David S. Meyer
I'm a professor of sociology and political science at the University of California, Irvine. I've been thinking, and writing about, protest politics for almost ever. This site offers comments on contemporary events, informed (I hope) by knowing something about history and about the academic study of social movements.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
War on Terrors
It doesn’t take violence, or even the threat of violence, to get on a government watch list. This fall, the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice released a study that found a number of activists groups had been … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Catholic Workers, Greenpeace, harassment, PETA, repression, Thomas Merton, violence
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Science, Animals, and Terror
Terror is a social movement strategy, but not a popular one in the United States. Terror, and violence more generally, polarizes, and when people make choices, it’s not always on the side of the movement. Animal rights activism takes diverse … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged animal rights, countermovements, science, terrorism, violence
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Seizing the Moment
The scanning controversy created enough attention that other groups tried to appropriate it for their own purposes. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), always entrepreneurial in the search for attention–and often very effective–has been pushing its concerns in … Continue reading
Was Opting Out a Bust?
Many people oppose the full-body scans now available at every airport, courtesy of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA). There’s a lot to object to: inconvenience, cost, radiation, inefficiency, delays, embarrassment. There are individual remedies available: don’t fly; opt for a … Continue reading
Is the Tea Party Over? (part 2)
What was the Tea Party anyway? We remember the costumes, of course, and the upset victories in primary elections by some, uh, unusual candidates, but what was it about? Like all social movements in America, the Tea Party contains a … Continue reading
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Tagged don't ask don't tell, Dream act, health care, tea party
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University Protests: Learning to Target
University students everywhere are facing the fallout from the global recession. In the United States, where public universities are supported (more and less) by state governments, higher education funding is on the table as states try to address their own … Continue reading
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Tagged budget, California, coalitions, Louisiana, protest, students, universities
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Targeting: University Protests
The global recession is still winding through government-sponsored programs in all of the rich countries. When David Cameron’s government announced that it was tripling fees to attend university, students took to the streets–vigorously. They knew who to blame; the Conservatives … Continue reading
The Culture/Politics Thing (again)
I thought that I was done writing about either Bristol Palin or Dancing with the Stars. Dancing voters, however, sent her along to the show’s final round, at the expense of singer, Brandy, a somewhat older single mother. The decision … Continue reading
Activist Daughters
If Bristol Palin’s activist resume is rather thin, there are notable famous daughters who made serious commitments and took risks to advance their views. Certainly, they benefited from their parents’ visibility, but they also did their own activist work. Amy … Continue reading
Bristol: Tea Party Test of Strength
Is the fix in for Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars? Despite notching relatively weak scores from the judges, the viewers’ votes have kept Bristol on the dance floor–and the show–week after week. She is now one of the … Continue reading
