ORDER AND RESISTANCE

Catalog description

When the hierarchies of economic systems or state institutions are unresponsive to the needs of society, movements develop to resist the prevailing ruling order. Sometimes social movements seek to empower and include new members of society. Other times they mobilize on constructed grievances that seek to maintain untenable social exclusions. Whether demanding more equality or something else, these ordinary people in social movements enter a conversation with the people who govern them and have the full weight of the state apparatus behind them. This course reflects on this process of social struggle in order to understand the political, economic and social costs of supporting the continued exclusion of certain groups. It aims to understand political change and violence as a struggle played out between state authorities and social movements. After examining case studies of such state-society struggles from around the world, students are guided to consider what role they can each play to constructively contribute to the global society.