Poor People’s Movements
Piven and Cloward
Intro and Ch. 1
Main Questions Addressed by Book
Institutional conditions that make movements possible
Institutional conditions that determine forms taken by mass movements
Institutional conditions which determine responses of elites
Did they mention “Institutional Conditions”?
“Protest is also not a matter of free choice” (3)
“The occasions when protest is possible among the poor, the forms that it must take, and the impact it can have are all delimited by the social structure in ways which usually diminish its extent and diminish its force” (3).
P and C’s Definition of Protest Entails a transformation of consciousness
System loses legitimacy
People who are usually fatalistic begin to demand rights
People believe they have some capacity to alter their lot
Entails a change in behaviorMasses of people become defiant (violate
traditions and laws)
Defiance is acted out collectively
Not about formalized organizations
Life-Cycle of a Protest Time of momentous changes in institutional
order (can be a pressures that force eruption or breakdown of regulatory capacity)
Form of protest largely determined by features of social structure
Elites respond (ignore, repress, or concede, Conciliate, Coopt, Undermine sympathy)
Protest gains momentum, institutional accommodation and coercion restore order
May leave residues of reform
“Protesters win, if they win at all, what historical circumstances has already made ready to be conceded” (36)
Mass membership versus mass mobilization
Formal organizations Focus on momentum rather than
organization Where elites fit in (conferred resources) Leaders failed to take into account social
structure and exploit opportunities
Where Marx comes in Critics from the “left” (Interesting: They are
all Marxists), formal orgs Dominant elites are key players in P and C Poor-stratum within working class
Boycott Working class? What does “defiance” look like?