| Date | Class | Week | Lecture |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-16 | 1 | 1 | Introduction and the development of social movements (SMs) |
| 2025-10-23 | 2 | 2 | SM theories: collective behaviour, resource mobilisation, political processes |
| 2025-10-30 | 3 | 3 | SM theories: framing, civil society |
| 2025-11-06 | 4 | 4 | Mobilisation, recruitment, participation |
| 2025-11-13 | 5 | 5 | Collective identity and emotions |
| 2025-11-20 | 6 | 6 | Organisation, strategies and tactics |
| 2025-12-04 | 7 | 8 | SMs and the media |
| 2025-12-11 | 8 | 9 | SM coalitions |
| 2025-12-18 | 9 | 10 | State responses |
| 2026-01-08 | 10 | 13 | Counter-mobilisation and countermovements |
| 2026-01-15 | 11 | 14 | SMs online |
| 2026-01-22 | 12 | 15 | SM impact |
| 2026-01-29 | 13 | 16 | Demobilisation |
| 2026-02-05 | 14 | 17 | Contemporary social movements and beyond: climate, migration |
Social Movements in Germany
Instructor: Dr. Michael C. Zeller
Email: m.zeller@lmu.de (please use your LMU email address for communication)
Webpage: https://michaelzeller.de/
Office hour: Wednesdays, 11.00 - 12.00
Office: GSI (Oettingenstr. 67) Room H105
Course particulars
- Course level: BA
- Course format: seminar
- Module assignment: Einführung in das Politische System Deutschlands
Course description
Social movements, long an area of inquiry in the social sciences, have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. How and why do people engage in collective action? In what ways do they organise and mobilise? What tactics and strategies do they use? How do movements succeed—and how do they fail? This course will introduce students to the scholarship that addresses these questions. We will draw on literature about social movements generally and about specific movement cases, especially (but not exclusively) in Germany. Students will acquire detailed knowledge about the theories guiding past and present social movement research as well as expertise about specific cases of social movement activity.
Course schedule overview
Course and Teacher evaluation
Student input for the purpose of course improvement is taken very seriously and will potentially be done periodically. Please take the time to evaluate this course and the instructor, especially at the end of the semester. Evaluations will in no way affect your grade.