to familiar topics such as wealth, cultural status, and institutions, Seeing Politics Differently examines the way that power is created, maintained, and challenged not just within government but in schools, homes, workplaces, the community-even how we see others as well as ourselves. Offering an accessible discussion of key works and perspectives within the discipline, with reference to contemporary examples throughout, the authors make a persuasive case for the importance of cultivating the ability to critically assess who is permitted to hold power in our world, and on what basis.