This course investigates the politics of social movements and revolutions. These are topics that are part of a broader field called “contentious politics”–that is, the variety of forms of mobilized or unconventional collective action that seeks to promote or prevent societal or political change.  Much of political science studies formal political institutions (legislatures, parties, bureaucracies, etc.) or individual political attitudes and behaviors (for instance, voting).  The study of contentious politics, by contrast, focuses on actors who act collectively, who stand at least partially outside formal state institutions, and who seek to challenge ongoing political or social arrangements or to uphold them in the face of challenge.