Direct Action, Deliberation, and Diffusion: Collective Action after the WTO Protests in Seattle

Awards:   Winner of Canadian Sociological Association John Porter Award / La Societe Canadienne de Sociologie Prix du livre de John Porter 2013 Winner of Canadian Sociological Association John Porter Award / La Societe Canadienne de Sociologie Prix du livre de John Porter 2013. Winner of John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award, Canadian Sociological Association 2013
Author:   Lesley J. Wood (York University, Toronto)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781107682641


Pages:   200
Publication Date:   01 May 2014
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Direct Action, Deliberation, and Diffusion: Collective Action after the WTO Protests in Seattle


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Awards

  • Winner of Canadian Sociological Association John Porter Award / La Societe Canadienne de Sociologie Prix du livre de John Porter 2013
  • Winner of Canadian Sociological Association John Porter Award / La Societe Canadienne de Sociologie Prix du livre de John Porter 2013.
  • Winner of John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award, Canadian Sociological Association 2013

Overview

What are the micro-level interactions and conversations that underlie successful and failed diffusion? By comparing the spread of direct action tactics from the 1999 Global Justice Movement protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle to grassroots activists in Toronto and New York, Lesley Wood argues that dynamics of deliberation among local activists both aided and blocked diffusion. To analyze the localization of this cycle of protest, the research brings together rich ethnography, interviews, social network analysis and catalogs of protest events. The findings suggest that when diverse activists with different perspectives can discuss innovations in a reflexive, egalitarian manner, they are more likely to make strategic and meaningful choices.

Full Product Details

Author:   Lesley J. Wood (York University, Toronto)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.10cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.310kg
ISBN:  

9781107682641


ISBN 10:   1107682649
Pages:   200
Publication Date:   01 May 2014
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. The Seattle cycle: 1998–2002; 3. The Seattle tactics; 4. The organizations most likely to adopt; 5. Regimes on repertoires: nation-states, cities, and networks; 6. Opinion leaders: local anti-globalization coalitions; 7. Talking 'bout a revolution; 8. Talking about smashing; 9. Not like us: debates about identity; 10. The cops and the courts: the effect of repression; 11. After 9/11: the effect of repression; 12. Conclusion.

Reviews

'With Direct Action, Deliberation, and Diffusion, Lesley Wood has developed a detailed analysis of the way activists in New York City and Toronto interpreted and responded to Seattle. The monograph provides substantive insight into contemporary urban activism and theoretical insight into mechanisms that propel the diffusion of protest tactics … Wood's most valuable insights, for this reader, arose when reflecting the many-faceted structure of diffusion as mechanism and outcome.' David Strang, American Journal of Sociology


Lesley Wood offers original insights into why Battle of Seattle tactics diffused more successfully to New York than to Toronto. In accessible language and intimate detail, she shows that the quality of conversations was the main reason for this difference in pathways. While Wood acknowledges structural and relational contexts, she pays special attention to deliberation, experimentation, and direct action. As insider in both movement communities, her perspective of transnational diffusion is unique. With the wave of resistance continuing to spread from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street and beyond, this book is a 'must read' for scholars and activists alike. -Sean Chabot, Eastern Washington University, author of Transnational Roots of the Civil Rights Movement: African American Explorations of the Gandhian Repertoire Wood's deeply rich substantive exploration of why direct action tactics work here not there and now not then, is theoretically sophisticated and eminently accessible and brings activist social science into the mainstream. Smart, challenging, reflective, and marked by commitment to real people in the real world making real decisions about things that really matter, this engaging story and astute analysis of what works (and does not) when, where, why, and how will be welcomed by scholars, students, and activists. This superbly crafted volume is another achievement for one of the most innovative and exciting series in the social sciences. -Eric Selbin, Southwestern University Direct Action, Deliberation, and Diffusion is a must-read for social movement theorists and activists alike. Wood's detailed case study helps us understand how movement tactics and strategies are shared, or not, using the theoretical framework of diffusion. This text is particularly useful today, with the growing uprisings and movements that began in 2011 spreading across the globe. -Marina Sitrin, CUNY Graduate Center, Committee on Globalization and Social Change, author of Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina


'With Direct Action, Deliberation, and Diffusion, Lesley Wood has developed a detailed analysis of the way activists in New York City and Toronto interpreted and responded to Seattle. The monograph provides substantive insight into contemporary urban activism and theoretical insight into mechanisms that propel the diffusion of protest tactics ... Wood's most valuable insights, for this reader, arose when reflecting the many-faceted structure of diffusion as mechanism and outcome.' David Strang, American Journal of Sociology


Author Information

Lesley Wood is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University in Toronto, Canada. She researches how social movements and state responses to those movements are changing in the current globalizing moment. She has published on this question in journals including Mobilization, Qualitative Sociology, the Journal of World Systems Research and Upping the Anti. She has authored or co-authored book chapters on the control and surveillance of protest, summit protests, transnational social movement networks and coalition formation, the World Social Forum, deliberation and nineteenth-century British social movements. She is the co-author of the second and third editions of the late Charles Tilly's book, Social Movements, 1768–2008/2012. She is a regional editor for the international, peer-reviewed, online journal Interface, a journal for and about social movements.

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