Current course offerings

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Course description

An intensive and critical examination of civil resistance: "the sustained use of methods of nonviolent action by civilians engaged in asymmetric conflicts with opponents not averse to using violence" (Schock 2006). Civil resistance is also synonymous with other words including `nonviolent action', `nonviolent resistance', and `people power' (Roberts 2009: 2). The course outlines the philosophical basis, theoretical underpinnings and practical application of civil resistance as a means for controlling political power and effecting social change. Analysis focuses on the nature of power, its sources, function of consent, and the dynamic interaction between civil resistance and other forms of power politics. The meaning of nonviolent action, the question of why people obey, tactics, strategy, how nonviolent action can bring about social change, third party nonviolent intervention, and the problem of ruthless repression are all examined. Extensive use is made of case studies of nonviolent social movements from across time and around the world such as the Indian Independence movement, the civil rights struggle in the United States, the Philippines, the Polish solidarity movement, the overthrow of Milosevic in Serbia, West Papua, Palestine and so forth.

Archived offerings