The Social Movement Social Club: How Activists Form Tiny Publics

Abstract

Before sociology, I aspired to be a good writer. Those like me will love Gary Alan Fine's prologue to his new ethnography, in which he draws a movingly adventurous scene of elderly Chicagoans questing to Wisconsin through a snowstorm in 2016. Using canes and walkers, these senior activists arrive and march through snow, protesting right-wing threats to social security emanating from then-Speaker of the House Paul Ryan's offices in Racine. The vividity with which Fine narratively weaves together his fieldnotes makes an implicit argument, certainly against ageism, but also for the importance of the craft of writing in sociology. Fine illustrates the angst and agency of his septa-, octo-, and a few nonagenarian subjects. Elderly progressives will require bathroom breaks, but they can fire up much like the young folk that occupied our screens during The Resistance. “Senior protest can smell like teen spirit (p. 5),” quips Fine, signposting the book's puzzle: How do the limits and possibilities of senior activism reveal the everyday particularities, promises, and limitations of attempting to make social change?