Blee - Democracy in the Making: How Activist Groups Form

Democracy in the Making

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Democracy in the Making

How Activist Groups Form

Kathleen M. Blee

How Activist Groups Form

Kathleen M. Blee

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Blee, Kathleen M.

Democracy in the making : how activist groups form / Kathleen M. Blee.

p. cm. (Oxford studies in culture and politics)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-19-984276-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Social movementsPennsylvaniaPittsburghHistory21st century. 2. Social changePennsylvaniaPittsburgh. 3. DemocracyPennsylvaniaPittsburgh. I. Title.

HM881.B54 2011

322.40974886dc23

2011025665

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

Dedicated to Pam Goldman, Eli Blee-Goldman, and Sophie Blee-Goldman

We are better than we think

And not yet what we want to be

We are alive to imagination

And open to possibility

We will continue

To invent the future

We Are Virginia Tech, from Nikki Giovannis Bicycles: Love Poems (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. 109, used with permission

Many people contributed to this project in different ways. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants Nos. 0316436 and 0416500. I am grateful to Patricia White at the NSF for her care in administering these grants. Joane Nagel, then at the NSF and now a colleague and friend, provided a mixture of skepticism and encouragement that improved the project immeasurably.

Earlier versions of this work were presented at the University of Michigan; University of California, Santa Barbara; University of California, Irvine; Harvard University; the School of American Research; University of Southern California; University of Connecticut; and the University of Kansas; presentations were also made at meetings of the International Sociological Association; International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry; the American Sociological Association, Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Conference; the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research; the Section on Comparative and Historical Sociology Conference; and the Pittsburgh Social Movements Forum. Feedback from colleagues and students in all these venues was tremendously important in sharpening the argument of this book.

I am very thankful to John Markoff, Nicole Constable, David S. Meyer, Deborah Gould, Kathleen Bulger Gray, Linda Gordon, and Akiko Hashimoto for their advice at an early stage and to Nina Eliasoph, James Cook, James Jasper, and anonymous reviewers for feedback on the manuscript. A number of graduate and undergraduate students worked on various stages of this project and I am grateful for their advice and insights as well as their careful work: Lisa Huebner Ruchti, Tim Vining, Kim Creasap, Kelsy Burke, Amy McDowell, Anne Richardson, Analena Bruce, Christie Harrison, Kathi Elliott, Amy Gottenthaler, Danielle Kittridge, Emily Long, Cara Margherio, John Nigro, Laura Petruzelli, and particularly Ashley Currier, whose ideas, savvy approach to data collection, theoretical acumen, and friendship have shaped this project from the beginning. I thank Nancy Kasper for her skill and sense of humor in shepherding the project through its administrative aspects.

Activists are the heroes of modern society, turning a critical lens on what is and imagining what can be. This book highlights the problems and shortcomings that can build up in activist groups but shouldnt diminish the courage and fortitude of activists who work every day to change the direction of society. I am deeply indebted to the many activists who permitted this scholarly gaze inside their meetings and events and who generously gave their time to answer questions and be interviewed. It is through their work that a better world is made.

Democracy in the Making

This book looks at how people come together to change society. In communities across the United States, grassroots activists work tirelessly to end American military intervention abroad, protect laboratory animals, or rid their neighborhoods of guns and violence. Some of their actions occur in the public eye, as solemn street corner vigils, dramatic protests, and emotional press conferences. Others happen behind the scenes, as people encourage friends and neighbors to join them in convincing decision makers to change laws or policies.

Pundits commonly bemoan the general publics lack of interest in politics today. Whether civic engagement is indeed lower now than in the past is debatable, but clearly, few people are involved in politics beyond actually voting. Most even avoid conversations about politics, especially those that might create disagreement or controversy.

The people in this book are exceptions. They spend considerable time talking about political issues and they work hard to change society. Compared to the massive feminist, racial, and anti-war protests of the 1960s and 1970s, their events draw paltry numbers. The groups they form are mostly tiny and short-lived. Yet these activists shape new ways of talking and doing politics, invigorating public dialogue with what Marc Steinberg terms a moral vision of the world. At its best, Robin D. G. Kelley tells us, such civic activism can do what great poetry always does: transport us to another place, compel us to relive horrors and, more importantly, enable us to imagine a new society. It provides a means for people to envision what they otherwise would not consider.

Grassroots activism is commonly thought of as ancillary to democratic politics, as making political institutions and elected officials more accountable, and as serving as a conduit into electoral politics. This defines democracy as formal institutions of elections and representative legislatures, with citizen activism as secondary, if beneficial, to democratic life.