This article ethnographically analyzes the use of direct action, or “jail solidarity”, behind bars, during mass protest episodes. The global justice movement has been the most recent inheritors of this historical tactic, and it has been utilized since the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle. Unjust arrests are countered with noncooperation behind bars, to pressure for charges to be reduced or dropped. Ethnography is appropriate for obtaining information on this high-risk, concealed behavior. Based on fieldwork, participant observation, and in-depth interviewing, the perspectives, self-reflexivity, and sociolinguistic construction of jail solidarity is presented in the participants’ own words.
Becker, H. S. (1998). Tricks of the trade: How to think about your research while you’re doing it. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
Benford, R. D. (1993a). Frame disputes within the nuclear disarmament movement. Social Forces, 71(3), 677-701.
3.
Benford, R. D. (1993b). “You could be the hundredth monkey”: Collective action frames and vocabularies of motive within the nuclear disarmament movement. Sociological Quarterly, 34(2), 195-216.
4.
Benford, R. D., & Snow, D. A. (2000). Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 611-639.
5.
Blee, K. M., & Taylor, V. (2002). Semi-structured interviewing in social movement research. In B. Klandermans & S. Staggenborg (Eds.), Methods of social movement research (pp. 92-117). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
6.
Bookchin, M. (1971). Post-scarcity anarchism. Berkeley, CA: Ramparts Press.
7.
Buechler, S. M. (1993). Beyond resource mobilization? Emerging trends in social movement theory. Sociological Quarterly, 34(2), 217-235.
8.
Burawoy, M., Burton, A., Ferguson, A. A., Fox, K. J., Gamson, J., Gartrell, N., et al. (1991). Ethnography unbound: Power and resistance in the modern metropolis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
9.
Coutin, S. (1995). Ethnographies of violence: law, dissidence, and the state. Law and Society Review, 29(3), 517-539.
10.
della Porta, D. (2002). Comparative politics and social movements. In B. Klandermans & S. Staggenborg (Eds.), Methods of social movement research (pp. 286-313). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
11.
Denzin, N. K. (1974). The methodological implications of symbolic interactionism for the study of deviance. British Journal of Sociology, 25(3), 269-282.
12.
Ferrell, J., & Hamm, M. S. (Eds.). (1998). Ethnography at the edge: Crime, deviance, and field research. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
13.
Fleisher, M. (1995). Beggars and thieves: Lives of urban street criminals. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
14.
Francisco, R. A. (2005). The dictator’s dilemma. In C. Davenport, H. Johnston, & C. Mueller (Eds.), Repression and mobilization (pp. 58-81). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
15.
Franzosi, R. (1998). Narrative analysis—or why (and how) sociologists should be interested in narrative. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 517-554.
16.
Freund, P., & Abrams, M. (1976). Ethnomethodology and Marxism: Their use for critical theorizing. Theory and Society, 3(3), 377-393.
17.
Gamson, W. A. (1992). The social psychology of collective action. In A. D. Morris & C. McClurg Mueller (Eds.), Frontiers in social movement theory (pp. 53-76). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
18.
Garfinkel, H. (1996). Ethnomethodology’s program. Social Psychology Quarterly, 59(1), 5-21.
19.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: HarperCollins.
20.
Giugni, M. G. (1998). Was it worth the effort? The outcomes and consequences of social movements. Annual Review of Sociology, 98, 371-393.
21.
Gleeson, D., & Erben, M. (1976). Meaning in context: Notes towards a critique of ethnomethodology. British Journal of Sociology, 27(4), 474-483.
22.
Griffin, G. B. (1998). Speaking of whiteness: Disrupting white innocence. Journal of Midwest Modern Language Association, 31(3), 3-14.
23.
Habermas, J. (1968). Toward a rational society: Student protest, science, and politics. Boston: Beacon.
24.
Hunter, M. L., & Nettles, K. D. (1999). What about the white women? Racial politics in a women’s studies classroom. Teaching Sociology, 27(4), 385-397.
25.
Jackson, J. E. (1990). “I am a fieldnote”: Fieldnotes as a symbol of professional identity. In R. Sanjek (Ed.), Fieldnotes: The making of anthropology (pp. 3-33). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
26.
Jasper, J. M. (1997). The art of moral protest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
27.
Johnston, H. (2002). Variation and proof in frame and discourse analysis. In B. Klandermans & S. Staggenborg (Eds.), Methods of social movement research (pp. 118-132). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
28.
Just Cause Law Collective. (2004). Available at www.Lawcollective.org.
29.
Klandermans, B. (1992). The social construction of protest and multiorganizational fields. In A. D. Morris & C. McClurg Mueller (Eds.), Frontiers in social movement theory (pp. 77-101). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
30.
Koopmans, R., & Rucht, D. (2002). Protest event analysis. In B Klandermans & S. Staggenborg (Eds.), Methods of social movement research (pp. 231-259). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
31.
Lofland, J., & Lofland, L. H. (1995). Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
32.
Lucal, B. (1996). Oppression and privilege: Toward a relational conceptualization of race. Teaching Sociology, 24(3), 245-255.
33.
Maynard, D. W. & Clayman, S. H. (1991). The diversity of ethnomethodology. Annual Review of Sociology, 17, 385-418.
34.
Melucci, A. (1989). Nomads of the present: Social movements and individual needs in contemporary society. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
35.
Oppenheimer, M. (1969). The urban guerrilla. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.
36.
Polletta, F. (1998). Contending stories: Narrative in social movements. Qualitative Sociology, 21(4), 419-446.
37.
Pollner, M. (1991). Left of ethnomethodology: The rise and decline of radical reflexivity. American Sociological Review, 56(3), 370-380.
38.
Snow, D. A., Zurcher, L. A., Jr., & Ekland-Olson, S. (1980, October). Social networks and social movements: A microstructural approach to differential recruitment. American Sociological Review, 45, 787-801.
39.
Thompson, B. Y. (2002a, September). Unpublished fieldnotes on the World Bank and IMF protests, Washington, DC, New School University, New York, NY.
40.
Thompson, F. (1993). Fellow worker: The life of Fred Thompson. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing.
41.
Tilly, C. (1994). Contentious repertoires in Great Britain, 1758-1834. In M. Traugott (Ed.), Repertoires and cycles of collective action (pp. 15-43). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
42.
Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
43.
Zald, M. N. (1992). Looking backward to look forward: Reflections on the past and future of the Resource Mobilization Research Program. In A. D. Morris & C. McClurg Mueller (Eds.), Frontiers in social movement theory (pp. 326-348). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
