डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

1. 1. Contents (brief note on each module; indicative reading list with essential and suggested readings)

Module 1: Introduction to Social Movements

This introductory module discusses the major concepts and debates about origins, ideologies, structures, strategies, dynamics and consequences of social movements. It also explains the basic distinctions between the social movements and other types of collective actions such as protests, revolts and revolutions. The categorisation of movements into social, political, and cultural will be discussed to explain the distinction in their nature, objectives and support base among others. The module engages with some of the key questions such as What is a social movement?, Why do people come together?, How social movements are different from other collective actions like protests, demonstration, mob etc.? What makes ordinary people take risky, courageous, and historically important action?, What is the basic difference between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements? and How do religious, organisational, cultural and political factors shape protest? among others.

Readings:

Baviskar, Amita. 2010. “Social Movements”, in Niraja Gopal Jayal. (eds.). The Oxford Companion to Politics in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 381-390.

Buechler, Steven M. 1995. New Social Movement Theories. The Sociological Quarterly, 36(3), pp. 441-464.

Edelman, Marc. 2001. Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30, pp. 285–317.

Edwards, Gemma. 2014. Social Movements and Protest. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 1 – Introduction: Conceptualizing Social Movements)

Foweraker, J. 1995. Theorizing Social Movements. London: Pluto Press. (Chapter 3 – The Sociology of Social Movements and Chapter 4 – The Politics of Social Movements)

Goodwin, Jeff and James M. Jasper. 2009. The Social Movements Reader: Causes and Concepts. 2^nd Ed., Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Chapter 1)

Johnston, Hank. 2014. What is a Social Movement?. Cambridge: Polity Press. (Chapter 1)

Martin, Gerg. 2015. Understanding Social Movements. Oxon and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 2 – Origins of Social Movement Studies and Chapter 4 – Social Movements, Old and New)

Menon, K. and Subberwal, R. 2025. Social Movements in Contemporary India. 2^nd Ed., Oxon and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 1 – Understanding Social Movements: An Introduction)

Moss, Dana M. and David A. Snow. 2006. “Theorizing Social Movements.” in S. Abrutyn. (ed.). Handbook of Contemporary Sociological Theory. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 547-546.

Module 2: Theories of Social Movements

This module discusses the major theoretical perspectives to explain the rise and emergence of social movements from different standpoints. Different theoretical paradigms conceptualise the concept from different vantage points though none presents a complete picture. Hence, it is imperative for the students to have a wide diversity of understandings about different theoretical frameworks to examine the nature, scope and significance of social movements. It also develops the theoretical premise on structural organization, leadership and the analysis of social movements in the context of processes and outcomes. This Module largely focus on relative deprivation theory, resource mobilization theory, political opportunity structure theory, framing theory and multi-factor theory to explain the origin and growth of social movements from different standpoints.

Readings:

Armstrong, E. A., and Bernstein, M. 2008. Culture, Power, and Institutions: A Multi‐Institutional Politics Approach to Social Movements. Sociological Theory, 26(1), pp. 74-99.

Benford, R. D and Snow, D. A. 2000. Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment. Annual Review of Sociology 26(1), pp. 611- 639.

Foweraker, J. 1995. Theorizing Social Movements. London: Pluto Press. (Chapter 2 – Theories of Social Movements)

Gurney, J. N. and Tierney, K. J. 1982. Relative Deprivation and Social Movements: A Critical Look at Twenty Years of Theory and Research. The Sociological Quarterly, 23(1), pp. 33-47.

Martin, Gerg. 2015. Understanding Social Movements. Oxon and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 3 – Political Opportunity, Resource Mobilization and Social Movement Organisation)

McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency 1930-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapter 3 – Political Process Model)

Nilsen, G. A. 2019. The Author and the Actors of their own Drama: Notes towards a Marxist Theory of Social Movements, Capital and Class, 33(3), pp. 109-139.

Peoples, C. D. 2019. “Classical and Contemporary Conventional Theories of Social Movements.” in Berch Berberoglu (ed.). The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 17-34.

Salem Press (eds.). Theories of Social Movements. California and New Jersey: Salem Press. (Chapter

11 – Relative Deprivation Theory, Chapter 12 – Resource Mobilization Theory, Chapter 13 – Structural-Strain Theory, and Chapter 15 – Framing Theory)

Snow, D. A., Soule, S. A. and Kriesi, H. (eds.). 2008. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Chapter 6 – Resources and Social Movement Mobilization, and Chapter 17 – Framing Processes, Ideology and Discursive Fields)

Snow, David A. and Benford, Robert D. 1988. Ideology, Frame Resonance and Participant Mobilization. International Social Movement Research, 1, pp. 197-217.

Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. New York: Random House. (Chapter 2 – Theories and Descriptions of Collective Action)

Module 3: Social movements and State-Society Interface

This module explains the genesis of mass mobilization in a societal context and how state reciprocate and reconciliate with the demands of the social collective. It also seeks to explain and compare social movements emerging in different political systems to analyse how the political and institutional context of movements shape their emergence and success.

Readings:

Jenkins, J. C. and Klandermans, B. 1995. The Politics of Social Protest: Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements. London: ULC Press. (Chapter 2 – Social Movements, Political Representations, and the State: An Agenda and Comparative Framework and Chapter 4 – Left-Right Ideology and Collective Action: A Comparative Study of Germany, Israel and Peru)

McAdam, Doug. 2000. “Culture and Social Movements.” in Lane C. and Charles L. (eds). Culture and Politics, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 253-268.

Petras, J. and Veltmey, H. 2005. Social Movements and State Power: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador. London: Pluto Press. (Chapter 1 – Bad Government, Good Governance: Civil Society versus Social Movements and Chapter 6 – Social Movements and the State: Political Power Dynamics in Latin America).

Porta, Donatella della and Diani, M. 2006. Social movements: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (Chapter 9 – Social Movements and Democracy)

Tarrow, S. G. 2011. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 3^rd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Chapter 8 – Threats, Opportunities and Regimes)

Tarrow, Sidney. 1996. “States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social Movements.” in Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, eds, Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, MA: Cambridge University Press, pp. 41-61.

Module 4: Transnational and Global Social Movements

Since the early 1990s, the post-globalised economic and political structure has produced a new category of social movements to mobilize the peoples against the new practices of exploitation and subjugation, thereby leading to the emergence and development of transnational and global social movements. Globalisation has ushered a new era of opportunities, global collaborations, scientific innovations, intercommunications and economic development, but at the same time, it has drastically intensified inequalities, miseries and conflicts between and within the countries, resulting into the collaboration among the local and national movements at the global level. This module explores the nature and scope of transnational and global social movements to understand the contemporary global collective actions against the injustice and inequities caused by globalisation and its actors.

Readings:

Beamish, T. D. and Luebbers, A. J. 2009. Alliance Building Across Social Movements: Bridging Difference in a Peace and Justice Coalition. Social Problems, 56(4), pp. 647-676.

Bennett, E. A. 2012. Global Social Movements in Global Governance, Globalizations. 9 (6): pp, 799-813.

Cohen, Robin. and Rai, Shirin M. (eds.). 2000. Global Social Movements. London and New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press. (Chapter 1 – Global Social Movements: Towards a Cosmopolitan Politics)

Ghimire, K. 2016. “The Alter-globalisation Movement: A New Humanism? The Case of World Social Forum”, in Dominque Caouette and Dip Kapoor (eds.). Beyond Colonialism, Development and Globalization: Social Movements and Critical Perspectives. London: Zed Books.

Kumar, Kamal and Sharma, Bhavna. 2018. “Global Resistance: Global Social Movements and NGOs”, in Nirmal Jindal and Kamal Kumar. (eds.). Global Politics: Issues and Perspectives. New Delhi, Thousand Oaks & Californian: SAGE Publications, pp. 115-136.

Martin, Gerg. 2015. Understanding Social Movements. Oxon and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 9 – Global Activism)

Milani, C. R. S. and Laniado, R. N. (eds.). 2007. Transnational Social Movements and the Globalization Agenda: A Methodological Approach Based on the Analysis of the World Social Forum. Brazilian Political Science Review, 2, pp. 10-39.

Module 5: Contextualizing Social Movements in India

The last module contextualises the social movements in the context of India. The Indian sub-continent has experienced an array of social movements including women, peasants, Dalits and Tribals among others. This module particularly discusses the farmers movements and anti-caste movements in order to make students familiar with the local contexts shaping and structuring the collective actions in contemporary India.

Readings:

Arora, Vibha. 2001. Politics of Class(ness) in the Farmers' Movement in India: Validity of the New Social Movement Paradigm, Sociological Bulletin, Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 84-121.

Gill, Sucha Singh. 2004. Farmers' Movement: Continuity and Change, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 27, pp. 2964-2966.

Roy, Debal K. Singha. 2005. Peasant Movements in Contemporary India: Emerging Forms of Domination and Resistance, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 40, No. 52, pp. 5505-5513.

Dhanagare, D. N. 2014. Negative Returns of Ambivalence: Electoral Politics of the Farmers' Movement, 1980-2014, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 49, No. 49, pp. 40-50.

Nielsen, K. B. and Nielsen, A. G. (eds.). 2016. Social Movements and the State in India: Deeping Democracy. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (Chapter 1 – Social Movement, State Formation and Democracy in India: An Introduction)

Omvedt, Gail. 1994. Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India. Oxon and New York: Routledge. (Chapter 3 – Anti-Caste Movement and Chapter 6 – The Farmers' Movement)

Omvedt, Gail. 2006. Dalit Visions: The Anti-Caste Movement and the Construction of an Indian Identity. Hyderabad: Orient Longman. (Introduction)

Shah, Ghanshyam. 2005. Caste and Democratic Politics in India. Delhi: Permanent Black. (Chapter 16 – The Anti-caste Movement and the Discourse of Power)

Webster, J. C. B. 1996. Understanding the Modern Dalit Movement, Sociological Bulletin, 45(2), pp. 189-204.

2. Pedagogy: