“What if she's from the FBI?” The effects of covert forms of social control on social movements

Abstract

This chapter examines the effects of covert forms of social control on social movement participants. Current social science literature addresses the effect of surveillance on social movement organizations, but stops short of exploring the experience of surveillance for political activists. We begin by reviewing how state social control has been incorporated into paradigmatic social movement models. Drawing on examples from the FBI's counterintelligence programs and the growing literature emphasizing the emotional components of social movement mobilization processes, we then demonstrate the range of direct and indirect costs exerted by social control agents on both organizational and individual targets.

Citation

Cunningham, D. and Noakes, J. (2008), "“What if she's from the FBI?” The effects of covert forms of social control on social movements", Deflem, M. and Ulmer, J.T. (Ed.) Surveillance and Governance: Crime Control and Beyond (Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 175-197. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1521-6136(07)00208-4