Jonathan Matthew Smucker
Jonathan Matthew Smucker
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Sociology PhD Candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Senior Research Fellow, Othering & Belonging Institute
Sociology PhD Candidate, University of California, Berkeley
Senior Research Fellow, Othering & Belonging Institute
I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and a Senior Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute. I have spent decades working in organizing, communications, and strategic advisor roles in service to social movements, political campaigns, civic and community organizations, and labor unions.
My current research falls under three overlapping areas:
the interplay between strategy and group culture in contemporary social movements;
authoritarian pseudo-populism, progressive populism, and intraparty insurgency; and
inequality and class-based insularity and its impact on political participation, social movements, and popular mobilization.
RESEARCH AREAS
I study populism in relation to inequality, crises of legitimacy, political realignment, and intraparty insurgency, with a focus on the contemporary United States. My research and political work in the field informs my forthcoming book, The Many vs. the Few: A Practical Guide to Populism (Rutgers University Press, 2027). Read more.
My research of social movements emerges directly from my long-term involvement in a wide variety of movements and political projects over the past three decades. My first book, Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals (AK Press, 2017) was my effort to synthesize on-the-ground and scholarly insights. Read more.
I am interested in interaction processes and symbolic interaction, particularly within oppositional social movements. My dissertation takes the case of Mennonite Action to explore how a strategically oriented and capable movement leadership engages in meaning-making processes for instrumental ends. Read more.
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