For Recordings of class sessions click here.    To log onto SAKAI, click here.  To log onto the virtual classroom for this class, click on this link:  Virtual Classroom for Social Movements. 

This course will be offered online using the SAKAI course management system and the elluminate live! virtual classroom system.   To go to Sakai click on SAKAI.  Class will meet online on Thursday evenings from 6 to 8:40 p.m.  Some of our classes may meet together with a graduate liberal studies course on utopias and dystopias.   We will have guest speakers from social movements around the country or the world, linked to us from their homes or offices.  And we will watch videos, mostly on YouTube, which we will open in a second window on our computers, keeping elluminate live open for ongoing discussion. 

Our class discussions will take place in the elluminate! live virtual classroom. You should log onto this classroom a few minutes before the session is scheduled to begin.   You should have headphones so you can speak as well as listen (otherwise we get feedback).  It is best if you also have a video camera so we can see you as well.  However, only a few students can be on audio or video at a time, so you need to raise your virtual hand and I will call on you. The virtual classroom is a Java application.  If you do not have Java on your computer, elluminate will prompt you to install it.  It is best to try this out for the first time a few hours before class. To log onto the virtual classroom for this class, click on this link:  Virtual Classroom for Social Movements.  Elluminate will ask for your name.  This is not your Rutgers User Name, it is just your first and last name, e.g., Josephine Student.    For illustrated instructions on how to access the virtual classroom, click here.

You can participate from your home or from a computer lab on campus or anyplace else where you have a computer, an internet connection, a microphone and headphones.  It is preferable that you also have a video camera so we can see you as well as hear you.  These can be purchased quite inexpensively if your computer did not come with them.  The link to our elluminate live virtual classroom will be posted here. No special software is required, everything you need is downloaded from the elluminate site.

Attendance at the online class sessions on Thursday evenings is required and elluminate live! will automatically take attendance.  You should be prepared to be called on to participate in discussions if you do not volunteer by raising your (virtual) hand.  However, I realize that unavoidable conflicts sometimes occur so up to three classes may be missed with no penalty.  You are still responsible for the material covered in any class that you miss, and you can view the recording of the sessions at your convenience.  Links to recordings of all classes will be posted.

All assignments for this course will be listed in the SAKAI course management system.  You should click on the Assignments and Resources link along the left of our SAKAI course page (when it is opened), then click on the folder for each week.   A new page of reading assignments, sometimes including powerpoint presentations and videos, will be posted on Friday of each week.  Preliminary versions may be posted earlier for your convenience, but may be updated as late as Friday to allow for including things that come up in class on Thursday night.  We will also follow current events in the news as relevant events occur.  Some reading materials will be posted on the Internet and will be linked from the weekly assignment page.  Others will be posted in the weekly SAKAI resources folder.  Writing assignments will also be announced on the weekly assignment page.

There will be a quiz each week covering both assigned reading and material covered in class.   The quizzes will be in the quizzes folder on our SAKAI course page and you may take them anywhere.  The quizzes will open  no later than Friday of each week.  There will be two versions of each quiz, an "early bird" which will close Tuesday at 11 pm and a "last chance" which will close Thursday at 5 pm.  The two versions will include some of the same items, but they will not be identical.  You should do the reading before taking the quiz. You will receive the highest percentage score you obtain on either version of each week's quiz.  You should plan on taking each before it closes, There will be no make-up quizzes.  If you miss the "early bird" you will get your score on the "last chance."  If you miss both, you will get a zero for that week.  If you have a computer crash or other problem, you should email me immediately:  tedgoertzel@gmail.com.   There will be no make-ups for technical reasons unless you email me within one hour of the official closing time of the quiz.   There will also be online midterm and final exams, scheduled during class time or at the official final exam date.  Grading will be based on attendance and participation, weekly quizzes, and midterm and final exams.

Social movements are collective efforts to change society.   Some of the important movements in American history and American society today include:  the movement for independence from Great Britain, the abolitionist movement, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, several anti-war movements, the gay liberation movement, the right-to-life movement, the anti-communist movement, the environmental movement.  On a global scale, movements include various socialist and communist movements, fascist and Nazi movements, human rights movements, independence movements in many countries and regions, religious movements, the Zionist movement, fundamentalist Islamic movements, and so on. 
    Movements use a wide variety of tactics including leafleting, giving speeches, picketing, marching, striking, sitting-in, throwing stones, revolutionary uprisings, guerilla warfare, bombings and assassinations.  For each movement, there is generally a backlash or counter-movement.  Often governments attempt to repress social movements.  Sometimes these struggles between movements and authorities involve long periods of nonviolent or violent conflict.  The current "war on terror" is now recognized as a "struggle against violent extremism," i.e., as a conflict with a social movement.  We will look at criminal justice system responses to social movements as a regular part of this course.

    We will begin with an overview of sociological and psychological theories that provide some general ideas about social movements.  We will then examine studies of specific social movements, using the theories as guidelines.  Questions we will ask about each social movements include:   

1. When and Why Do Social Movements Occur?
2. Who Joins or Supports (or Leads) Movements?
3. Who Remains in Movements, and Who Drops Out?
4. What Do Movement Participants Think and Feel?
5. How Are Movements Organized?
6. What Do Movements Do?
7. How Do the State and Mass Media Influence Movements?
8. Why Do Movements Decline?
9. What Changes Do Movements Bring About?

The textbook for the course will be Social Movements by Suzanne Staggenborg.  It will be available in the Rutgers Camden bookstore and perhaps in other campus bookstores, or you can order it online. The chapters of the book are the following:

1. Introduction
2. Theories of Social Movements and Collective Behavior
3. Issues in the Study of Social Movements and Collective Action
4. The Protest Cycle of the 1960s
5. The Women's Movement
6. The Gay and Lesbian Movement
7. The Environmental Movement
8. The New American Right
9. The Global Justice Movement
10. Conclusion:  Social Movements and Social Change.

The book is focused almost entirely on the United States.  We will supplement it with material on social movements in other countries, including jihadist movements and Latin American movements.  We will also discuss youth and generational movements, the Tea Party movement, conspiracy theories, 9/11 "truthists," and ethnic, nationalist and socialist movements.  Additional readings will be available online.