Nonviolent Alternatives for Social Change is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This volume gives a comprehensive review on Understanding Nonviolence in Theory and Practice; Ethics and Nonviolence; Countering with Nonviolence; Media Myopia and the power of Nonviolent Social Change; Paths to social change: conventional politics, violence and Non violence; Defending and Reclaiming the Commons Through Nonviolent Struggle; Nonviolent Methods and Effects of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement; Humiliation and Global Terrorism: How to Overcome it Nonviolently. It at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

This comprehensive guide to research, sources, and theories about nonviolent action as a technique of struggle in social and political conficts discusses the methods and techniques used by groups in various encounters. Although violence and its causes have received a great deal of attention, nonviolent action has not received its due as an international phenomenon with a long history. An introduction that explains the theories and research used in the study provides a practical guide to this essential bibliography of English-language sources. The first part of the book covers case-study materials divided by region and subdivided by country. Within each country, materials are arranged chronologically and topically. The second major part examines the methods and theory of nonviolent action, principled nonviolence, and several closely related areas in social science, such as conflict analysis and social movements. The book is indexed by author and subject.

Sharp's Dictionary of Power and Struggle is a groundbreaking book by the "godfather of nonviolent resistance." In nearly 1,000 entries, the Dictionary defines those ideologies, political systems, strategies, methods, and concepts that form the core of nonviolent action as it has occurred throughout history and across the globe, providing much-needed clarification of language that is often mired in confusion.

For world history survey courses (after 1500) and courses on modern India, Gandhi, peace and nonviolence, conflict resolution and sustainable development. Examines the life and work of Gandhi within a global context, with an emphasis on how Gandhi's ideas and life shaped the 20th-century world. Gandhi: Pioneer of Nonviolent Social Change, part of the Library of World Biography Series, is aimed primarily at undergraduates with little or no background knowledge of Gandhi or his ideas. This book covers the important aspects of his life and the major components of his philosophy. Through an examination of Gandhi's life and legacy, particularly as a pioneer in the quest for justice and freedom through nonviolent means, this biography reveals lessons that inform our world--both present and future. Each interpretive biography in the Library of World Biography Series focuses on a person whose actions and ideas either significantly influenced world events or whose life reflects important themes and developments in global history.

Love in Action is a collection of over two decades of Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing on nonviolence, peace, and reconciliation. Reflecting on the devastation of war, he makes the strong argument that mindfulness, insight, and altruistic love are the only sustainable bases for political action. This timeless book is an important resource for those interested in social change.