Taught By:
Katie Nutter-Pridgen
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Concord University
kpridgen@concord.edu
Read profile here.
Motivation for Teaching Social Action:
I did the first virtual institute a couple years ago and would like to do another training before teaching the class my second time (this upcoming semester) Earlier interest statement: Want to provide my students with tools to become change-makers in their communities, we are a small, rural campus with a high percentage of low-income and first-gen students, located in southern WV. Our students don't have a lot of other places they can go to get this information.
Student Campaigns:
Course Description:
Discussion of collective behavior, movements, and activism from a sociological point of view. Examination of characteristics of social movements and evaluation of their success or failure. Particular emphasis on social movement theories, including classical approaches such as resource mobilization and political opportunity and incorporating newer cultural theories such as framing, culture, and emotions.
As we learn about the sociology of social movements, we will explore power and democracy, both of which are central to the social sciences in general, and Sociology in particular. What is unique about the class is that it is designed to do democracy. Instead of just reading about social change, students learn about power and democracy by doing it. Of course, we will still use “book knowledge,” but my hope is that this knowledge will be challenged by what you’re learning in your social action projects, and that you will develop a more critical and deeper understanding of public issues and community change through action and reflection. Therefore, this course is an action-oriented, solutions-based, course on community activism.
All students will be involved in social action. This will require a minimum of 11⁄2 to 2 hours per week of community work (25 hours minimum over 15 week, with 13 hours or more DOING something, that is, tabling, postering, giving organization raps, marches, rallies, etc). If you do not do more than 25 hours a week, you will not receive higher than a C on the overall portfolio grade, since it is difficult to do reflection if you are not doing social action. Of course, if you want to do more community work, that is great.