Boycotts and Dixie Chicks: Creative Political Participation at Home and Abroad

Boycotts and Dixie Chicks introduces the concept of 'creative political participation', collective political actions which do not use traditional methods and which are innovative, collaborative and creative in character. Andrew S. McFarland discusses creative participation on issues concerning the environment, political corruption, consumer rights, and transnational issues. He draws on specific examples including anti-corruption demonstrations in contemporary rural China, community action in 1890s Wisconsin, consumer boycotts of Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, the Nestle Corporation, and the Dixie Chicks music group, the 'colour revolutions' and transnational fair trade and transparency activism. Written in an engaging, everyday language and using a wide variety of sources and case studies, Boycotts and Dixie Chicks is highly recommended for students of alternative social and political movements and sociology.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Creative Part Icipation and Civic Innovation; Chapter 2 The Environment and Creative Part Icipation; Chapter 3 Combating Political Corruption; Chapter 4 Political Consumerism; Chapter 5 Political Consumerism in Four Post-Communist Countries, Catherine S. Griffiths; Chapter 6 Transnational Part Icipation; Chapter 7 Conclusion;

About the Author :
Andrew S. McFarland is Professor of Political Science and a Fellow of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Review :
“Andrew McFarlamd’s book is one part political theory and another part American government, with a dash of international relations and social movements scholarship…a window into an intriguing set of topics…Fore readers, particularly undergraduates, less familiar with some of these historical episodes or the wider literature on collective action and civic mobilization, this book does serve a useful introduction and summarizes findings in the field.” —Perspectives on Politics “In the wake of recent scholarship from such luminaries as Putnam and Skocpol, the received wisdom seems to be that civic participation is seriously on the wane in the contemporary U.S. In his fresh and engaging new book, Andrew McFarland suggests the jury is still very much out on the question. By profiling four little-studied forms of ‘creative participation,’ the author invites us to reconsider the received wisdom, even as he highlights the seemingly endless capacity for grassroots democratic innovation.” —Doug McAdam, Stanford University