Stories of Change: Narrative and Social Movements

294 Pages·2002·1.706 MB·English

by  Joseph E. Davis (editor)

STORIES
OF
CHANGE:
Narrative and
Social Movements
EDITED BY
Joseph E. Davis
State University of New York Press
STORIES OF CHANGE

S
TORIES
OF
C
HANGE
Narrative and
Social Movements
EDITEDBY
Joseph E. Davis
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2002 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission.
No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means including
electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, address State University of New York Press,
90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207
Production by Cathleen Collins
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Cover photo courtesy of Hulton Getty Archive/Liaison.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Stories of change : Narrative and social movements / edited by Joseph E. Davis.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–7914–5191–7 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0–7914–5192–5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Storytelling. 2. Social movements. 3. Discourse analysis, Narrative.
I. Davis, Joseph E. II. Title.
GR72.3 .S755 2002
303.48’4—dc21
2001020146
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
PART ONE
Narrative and the Sociology of Social Movements
1. Narrative and Social Movements: The Power of Stories
Joseph E. Davis 3
2. Plotting Protest: Mobilizing Stories in the 1960 Student Sit-Ins
Francesca Polletta 31
3. Controlling Narratives and Narratives as Control
within Social Movements
Robert D. Benford 53
PART TWO
Analysis of Narrative in Social Movements
4. “Getting Our Histories Straight”: Culture, Narrative,
and Identity in the Self-Help Movement
John Steadman Rice 79
5. Moving Toward the Light: Self, Other, and the Politics
of Experience in New Age Narratives
Michael F. Brown 101
6. Fundamentalism: When History Goes Awry
Joshua J. Yates and James Davison Hunter 123
v
vi CONTENTS
7. Drug Court Stories: Transforming American Jurisprudence
James L. Nolan Jr. 149
8. Compassion on Trial: Movement Narrative in a
Court Conflict over Physician-Assisted Suicide
Jeffery D. Tatum 179
9. Movement Advocates as Battered Women’s Storytellers:
From Varied Experiences, One Message
Bess Rothenberg 203
PART THREE
Conclusion
10. The Storied Group: Social Movements as
“Bundles of Narratives”
Gary Alan Fine 229
Bibliography 247
Contributors 275
Index 279
Acknowledgments
This is a book about stories, but it also has a story of its own. While the
details of this long and rather circuitous tale are not of general interest,
I want to acknowledge and thank a number of colleagues who helped bring
it to a happy ending with timely advice and support along the way. These
include, most notably, Robert Benford, Donald Black, Edith Raphael
Brotman, Gary Alan Fine, James Davison Hunter, Marcus Mahmood,
Francesca Polletta, and Jeffery Tatum. I also want to express special appre-
ciation to Brooke Lea and Jack Rossman of the psychology department at
Macalester College, who were gracious and generous hosts during the sum-
mer months in which this book was completed. At SUNY Press, I am very
grateful for the interest and enthusiasm that Dale Cotton, former acquisi-
tions editor, expressed for the project, for the constructive comments of the
three anonymous reviewers, and for the careful work of Cathleen Collins in
bringing the book to completion. The Institute for Advanced Studies in
Culture, my intellectual home at Virginia, provided research support, and
Kristine Harmon, research associate, provided painstaking editorial assis-
tance as well as help with the preparation of the manuscript. To Kristine
and to the Institute, my sincerest thanks.
vii
PART ONE
Narrative and the Sociology
of Social Movements