Strategic choices and movement outcomes – Making movement research matter
Joseph Luders (Yeshiva University New York) and Jeremy Brecher (historian, author, filmmaker & activist)
Facilitator: Dalilah Shemia-Goeke
What are factors that movement participants themselves can control or influence that increase chances of favorably shifting public support toward the movement’s cause? In this session, Joseph Luders and Jeremy Brecher will discuss what influence the theory of change, strategic considerations and tactical choices have on movement outcomes and its effectiveness.
Joseph Luders is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Yeshiva University in New York. His research interests include American racial politics, social movements, civil rights politics and policy, and American political development. His book The Civil Rights Movement and the Logic of Social Change (2010) provides a general theoretical explanation for social movement outcomes by examining the disruption and concession costs involved for governments and corporations addressed with protests.
Jeremy Brecher is a historian, documentary filmmaker, activist, and author of numerous books on labor and social movements, such as about the power of strikes, globalization from below and the climate movement. In his most recent book Common Preservation: In a Time of Mutual Destruction (2020), he presents scores of historical examples of people who changed history, showing what we can we learn from past social movements to better confront today’s global threats of climate change, war, and economic chaos.