Dr. Jennifer K. Thompson is joined Fabio Rojas, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University, during the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 protests, to discuss protests and social change.

The conversation covers several important topics. How do protests work? What makes a protest successful? How does the economic climate affect a protest? What’s happening with the protests that we’re seeing now in the US? How does violence change the effectiveness of protests?

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Show Notes:

You can find Fabio’s books on Amazon including: Party in the Street: The Antiwar Movement and the Democratic Party after 9/11 and From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline

Princeton’s Omar Wasow and his paper on 1960’s protest on violence. Or you can read his op-ed on the paper in the Washington Post

Fabio’s piece on violence and social movements

Kevin Williamson’s piece on violence and movements in the National Review

Jenn and Fabio briefly discus the firing of David Shor and the role of social media in social movements

Fabio’s blog orgtheory.net

Contexts Magazine by the American Sociological Association

Fabio’s co-editor and an expert on police violence, Dr. Rayshawn Ray

Have questions? Contact Fabio Rojas on Twitter

About our guest:

Fabio Rojas received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2003. His main research interest is organizational analysis and its intersections with political sociology. His upcoming book, From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), uses data from the black studies movement to show how social movements generate lasting organizational change. He has also published in journals such as Social Forces, Rationality and Society, and the Journal of Institutional Economics. His new project examines how social movements adopt the role of formalized lobby with data on the current anti-war movement. In addition to his research on the black studies movement, Fabio has published papers and edited volume chapters on computer modeling, rational choice theory, and economic sociology. He currently teaches introduction to sociology, economic sociology, social theory and theories of social organization for graduate students. His leisure time is spent with his family and his musical pursuits.