Regional Institute on the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action

February 19-24, 2018

The Regional Institute on the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action offers practitioners and academics alike a great opportunity to learn about, and reflect on, ways to achieve social change nonviolently. Join us to learn how strategic nonviolent action can shift the existing balance of power and increase awareness of issues of injustice with the goal of bringing about change. Come and learn from case studies throughout Latin America and the world.

This course is designed to equip activists, scholars, teachers, professionals, and other future peacebuilders from all countries in the Americas with practical tools, knowledge, and hands-on experience to understand the power of nonviolent action to transform the state and society and improve social justice.

Strategic nonviolent action is a powerful way for people to fight for their rights, freedom, justice, and self-determination without resorting to violence. 

It can be carried out through tactics such as strikes, boycotts, mass protests and various forms of non-cooperation. As large numbers participate in these actions in a unified, organized, and disciplined way, they disrupt the capacity of their opponents to control events.  When a movement sequences its tactics to strategically escalate pressure on its opponent, while remaining resilient and avoiding or withstanding repression, it can impose dramatic costs and force change by undercutting the existing system’s base of support, shifting the loyalties of its defenders and causing bystanders to side with the movement.

Many nonviolent action campaigns and movements have created these dynamics and changed history as a result.  Even violent adversaries have been susceptible to nonviolent challenges.

-ICNC

Topics

• What is strategic nonviolent action

• How nonviolent action works

• Why nonviolent campaigns succeed or fail

•  Nonviolent strategy and tactics

• Movement and campaign communications and media

• Case studies of movements and campaigns from Latin America and around the world, including field trip

• How strategic nonviolent action shapes societies, national, and international affairs

• Work in groups to create strategic and tactical action plans

• bilingual curriculum with simultaneous translation from Spanish into English and English into Spanish

Costs 

• YOU will need to PAY A $ 50 DEPOSIT ONCE ACCEPTED TO CONFIRM YOUR Spot ON THE PROGRAM

• IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A FULL SCHOLARSHIP, YOU will need to PAY THE remaining BALANCE BEFORE DECEMBER 18, 2017

• THE PROGRAM HAS A TOTAL COST OF $300, INCLUDING: ALL ACTIVITIES, FIELD TRIP, LUNCHES, AND COFFEE BREAKS, PLUS MEDICAL INSURANCE FOR INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPANTS

Meet the Organizers

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) focuses on how nonviolent action movements struggle effectively and succeed. They develop and share knowledge and educational resources related to civil resistance with interested recipients throughout the world.

FLACSO Ecuador builds and disseminates knowledge in the field of social sciences and humanities through teaching along with critical and creative research. They strive to contribute to the development of the diverse currents of Latin American and Andean thought, and to promote justice, equity, and social inclusion.

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) is an academic community that rigorously and critically contributes to the protection and development of human dignity and cultural heritage through research, teaching, and the various services offered to local, national and international communities

CEMPROC aims to reduce destructive conflict and promote global peace, with a special interest in education and prevention.

Resources

https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/resource-library/?fwp_language=spanish

Chenoweth, E. & Schock, K. (2015). Do contemporaneous armed challenges affect the outcomes of mass nonviolent campaigns? Mobilization: An International Quarterly 20(4), 427-451. 

Garrido, M. B., Mouly, C., Idler, A. (2016). Jiu-jitsu en contexto de conflicto armado: el poder de la resistencia no violenta. Ciudad paz-ando, 9(2), 155-167. 

Mouly, C., Garrido, M. B., Idler, A. (2016). How Nonviolent Resistance Works; Factors for Successful Peacebuilding in Samaniego, Colombia.  Political Violence @ a Glance. 

Schock, K. (2013). The practice and study of civil resistance. Journal of Peace Research. 277-290.

Stephan, M. J., Chenoweth, E. Why Civil Resistance Works The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.  International Security 33:1. 7-44.