The Art of Moral Protest Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
- Publish date: 01/01/1998
In "The Art of Moral Protest", James Jasper integrates diverse examples of protest -- from nineteenth-century boycotts to recent antinuclear, animal-rights, and environmental movements -- into a distinctive new understanding of how social movements operate. Jasper highlights their creativity, not only in forging new morals but in adopting courses of action and inventing organizational forms. The work stresses the role of individuals, both as lone protesters and as key decision-makers, and it emphasizes the open-ended nature of strategic choices as protesters, their opponents, their allies, and the government respond to each other's actions.
Drawing on lengthy interviews, historical materials, surveys, and his own participation in protests, Jasper offers a unique systematic overview of the field of social movements. He weaves together accounts of large-scale movements with individual biographies, placing the movements in cultural perspective and focusing on individuals' experiences. Few books have ever presented such a rich picture of protest dynamics.