Conflict over moral, religious, social, political, and economic values fuel social movements. People form organized collectivities to promote or to oppose changes in societal norms and values. The steady growth in globalization and access to information have increased the perception of threats to identity, values, and culture. Persuasion and Social Movements provides a solid foundation for understanding how people collectively shape society. The latest edition marks three decades of synthesizing, applying, and extending research and theories about the persuasive efforts of social movements. Historic and current examples illustrate the many facets of social movement persuasion:
Persuasion is inherently practical; we can study it most profitably by examining the functions of persuasive acts.
Even apparently irrational acts make sense to the actor effective analysis discovers the reasoning behind the acts.
People create and comprehend their world through symbols, and it is people who create, use, ignore, or act on these symbolic creations.
Although they remain important in social movement persuasion, speeches are now one of many resources for organizing and carrying out a variety of protests.
New technologies have transformed how social movements come into existence, constitute organizations, establish coalitions, pressure institutions, and communicate with a wide variety of audiences.
Social movements sometimes sell conspiracy theories to skeptical audiences, justify inherently divisive tactics, and use violence as a rhetorical strategy.
Institutions and countermovements have a variety of strategies for resistance.
Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Borchers, Persuasion in the Media Age, Third Edition (ISBN 9781577668268); Bowers et al., The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control, Third Edition (ISBN 9781577666141); Denton-Kuypers, Politics and Communication in America: Campaigns, Media, and Governing in the 21st Century (ISBN 9781577665335); Miller, Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action, Third Edition (ISBN 9781478600572); and Woodward-Denton, Persuasion and Influence in American Life, Seventh Edition (ISBN 9781478607892).
