{"id":10221,"date":"2015-03-31T14:16:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T19:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=10221"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:07:13","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:07:13","slug":"socialchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=10221","title":{"rendered":"Sociologists examine the power of protest to bring about social change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andy<\/a>
Andy Andrews<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anthropologist Margaret Mead once famously stated, \u201cNever doubt that a small group of\u00a0thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is little rigorous\u00a0evidence that protest can change the world. Skeptics claim that social movements are the symptom rather than the cause of\u00a0historical change.<\/p>\n

In a new article published in the\u00a0American Sociological Review<\/em>, sociologists Michael Biggs of the University of Oxford and\u00a0Kenneth T. \u201cAndy\u201d Andrews<\/a> of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provide compelling evidence that protest can make a difference.<\/p>\n

They\u00a0investigate sit-in protests by black college students in 1960, which targeted stores that refused to\u00a0let blacks sit down to dine. Collecting information on 334 cities in the U.S. South, Biggs and\u00a0Andrews compare cities where sit-ins occurred to cities without sit-ins. They then ask which\u00a0cities experienced desegregation over the following two years.<\/p>\n

Their analysis takes into account numerous social, economic and political factors\u00a0that could explain success. Some of these factors shaped the black community\u2019s ability to\u00a0mobilize, like the membership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored\u00a0People. Other factors indicated the extent of white opposition, like the proportion voting to\u00a0maintain strict segregation. After accounting for such factors using statistical analysis, Biggs\u00a0and Andrews find that sit-ins did increase the probability of desegregation in that city and also\u00a0helped bring about desegregation in nearby cities.<\/p>\n

The article shows that broader historical changes were not enough to break down racist\u00a0practices. Action by a relatively small number of African Americans, directly challenging those\u00a0practices, was needed to propel social change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a strong reminder of the power of protest to change long-standing and taken-for-granted patterns of inequality,\u201d said Andrews, professor and chair of sociology in UNC\u2019s College of Arts and Sciences. \u201cIt is important that the protest not only changed the cities where demonstrations occurred, but that success spread to other cities nearby \u2014 essentially, the protest had collateral success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrews\u2019 research examines social movements, political institutions and social change. In past research he has examined the diffusion of protest, media attention and the consequences of movements. Current projects examine the dynamics of protest campaigns, cultural conflict and legal change, and the organization and leadership of civic associations.<\/p>\n

Read the article online: http:\/\/asr.sagepub.com\/content\/current<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new article published in the American Sociological Review, sociologists Michael Biggs of the University of Oxford and Kenneth T. \u201cAndy\u201d Andrews of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences provide compelling evidence that protest can make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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