The Politics of Common Sense: How Social Movements Use Public Discourse to Change Politics and Win Acceptance

by Deva R. Woodly

The way that movements communicate with the general public matters for their chances of lasting success. Deva Woodly argues that the potential for movement-led political change is significantly rooted in mainstream democratic discourse and specifically in the political acceptance of new issues by news media, the general public, and elected officials. This is true to some extent for any group wishing to alter status quo distributions of rights and/or resources, but is especially important for grassroots challengers who do not already have a place of legitimated influence in the polity. By examining the talk of two contemporary movements, the living wage and marriage equality, during the critical decade after their emergence between 1994-2004, Woodly shows that while the living wage movement experienced over 120 policy victories and the marriage equality movement suffered many policy defeats, the overall impact that marriage equality had on changing American politics was much greater than that of the living wage because of its deliberate effort to change mainstream political discourse, and thus, the public understanding of the politics surrounding the issue.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2015

Reviews

[Eavan Wong · Rating 3 out of 5]

One question is, how do we balance the shaping power of state and employer offensives on decentralizing collective bargaining of wage and reproduction (which confines reproductive struggles at the local level), on the one hand, and the agential strategic move to shape national public opinions by movement activists, on the other. Isn't the former more explanatory for the limitations of the living wage movement?

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

DSW@USC

[Cosmina Ion · Rating 2 out of 5]

To summarize it, Marriage Equality wins, while Living Wages lose, as the first preserved after series of crushing defeats and managed to gain attention in the public eye, while the second slowly crumbled, gaining a few signal victories only for their cause to continue to wallow in obscurity. Basically, a social movement is not necessarily successful through policy victories, but when it changes politics by redefining what is on the line and what can be done about a politicized problem.

This book is too much. Woodly can literraly tell you if the crumb on the floor is from the bread or from the bagle. She tries way too much and it gets boring by the time you finish the introduction...

The subject itself is interesting and the Title sounds dynamic, until you begin to browse it.