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General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
ICS D036.
Course Title (CB02)
Grassroots Democracy: Social Movements Since the 1960s
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
Applied and theoretical learning for students of social justice, this course is a comparative survey of protest movements since the 1960s. An introductory, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of Mexican American, African American, Asian American, and white working class social and political struggles from 1960 to the present. The course traces the development of protest movements in response to racial, class, gender, ecological and political inequality in the context of U.S. politics and history. The course critically examines the internal and external factors contributing to the rise and fall of social and political movements with special attention to the conjuncture of ecology, gender, race, ethnicity, culture, class, and sexual orientation in contemporary U.S. politics.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course meets a general education requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSUGE and IGETC; fulfills one of the elective options for °®¶¹´«Ã½'s AA-T degree in Political Science; and also meets the UC Berkeley American Cultures graduation requirement. This course is CSU and UC transferable. This course provides an interdisciplinary, multicultural and gendered view of recent and contemporary American social movements with a particular focus on race, multiculturalism, and the environment and as such is cross-listed. By developing students understanding of the way regular citizens are able to bring about positive change through democratic social movements, this course helps students become socially responsible leaders in their communities, the nation and the world.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
2GES°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE - Environment Sustainability and Global CitizenshipApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

(Not open to students with credit in the cross-listed course(s).)

(Also listed as POLI D016.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class exploration of Internet sites

Homework and extended projects

Field observation and field trips

Guest speakers

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Community Civic Engagement and/or Service Learning projects

Narrative learning pairs or small groups

Assignments

  1. Field Research and Participant Observation: Students will choose an individual or group service learning project related to course content at the beginning of the term.
  2. Oral: Students will participate in class discussions, in small problem solving groups, in listening partnerships, and make oral presentations based on their service learning, and/or other class assignments. Students may also carry out interview assignments as part of research projects.
  3. Written: Students will complete some combination of the following: weekly homework questions, journal entries, short papers, term papers, mid-term and/or final essay exams. Students will write a minimum of 2500 words during the quarter.
  4. Reading: Students will carry out daily reading assignments relating to the overall theoretical and methodological concerns of this course, the specific content areas relevant to their service learning projects, as well as to the development, history, and social conditions of the movements studied.
  5. Collaborative Learning: students may engage in weekly listening partnerships or narrative learning groups regarding their own subjective perceptions and experiences relating both to the substance and process of their field study and other course material.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Short papers that assess students ability to investigate key events and experiences of major social protest movements since the 1960's, among other learning goals for the course.
  2. In-class quizzes that assess students ability to explore and assess the critical role played by women in the development of social movements or and since the 1960s, among other learning goals for the course.
  3. Midterm exams that requires students to summarize, integrate, and critically analyze and apply concepts examined throughout the course.
  4. Narrative learning partnership reports that demonstrate students ability to identify and practice major methodologies of social science field research, among other learning goals for the course.
  5. Group collaborative learning projects demonstrating students ability to comparing and appraising the contemporary and historical micro and macro social dynamics in which social movements characteristically operate (with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender), among other learning goals for the course.
  6. Small and/or large group participation that assess students ability to examine, appraise, and compare factors leading to the development of social protest consciousness in social protest movements since the 1960's with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender, among other learning goals for the course.
  7. Oral reports demonstrating students ability to comparing and appraising the contemporary and historical micro and macro social dynamics in which social movements characteristically operate (with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender), among other learning goals for the course.
  8. Field work/group work reports that demonstrate students ability to identify and practice major methodologies of social science field research, among other learning goals for the course.
  9. Weekly journal/homework assignments that assess students ability to explore and assess the critical role played by women in the development of social movements or and since the 1960s, among other learning goals for the course.
  10. Comprehensive cumulative project or portfolio that requires students to summarize, integrate, and critically analyze and apply concepts examined throughout the course.
  11. Comprehensive cumulative research paper that requires students to summarize, integrate, and critically analyze and apply concepts examined throughout the course.
  12. Final exam that requires students to summarize, integrate, and critically analyze and apply concepts examined throughout the course.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Paperback. (Simon and Schuster, 2015).
Vicki L Crawford, Jacqueline Anne Rouse and Barbara Woods, eds. Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers 1941-1965 (Indiana University Press, 1993).
Marshall Ganz, Why David Sometimes Wins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009)
Bill Lofy and Wellstone Action!, Politics the Wellstone Way (University of MN Press, (2005).
Bill Moyer, Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements (New Society Publishers, 2001).

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Helen Zia, "Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People" (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000).
Saul Alinsky, "Rules for Radicals" (New York: Vintage, 1972).
Karl Boggs, "Gramsci's Marxism," (London: Pluto Press, 1976).
Jeremy Brecher, "Strike" (Boston: South End Press, 1977 & 1998).
Rick Scarce, "Eco Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement" (Routledge, 2007).
Kristin Bumiller, "The Civil Rights Society" (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven, "Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail" (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
Gary Delgado, "Organizing the Movement" (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986).
Sara Evans and Harry Boyte, "Free Spaces: The Sources of Democratic Change in America" (New York: Harper and Row, 1986).
William Gamson, "The Strategy of Social Protest" (Homewood, II: The Dorsey Press, 1975).
Lois Gibbs, "Dying From Dioxin: a Citizens Guide to Reclaiming Our Health and Rebuilding Democracy" (Boston: South End Press, 1995).
Christopher Manes, "Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and The Unmaking of Civilization" (Back Bay Books, 1991).
Luke Cole, "From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement" (NYU Press, 2001).
Benjamin Kline, "First Along the River: A Brief History of the U.S. Environmental Movement" (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2011).
Kristin Luker, "Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).
Aldon D. Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, eds., "Frontiers in Social Movement Theory" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor, "Survival in the Doldrums: The American Women's Rights Movement, 1945 to the 1960s" (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1990).
Sidney Tarrow, "Struggling to Reform: Social Movements and Policy Change During Cycles of Protest" (Working Paper no. 1 of the project on Social Protest and Policy Innovation at Cornell University, January 1982).
Nicholas Gonzalez Yuen, "Alienation of Empowerment? Law and Strategies for Social Change," Law and Social Inquiry, Vol. 14, No. 3, p. 551 (Summer 1989).
Paul Wellstone and Barry Casper, "Powerline: The First Battle of America's Energy War" (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981).
F. Arturo Rosales, Chicano: The History of the Mexican American Movement (Arte Publico Press, 1997).
Doug McAdam, "Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
Doug McAdam, "Freedom Summer" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Doug McAdam and David Snow, "Social Movements: Readings on Their Emergence, Mobilization, and Dynamics" (Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishings Company, 1997).
Sara Evans, "Personal Politics, The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left" (New York: Vintage Books, 1980).

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Explore the nature of the social sciences as a disciplinary field.
  • Identify and practice major methodologies of social science field research.
  • Investigate key events and experiences of major social protest movements since the 1960's.
  • Explore and assess the critical role played by women in the development of social movements since the 1960s
  • Examine, appraise, and compare factors leading to the development of social protest consciousness in social protest movements since the 1960's with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender.
  • Comparing and appraising the contemporary and historical micro and macro social dynamics in which social movements characteristically operate (with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender).

CSLOs

  • Students will investigate and identify key events and experiences of major social protest movements since the 1960's.

  • Students will identify, appraise, and compare factors leading to the development of social protest consciousness in social protest movements since the 1960's with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender.

  • Students will demonstrate the capacity to participate effectively in political processes and techniques common to social movements.

Outline

  1. Explore the nature of the social sciences as a disciplinary field.
    1. Social Science as the study of people as members of society.
    2. The study of social structures/institutions.
    3. Political science methodologies examining institutional power structures and the nature of social authority.
    4. Sociological methodologies such as macro- and micro- institutional analysis.
    5. Psychological and Social Psychological approaches to individual, social, and institutional behavior.
    6. Economic analysis that explores the micro and macro systems for the production, allocation and distribution of social and material resources.
    7. Jurisprudential approaches which examine formal and informal systems of law, regulation, and social control.
    8. Historical methodologies, which explore and interpret the development of human events over time.
    9. Women's Studies as:
      1. an examination of power and gender roles and how they vary for women and men of different racial, ethnic, class and sexuality groups; and
      2. an examination of the varying positions of women in society, emphasizing the diverse nature of women's experiences, including and investigation of reproduction & family, work, beauty images, mass media and social movements; and
      3. a multi-faceted discipline including such diverse perspectives as:
        1. liberal feminism
        2. socialist feminism
        3. ecofeminism
        4. radical feminism
        5. intersectional feminism
  2. Identify and practice major methodologies of social science field research.
    1. Interview.
    2. Observation.
    3. Participant observation.
    4. The narrative tradition.
    5. Differentiate the types of data available through each, and assess the strengths, weaknesses, and reliability of each methodology.
    6. Compare and contrast experiences and perspectives shared by the student and people from culturally different backgrounds.
    7. Use service learning and civic engagement opportunities to explore the reality of social environments outside of classroom settings and use this experience to compare and analyze the theoretical models available through various social science disciplines.
  3. Investigate key events and experiences of major social protest movements since the 1960's.
    1. African American civil rights and Black Power
    2. Mexican American civil rights movement: UFW/student movement/ border issues.
    3. Asian American movement: "breaking silence"/internment/Asian immigrant organizing.
    4. The course may use one or more of the movements from the list below as a point of comparison and contrast:
      1. women's liberation movement (white feminists and feminists of color);
      2. Working class/labor movement (labor's decline, diversification and resurgence);
      3. the disability rights movement;
      4. the gay/lesbian rights movement.
      5. the peace movement;
      6. the immigrants rights movement
      7. the anti-nuclear power movement;
      8. the animal rights movement;
      9. the New Right and 'family values' movement;
      10. the community organizing movement;
      11. the conservative evangelical Christian movement;
      12. the progressive electoral movement;
      13. the pro-gun movement;
      14. the anti-choice movement;
      15. the anti-immigrant and nativist movement;
      16. the white supremacist movement;
      17. the 'conservative populist' anti-tax movement.
      18. the "Tea Party" phenomenon
      19. the "Occupy" or "99%" Movement
    5. The environmental movement
  4. Explore and assess the critical role played by women in the development of social movements since the 1960s
    1. Women grassroots activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement
    2. Fannie Lou Hamer and the Freedeom Democratic Party
    3. Ella Baker and the origins of "Participatory Democracy"
    4. Women trailblazers in the Montgomery Bus Boycott
    5. Women as "Culture Carriers" in the civil rights movement
    6. The feminist influence on the New Left
    7. The emergence of the white women's movement from the civil rights movement
    8. Dolores Huerta and other women in the Chicano Movement
    9. Helen Zia and a generation of women Asian Pacific American organizers and leaders
    10. Shirley Chisolm, Bella Abzug, Geraldine Ferraro, Kamala Harris, Barbara Lee, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and a new generation of women elected leaders
  5. Examine, appraise, and compare factors leading to the development of social protest consciousness in social protest movements since the 1960's with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender.
    1. Sherover-Marcuse, Boggs, Lipsky and others on the effects of segregation, subordination, and cooptation on the development and sustenance of a consciousness and social protest.
    2. Lerner, Phetersen and others on common dominant and subordinate group reactions to oppression; e.g., resistance, internalized domination, internalized oppression.
    3. Comparison of variations in protest mentality among group members in the development, success, and/or failure of grassroots social movements.
  6. Comparing and appraising the contemporary and historical micro and macro social dynamics in which social movements characteristically operate (with specific attention to issues of ethnicity, race, class, ecology and gender).
    1. Gamson and others on appeasement versus resistance.
    2. Ganz, Mc Adam, Cloward and Piven, Tarrow and others on the external and internal social conditions leading to success vs. failure of social movements (e.g., group strategic capacity, social network, political opportunity structure, and electoral and economic vulnerability of elites, cycles of innovation and dispersion.)
    3. Coalition building and identity-based versus issue-based political organizing.
    4. Service learning and civic engagement application of key social movement theories.
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