Strategic innovation in US anti-sweatshop movement

Williams, Matthew

doi:10.1080/14742837.2015.1082466

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Movements must innovate in order to effectively agitate for change, but more seasoned activists (in most cases, adults) may be more likely to draw on the same tactical repertoires that they used for past campaigns (McAdam, ; Taylor & Van Dyke, ). In contrast, youth may be more prone to develop or adopt new or novel tactics online (Bonilla & Rosa, ; Gaby & Caren, ) and off (Soule, ; Williams, ; Wood, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth, activism, and social movements

2017

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There has been considerable debate over the extent and role of young people's political participation. Whether considering popular hand-wringing over concerns about declines in young people's institutional political participation or dismissals of young people's use of online activism, many frame youth engagement through a "youth deficit" model that assumes that adults need to politically socialize young people. However, others argue that young people are politically active and actively involved in their own political socialization, which is evident when examining youth participation in protest, participatory politics, and other forms of noninstitutionalized political participation. Moreover, social movement scholars have long documented the importance of youth to major social movements.In this article, we bring far flung literatures about youth activism together to review work on campus activism; young people's political socialization, their involvement in social movement organizations, their choice of tactics; and the context in which youth activism takes place. This context includes the growth of movement societies, the rise of fan activism, and pervasive Internet use. We argue that social movement scholars have already created important concepts (e.g., biographical availability) and questions (e.g., biographical consequences of activism) from studying young people and urge additional future research.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth, activism, and social movements

2017

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“…In this paper, I explored why anti-sweatshop activists chose their particular strategy, emphasizing their ideology of worker empowerment and the strategic consequences of this for the success and failure of transnational campaigns. A number of scholars (Downey and Rohlinger 2008; Epstein 1991; King 2008; Maney 2012 Williams 2016, 2020) have emphasized the importance of ideology in shaping activists’ strategy. What I add here is the way the anti-sweatshop movement’s ideology of worker empowerment shapes the organization of their transnational networks—and how the resulting decision-making structure also informs their strategy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The result was that at many factories where workers had won important victories with the support of the global anti-sweatshop movement, the workers found themselves out of work as the factory closed for lack of business. Rutter (interview, 2007) said, “With a lot of the really important relationships that had been built with workers at certain factories, those workers were saying, ‘We really need to keep our factory, that’s the most important thing right now.’” According to Rutter, this request required a rethinking of USAS’s strategy, since it “was really different than anything USAS had ever done before, because USAS generally didn’t work to keep business in certain places, that’s just not what we did—we supported workers organizing.” Getting into details of the DSP is beyond the scope of the paper (see Designated Suppliers Program Working Group 2006; and Williams 2016, 2020, for such details), but in brief, it was an attempt by USAS, the WRC and their allies to ensure the victories they were winning at individual factories were more long-lived.…”

Section: The Anti-sweatshop Movement’s Strategizing Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Solidarity, Global Worker Empowerment, and Global Strategy in the Anti-sweatshop Movement

Williams

2020

Labor Studies Journal

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I explore the ideology of worker empowerment among U.S. anti-sweatshop activists, particularly United Students Against Sweatshops, and its strategic consequences for transnational campaigns. This ideology is central in shaping the movement’s transnational strategy and organization, fostering communication and accountability, particularly to organizations representing sweatshop workers. Such organizational choices, in turn, shape how transnational networks strategize. For example, the anti-sweatshop movement rarely uses the familiar tactic of boycotts, due to opposition from workers. The more empowered sweatshop workers in such networks, the more informed decisions their allies can make, and the more strategically effective the movement can be.

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“…Pedriana's () study of NOW's formation shows how broad opportunities and specific obstacles can work together to fuel feminist activism, both institutional and extra‐institutional activism. In social movement studies more generally, researchers (McCammon ; Williams ) now pay greater attention to collective challengers’ strategic efforts. But few studies investigate institutional strategic activism.…”

Section: Theorizing Feminist Institutional Activism's Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist Institutional Activists: Venue Shifting, Strategic Adaptation, and Winning the Pregnancy Discrimination Act

McCammon

Brockman

2018

Sociological Forum

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We examine efforts of feminist institutional activists in the 1960s and 1970s as they worked to gain U.S. federal policy to combat workplace pregnancy discrimination. The success of these activists in winning policy change provides a case that allows us to develop a theoretical understanding of how feminist institutional activists can succeed in winning policy change. We find that when institutional activists strategically shifted governmental arenas and adapted their mobilization and discursive strategies to these arenas, they were able to dismantle policy-specific barriers that impeded their goals. In taking these steps, feminist institutional activists were successful in opening up both contingent and structural opportunities, which ultimately allowed them to gain the policy change they sought.

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Strategic innovation in US anti-sweatshop movement

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

Youth, activism, and social movements

Youth, activism, and social movements

Global Solidarity, Global Worker Empowerment, and Global Strategy in the Anti-sweatshop Movement

Feminist Institutional Activists: Venue Shifting, Strategic Adaptation, and Winning the Pregnancy Discrimination Act

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