“Piecemeal” Advocacy, Radical Accomplishments: Adding Normatizing to the Advocacy Toolbox
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-13-2022
Publication Title
Journal of Policy Practice and Research
Department
Sociology & Criminal Justice Studies
Abstract
Women’s rights advocates in Iowa successfully got state laws adopted in the late 1980s and in 2009 requiring gender balance on state and local boards and commissions, the only such laws in the USA. Through interview and archival methods, this paper uses a critical juncture framework to unveil how this was accomplished in part through a strategy underexplored in academic and practitioner literature—deradicalizing an issue through a series of “piecemeal” efforts. Small less controversial changes can build up to alter the status quo, making room for changes previously thought unaccomplishable. This study brings normatizing—the process of incrementally institutionalizing new norms—forward as a socialization strategy for social movement actors to intentionally consider employing in situations they encounter where political will on an issue is substantially lacking.
Recommended Citation
Temko, Ezra, "“Piecemeal” Advocacy, Radical Accomplishments: Adding Normatizing to the Advocacy Toolbox" (2022). SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity. 157.
https://spark.siue.edu/siue_fac/157