A Theory of Nonviolent Action
HOW CIVIL RESISTANCE WORKS
Distributed for Zed Books
224 pages
Paper $29.95, ISBN: 9781780325156
Published November 2015
Cloth $95.00, ISBN: 9781780320540
Published November 2015
In this ground-breaking and much-needed book, Stellan Vinthagen provides the first major systematic attempt to develop a theory of nonviolent action since Gene Sharp’s seminal The Politics of Nonviolent Action in 1973.
Employing a rich collection of historical and contemporary social movements from various parts of the world as examples—from the civil rights movement in America to anti-Apartheid protestors in South Africa to Gandhi and his followers in India—and addressing core theoretical issues concerning nonviolent action in an innovative, penetrating way, Vinthagen argues for a repertoire of nonviolence that combines resistance and construction. Contrary to earlier research, this repertoire—consisting of dialogue facilitation, normative regulation, power breaking and utopian enactment—is shown to be both multidimensional and contradictory, creating difficult contradictions within nonviolence, while simultaneously providing its creative and transformative force.
An important contribution to the field, A Theory of Nonviolent Action is essential for anyone involved with nonviolent action who wants to think about what they are doing.
Contents
PART 1:
Chapter 1: ‘Nonviolent Action’
Chapter 2: Nonviolent Action Studies – Morality vs. Strategy
Chapter 3: The History of Nonviolent Action – A Geneaology of a Concept and its Practice
Chapter 4: Defining Nonviolent Action
PART 2:
Chapter 5: The Social Rationality of Nonviolent Action
Chapter 6: Communicative Rationality of Nonviolent Action – Nonviolent Dialogue Facilitation
Chapter 7: Goal Rationality of Nonviolent Action – Nonviolent Power Breaking
Chapter 8: Expressive Rationality of Nonviolent Action – Nonviolent Utopian Enactment
Chapter 9: Normative Rationality of Nonviolent Action – Nonviolent Normative Regulation
Chapter 10: The Creative and Dialectic Force of Nonviolent Action
Afterword
References
Appendix
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/T/bo20503488.html