Grassroots Participation in Global Perspective, Sociology 250
Nina Eliasoph, professor (); Office hours: 11:00-1:00, Tuesdays, 338 KAP.
Demitrios Psihopaidas, TA (). Office hours: Thursdays 11-11:30, TA office on 3rd floor of Kaprielian Hall.
Mailboxes for both: 352 KAP
Volunteer groups, activist groups, and nonprofit agencies invite ordinary people to learn to speak out to improve society. How, if at all, does the involvement change the participants’ lives? How, if at all, does it change the lives of the people whom they aim to help, if at all? How, of at all, does it affect the society as a whole?
While the course is about a topic—civic associations—it is also about a method for doing social research that researchers use to study all sorts of organizations: ethnography (also called “participant observation”). Using Los Angeles as a case, everyone will have to attend at least four meetings of a civic group--that is, any kind of activist group, volunteer group, or government-sponsored meeting that involves ordinary people in discussion and action aimed at improving society. The group can be on or off campus, as you wish, though off-campus groups will no doubt be more fascinating and puzzling (“puzzling” in a good, productive way). If you are already involved in an organization, feel free to study it, as long as it fulfills the requirements listed under “What is an Adequate Fieldsite” (at the end of the syllabus). You will take detailed notes on what you observe in your group. You will learn the research skills of closely observing interaction and finding patterns, taking notes, and connecting data to theory. We will use the theories that we read, about civic associations, to ask questions in real life, in familiar situations.
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” He meant it as an insult, but we can take it as a great compliment: when all the world’s loose parts land here, we have an incredible, fascinating blending process that shows various inspiring, terrifying, and funny future possibilities for a cosmopolitan world. This kind of ethnographic “lab” was the root of American sociology at the University of Chicago in the 1920’s, when immigrants from all over Europe were pouring into Chicago; Los Angeles is the “Chicago” of today: possibly the best place in the world to learn about how multiple cultures interact.
Outline of Themes in the Course
Section One is on perennial puzzles of grassroots civic participation, as portrayed in Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. As Tocqueville describes, we in the United States place great faith in “the voluntary association”—a group of unpaid, local folks who band together to fix problems that affect them. Our questions will include: what did Tocqueville miss about his own day? What has changed since Tocqueville’s day? For example, one big change since his day is that the gap between rich and poor citizens is greater. What can we still use from Tocqueville’s thought, if so much has changed?
Section Two compares the everyday, unspectacular, ordinary participation of the Tocquevillean ideal with more radical, life-changing kinds of democratic participation; our examples will be the workers’ collectives of Spain in the 1930’s and the civil rights movement in the US. In class and in our readings, we will learn how, if at all, political activism differs from Tocqueville’s ideal of volunteering.
Section Three portrays a set of big changes since Tocqueville’s day, asking how these changes make us rethink the whole idea of the voluntary association. Now, around the world, many volunteering and activism are funded and planned by the government and by large Non-Governmental Organizations (“NGO’s,” or “nonprofits”); these organizations are trying to cultivate the grassroots from the top down. Corporations sponsor another kind of top-down/grassroots association. “Astroturf” civic engagement (“Astroturf” is the fake grass made of plastic that is on many baseball fields—it might look like it has “grassroots” but does not) might look like volunteering: does it matter if its purpose is to make a corporation look good?
Section Four sketches another big set of changes in volunteering and activism: the rise of the Internet, new forms of immigrant civic engagement, and other forms of long-distance engagement. In this section, we will discuss the pros and cons of these kinds of non-face-to-face civic and political ties.
This course meets the USC “Diversity Requirement.” We will see how efforts to reduce inequality, by developing “civil society,” might sometimes backfire. Following Jane Addams, we will see how hard, perplexing, and potentially rewarding it is to try to understand differences of class or culture, rather than to jump too quickly to the assumption that we are all the same, before we serious understand how our situations, and lives, differ.
Required books (available at the bookstore):
- Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville
- Democracy and Social Ethics, Jane Addams
- Nonprofits for Hire, Steven Rathgeb Smith and Michael Lipsky
- Toxic Sludge is Good for You, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
- Avoiding Politics, Nina Eliasoph
- Freedom Summer, Doug McAdam
A photocopied reader will be available in the bookstore by the third week of classes
Some advice and suggestions:
1. You must check email DAILY every weekday.
2. Be a guinea pig if you want: At any point in the semester, you can ask the class as a whole to discuss your fieldnotes or paper. This is very much better for you than emailing the professor or the TA with questions; if you discuss your paper in class, you will get more and better feedback, and you will also help other students think about their sites.
3. Plagiarism will be reported. The possible consequences include failure and expulsion.
4. Read a “real” newspaper at least three times/week (“real” = not the Daily Trojan, but the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or other nationally-circulating daily). “Read” = “acquaint yourself with the major events of the week.” It does not mean “read the whole thing cover-to-cover.” We will routinely refer to current events in class.
I.
Foundations
Week One
Aug. 24—Introduction:
What is a “civic association” and why should we care?
How do I get started no later than this week doing the required ethnographic research for this course?
First “little” writing (please email it to us before Wednesday at 11:59 AM; if you enter the class after the first day, please write this and send it on email):
In what civic associations, if any, have you already participated? In a page (more or less is okay) describe one of them. Tell us what the organization aimed to accomplish, how you got involved (a mandatory service requirement for school? Your own personal conviction? Through parents or friends? To be cool? A free t-shirt? E.g.), what (if anything) you learned, and how (if at all) you think you might have helped people through this participation.
Aug. 26—reading due today: first set of pages from Tocqueville + USC’s “plagiarism policy” so that you can be sure that you do not even accidentally commit this offense: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/student-conduct/ug_plag.htm
Week Two
Aug. 31—Tocqueville, continued + 15 page document on how to do ethnography (in reader/bbd)
Sept 2—Tocqueville, continued
Second “little writing”: Hand in a typed sheet saying what organizations you have contacted and which one might become your field site
Week Three (reminder: you must find a potential fieldsite by 9/9)
Sept 7—Tocqueville, continued
Sept 9—Tocqueville, continued
Week Four
Sept 14—Prospectus due (see description below)
Sept 16— review of Tocqueville
Week Five, day 1
Sept 21— In class test or take-home essay on Tocqueville
II.
Volunteering versus Political Activism—
Are they the same? If not, how are they different?
Week Five, day 2, Sept 23— Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics: Editors’ Introduction, Author’s Introduction, “The Charity Visitor,” and “Politics”
Week Six (by 9/30, you have to have attended at least one meeting of the group you will study)
Sept 28— Avoiding Politics, first third of book + Emma Goldman on Spanish workers’ collectives (in reader/bbd)
Sept 30— Avoiding Politics, second third of book
Week Seven
Oct 5— Avoiding Politics, finish
Oct 7— Doug McAdam, Freedom Summer, pages to be announced
Week Eight
Oct 12-- Freedom Summer, pages to be announced
+ William Gamson, “Safe Spaces” (in reader/bbd)
Oct 14--“Forms of Valuing Nature: Arguments and Modes of Justification in French and American Environmental Disputes,” by Michael Moody, Claudette Lafaye and Laurent Thévenot (in reader/bbd)
Week Nine part 1
Oct 19— continued
III.
Promoting Grassroots Participation from the Top Down: puzzles of sponsorship
Week Nine part 2
Oct 21-- The Social Life of Projects: Importing Civil Society to Albania,” Steven Sampson (in reader/bbd)
Week Ten
Oct 26— Nonprofits for Hire: The Welfare State in the Age of Contracting, Michael Lipsky and Steven Rathgeb Smith (read/skim whole book by the end of next week)
Oct 28— Lipsky and Smith, continued
Week Eleven
Nov. 2— Lipsky and Smith, continued+ Julia Elyachar, on World Bank-funded civic associations in Egypt
Nov 4--— Toxic Sludge is Good for You, first half
Week Twelve
Nov. 9— Toxic Sludge is Good for You, second half + Tom Frank, “Alternative to What?” (in reader/bbd)
Nov 11— review of sections II and III
Week Thirteen, day 1
Nov 16—Second in-class test or take-home essay due in class
IV
Democracy at a Distance
Week Thirteen, day 2
Nov 18— from Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, pages vii-x (preface), and 41-51, 66-72 (in reader/bbd)
+ “The Other Face of the Earth: Social Movements Against the New Global Order,” 68-97
+ “Global Cities and Diasporic Networks: Microsites in Global Civil Society,” in Global Civil Society 2002, Marlies Glasius, Mary Kaldor and Helmut Anheier (in reader/bbd)
Week Fourteen
Nov 23—readings to be distributed on blackboard, based on topics that arise in the fieldsites and class discussions
Discussion of papers, puzzles with fieldsites, how to make fieldnotes into a paper
Nov 25-7—Thanksgiving
Week Fifteen
Nov. 30-- readings to be distributed on blackboard, based on topics that arise in the fieldsites
Third “little writing”: Return to your first little piece on your earlier volunteer or activist work, to re-reflect on this earlier participation: If you were one of the people who organized that group, what would you do to improve it (assuming that even in the best group, there is always room for improvement)?
1. “Improve it” according to what criteria?
2. What obstacles might get in the way?
3. How, if at all, could you overcome them?
Dec. 2—wrap up. Discussion of papers, unraveling problems in your fieldsites, how to make fieldnotes into a paper
Final exam: comprehensive (on any readings on the syllabus PLUS any reading that we have added over the course of the semester): In the classroom, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2-4 p.m.
Final research paper: Friday, Dec. 10, 2 PM.
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Summary of assignments and due dates:
Aug. 24: First little piece of writing (hand in asap if you were not in class on the first day). Email them to us after class (before Wednesday morning).
Sept. 2: Second “little writing”
Sept. 14: Prospectus due
Sept. 19: First set of fieldnotes must be in by now
Sept. 21: First in–class or take-home essay due, in class or in our mailboxes before class
Sept. 30: You have to have attended your first fieldsite meeting/event
Nov. 16: Second in-class or take-home essay due in class or in our mailboxes before class
Nov. 30: Third little in-class writing (must be written IN class)
Dec. 9: Final comprehensive exam, 2-4 PM
Dec. 10: Final research paper package (including 1. One hard copy of the paper; 2. An email copy of it, to both the TA and the professor; 3. Four sets of fieldnotes on email; 4. One hard copy of the prospectus and any fieldnotes on which we have given you handwritten comments; 5. A Turnitin certificate for the paper) due by 2 PM
Plus individual due dates:
Discussion of your fieldnotes in discussion section; circulate them at least five days before the presentation date
You are very welcome to ask the lecture class to discuss your fieldnotes, in addition to the discussion section’s discussion of them. We HOPE that some people take this opportunity for additional feedback. It is not extra credit but will be fun for us and helpful for you.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS and GRADE BREAKDOWN
Category 1. In-class tests and/or take-home essays
You can choose either to write the essays at home, or to take the tests in class.
Drop the lowest of the three grades.
The “in-class option:”
a. consists of two essays + four “identifications—key terms to define in a couple of sentences each.
b. is written in a large format blue book: please bring one to class.
c. Will answer questions from a study guide that we will distribute a week ahead of the test. The study guide will have several (5-9) sample prompts. Out of those sample prompts, we (the professor and TA) will offer only three; you will find out which three they are on the day of the test. From those, you will select two. We will also provide a larger number of ID’s in the study guide than will be on the test.
The “take-home essay” option:
a. Addresses ONE of the questions that we posed in the study guide (see above).
b. Is typed, at least 5 double-spaced (or 4 1.5 spaced) pages.
c. Is due either in-class or in the professor’s mailbox in 352 KAP before the end of the class period.
d. Will be graded ½ a grade lower per day that it is late (A becomes A-, for example; weekends included).
e. All take-home essays must be passed through Turnitin (the anti-plagiarism software on Blackboard).
The two (lowest grade having been dropped) take home essays or in-class tests are worth @ 25% each……………….…………….……………………………………….…………….…………….…………….50%
Category 2. Assignments related to the final research project
A. Prospectus……………………………………………………………………………………………..5%
Due Sept 14. Feel free to submit the prospectus early.
If the group you plan to study turns out to be impossible to use as a fieldsite, you must submit a second prospectus on the group you end up studying, before Sept 9. If we see that you have made a serious, diligent effort at finding the first fieldsite and it just didn’t work for reasons beyond your control (some examples might be: the group suddenly disbanded, or started doing something illegal, or the members all died, or after two meetings, you realized that only two people ever come to meetings) you will not be penalized for lateness. If, however, you were not diligent in attending your first fieldsite’s meetings and therefore did not come to recognize its problems early enough, then the prospectus will lose one letter grade.