Riots, rebellions, revolutions
Bachelor's degree
In Maynard (USA)
Description
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Type
Bachelor's degree
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Location
Maynard (USA)
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Start date
Different dates available
This course examines different types of violent political conflict. It compares and contrasts several social science approaches (psychological, sociological, and political) and analyzes their ability to explain variation in outbreak, duration and outcome of conflict. Incidents such as riots in the U.S. during the 1960's, riots in India, the Yugoslav wars, and the Russian Revolution, as well as current international events are discussed.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Start date
Reviews
Subjects
- Press
- University
- Conflict
Course programme
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
There are no prerequisites for this course.
The course aims to enhance the student's ability to analyze contentious and violent political events. The first section addresses four different individual level mechanisms that drive individual participation in these events—rationality, psychological forces, social norms, and emotions. The second section examines how these individual level forces aggregate and combine. The third section applies the lessons from the first two sections to analyze variation in U.S. riots over the course of the Twentieth Century. The fourth section examines contentious events, both in violent and non-violent forms, during the course of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. The fifth section discusses major social revolutions. The sixth section applies the course theories and methods to the Arab Spring and current conflict in Mali.
The books listed below are required reading for this course.
Elster, Jon. Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521777445. [Preview with Google Books]
Judah, Tim. Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195373455. [Preview with Google Books]
McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780521011877. [Preview with Google Books]
Skocpol, Theda. States & Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of French, Russia, & China. Cambridge University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780521294997. [Preview with Google Books]
Additional readings come from a variety of sources and are detailed in the Readings section.
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Riots, rebellions, revolutions