SOCY 79.09 Global Inequality Protests
Three years after the 2008 financial crisis a protest movement sparked in Tunisia, and expanded by contagion to Egypt, Morocco and India, and from there to Spain, Chile, Israel, and finally arrived to Wall Street, giving the name to the global movement as the Occupy social movement. These cases largely differ from one another, but have in common their opposition to inequality and readiness to struggle against it. The course will focus on the comparison of protest movements and the political processes each case provoked, using theories of social movements and political sociology, and analyzing the economic, social and political context before the protests sparked and the after movements' peaks. We will analyze and discuss in class the Occupy Wall Street movement and the political process it provoked in the US. Each student will chose an international case for comparison, presenting it in class and writing a research paper of their own as a final essay. Students will work in teams of two for their presentations and final research paper.
Instructor
Grinberg