Offering a unique, comprehensive, and critical introduction to increasingly visible social inequalities, this textbook examines the political and economic causes and cultural consequences of a stratifying system that allocates material resources and human dignity on the basis of private profit and labor exploitation.Mapping Inequality in an Era of Neoliberalism foregrounds capitalism as the major source of the power relations in the United States, as a class system that se...

In this important text, Stephen Valocchi brings capitalism back into the study of the gay and lesbian movement. He argues that to understand the collective identity, structure, strategies and goals of the movement, we need to understand the role that capitalism and the state have played.While capitalism and the state have figured centrally in earlier analyses of social movements, these important institutions and their social processes are no longer central concerns of the theory an...

What can we learn when we listen closely to and engage in dialogue with social movement activists?Social Movements and Activism in the USA addresses this question for a group of progressive activists in Hartford, Connecticut, who do community, labor, feminist, gay and lesbian, peace, and anti-racist organizing. Situated within the twenty-first-century landscape of post-industrialism and neo-liberalism and drawing on oral histories, the book argues for a dialogic and integr...

Frames of Protest brings together important empirical research and theoretical essays by leading sociologists, political scientists, and media specialists that focus on social movement frames and framing practices. Frames are new ways of understanding political and social relations that emphasize injustice and the need for change. As such, they are crucial for the development of social movements and protest. Frames of Protest is the only book to focus exclusively on this ...