Rhetoric of Social Movements

This collection provides an accessible yet rigorous survey of the rhetorical study of historical and contemporary social movements and promotes the study of relations between strategy, symbolic action, and social assemblage.Offering a comprehensive collection of the latest research in the field, The Rhetoric of Social Movements: Networks, Power, and New Media suggests a framework for the study of social movements grounded in a methodology of "slow inquiry" and the interconnectedness of these imminent phenomena. Chapters address the rhetorical tactics that social movements use to gain attention and challenge power; the centrality of traditional and new media in social movements; the operations of power in movement organization, leadership, and local and global networking; and emerging contents and environments for social movements in the twenty-first century. Each chapter is framed by case studies (drawn from movements across the world, ranging from Black Lives Matter and Occupy to Greek anarchism and indigenous land protests) that ground conceptual characteristics of social movements in their continuously unfolding reality, furnishing readers with both practical and theoretical insights. The Rhetoric of Social Movements will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of rhetoric, communication, media studies, cultural studies, social protest and activism, and political science.

"If you hadn’t noticed, social protest is surging, times ripe and desperate for reinvigorated scholarship and teaching concerning the rhetoric of social movements. Nathan Crick has assembled a superb cast of rhetorical theorists and critics, many activists themselves, to reconsider the history of social movement scholarship in rhetorical studies and, through a variety of engaging case studies, explore its theory and praxis on the streets, now and into imagined futures. This excellent volume underscores that rhetoric and social movements, in every sense, matter." – Charles E. Morris III, Professor and Chair of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University"Premised in assumptions and goals that both locate the rhetorical study of social movements in its disciplinary roots and take such scholarship in critical new direction, this collection is a critical addition to anyone interested in movement, protest, advocacy, or networks. Together, the generative case studies take readers across a range of local, regional, national, and international movements, or events, prompting a pause on the concept of movement and mandating a scholarly project that intervenes in critical social and political moments." – Lisa A. Flores, Associate Professor, University of Colorado

Nathan Crick is Professor of Communication at Texas A&M University. His publications include Dewey for a New Age of Fascism: Teaching Democratic Habits (2019), The Keys of Power: The Rhetoric and Politics of Transcendentalism (2017), Rhetorical Public Speaking: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, 3rd edition (2019), Rhetoric and Power: The Drama of Classical Greece (2015), and Democracy and Rhetoric: John Dewey on the Arts of Becoming (2010).