Harnessing and Challenging Hegemony During Three Wars: The U.S. Peace Movement, 1990-2004

Kent State University, Kent OH

Investigators

Abstract

Our project examines ways that the peace movement in the United States has responded discursively to both obstacles to and opportunities for mobilizing mass dissent. What are the main rhetorical strategies used by peace movement organizations (PMOs) in attempting to persuade the public and policy makers to oppose war and support peaceful alternatives? Do these strategies vary across organizations or over time? If so, what explains the variations? Building on Gramsci's concept of hegemony, we investigate the ways that cultural, political, technological and organizational factors affect the development of oppositional knowledge. We will analyze, qualitatively and quantitatively, official public statements issued by PMOs and posted to organizational websites or available through organizational archives. The data includes statements from 15 groups representing a diverse array of constituencies as well as spanning three separate conflict periods (the Gulf War, the 9/11 period, and the Iraq War), allowing for both comparative and longitudinal analysis. Our research will highlight cultural obstacles to generating mass dissent as well as the strategic choices and dilemmas facing activists in responding to these obstacles. Our research will also assist in conceptualizing the links between symbolic and structural processes impacting social movements. The innovative research design offers a useful template for subsequent analysis of framing by other social movements. The broader impacts of this project include the following: Our project will involve student assistants and will be available to student and faculty researchers who can utilize the data set to better understand empirical approaches to theoretical inquiry, computer-assisted data analysis, and the broader study of social movements, conflict, and social change. We will make available our findings through written work and presentations aimed at community groups with memberships traditionally under-serviced by our discipline, thus enriching the understanding of scholars, students and the larger public.