In this chapter, we reflect on the distinctive ways in which historians have contributed to our understanding of social movements and collective action. We find that historians interrogate the historical record in at least one of three ways. First, historians characterize their task as...
Faculty Publications
By Asef Bayat Unlike revolts of the past, the recent unrest in Iran came from an emerging, angry middle class facing a future of limited opportunity. How do we explain the eruption? Among the numerous observations, two broad explanations stand out. The first views the unrest as a prelude to a...
Causes, Consequences, and Remedies by Kevin T. Leicht and Scott T. Fitzgerald Written in accessible prose for North American undergraduate students. This short text provides a sociological understanding of the causes and consequences of growing middle class inequality, with an abundance of...
by Asef Bayat The revolutionary wave that swept the Middle East in 2011 was marked by spectacular mobilization, spreading within and between countries with extraordinary speed. Several years on, however, it has caused limited shifts in structures of power, leaving much of the old political and...
by Asef Bayat “What would Gramsci think of our current predicaments?” wondered the young leftist mayor of the Italian city of Cagliari, Massimo Zedda. “He would probably think that things have improved, but we also have many problems in Sardinia … That’s why we need to organize.” With this...
by Assata Zerai Over a decade of qualitative research, Assata Zerai has observed both incremental moves toward inclusiveness and strategies employed to accomplish long-term changes while conducting case studies of five multicultural Protestant churches in sites across the United States. With an...
by Kevin T. Leicht 2016. The Sociological Quarterly 57(2): 211-231 Sociologists have spent a great deal of energy studying social inequality, but in this presentation I suggest that we need to refocus our efforts a bit. I examine four popular myths among the general public, and among some in...
by Zsuzsa Gille In this original and provocative study, Zsuzsa Gille examines three scandals that have shaken Hungary since it joined the European Union: the 2004 ban on paprika due to contamination, the 2008 boycott of Hungarian foie gras by Austrian animal rights activists, and the "red mud"...
by Asef Bayat ISA The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World Anecdotal stereotyping of ‘other’ peoples and cultures is neither new nor of course limited to the West. But things become more serious when stereotypical imaginations get articulated by systematic, ‘...
by Brian Dill Community-based development' (CBD) or'community-driven development' (CDD) has been the predominant approach to international development in recent years. Drawing on fieldwork and first-hand experience, this book explains why CBD/CDD produces outcomes that are incompatible with its...
