Intro to Sociology - Background Overview: Evicted Book

People in Milwaukee don’t protest when they see their neighbours getting evicted

Evictions are understood as fair consequences of individual failures (to pay rent) rather than a
product of the system.
“No one thought the poor more undeserving than the poor themselves.” (Desmond, 2016)
20th century: poor used to see themselves as a class themselves (class consciousness),
and organised to take collective action
Marx: a class for itself

● Perception of eviction as an “invidiaul fault” → legitimisation of eviction (belief in the

system)
● Loss of a sense of community
● High institutional barriers to accessing aid or legal representation

Social Movements
Why are they sometimes successful and why do they sometimes fail?
What gets people to take collective action?
We cannot scientifically predict social collective action, social movements (e.g. revolutions);
otherwise authoritarian regimes would prohibit and prevent them. There is always a possibility of
collective action (e.g. Arab Spring, start in Tunisia and spread to Egypt and Libyia)
Community - an imagined concept, but also a network of goods exchange
Participating in collective action comes with both a collective and individual price.
Eg: individual costs
Striking - not going to work, not getting paid
Protesting - risk of arrest, police brutality, violence, social repercussions

Black swan theory - Taleb

Social movement = individual hardship → collective struggle
Requires individuals to become conscious that their problems are not just due to their
own actions, mistakes, responsibility ec. but can be systematic and systemic problems
IRL examples:
● Civil rights movement 50-60’s US: racial segregation is intertwined with class (keeping
the black population in poverty)
● Feminism: cross-class movement
○ E.g. right for safe abortion in Ireland, in US
● Fight for democracy
● Anti-corruption movements