This course introduces students to social movements and associated sociological theories. What constitutes a social movement? Why do social movements form, and why do they form when they do? Who joins movements and why? How are movements organized, and what strategies and tactics do they use? How do institutions such as the media and the state affect movements? How effective are movements as agents of social change? Why do they decline? What impacts have they had on law, policy, culture, and the social imagination? Studying a range of movements allows students to reflect on these questions, and reflect also on broader questions about inequality, power, and the relationship between social structures, human agency, and social change.