198 Methods
of Nonviolent Action
Gene Sharp analyzed thousands of examples of nonviolent actions and created a list of 198 types of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention. Since Sharp created this taxonomy it has become the gold standard for helping to categorize different types of actions. Our dataset codes dilemma actions according to these same categories.
Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion
- Public speeches
- Letters of opposition or support
- Declarations by organizations and institutions
- Signed public declarations
- Declarations of indictment and intention
- Group or mass petitions
- Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
- Banners, posters, and displayed communications
- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
- Newspapers and journals
- Records, radio, and television
- Skywriting and earthwriting
- Deputations
- Mock awards
- Group lobbying
- Picketing
- Mock elections
- Displays of flags and symbolic colours
- Wearing of symbols
- Prayer and worship
- Delivering symbolic objects
- Protest disrobings
- Destruction of own property
- Symbolic lights
- Displays of portraits
- Paint as protest
- New signs and names
- Symbolic sounds
- Symbolic reclamations
- Rude gestures
- "Haunting" officials
- Taunting officials
- Fraternization
- Vigils
- Humourous skits and pranks
- Performances of plays and music
- Singing
- Marches
- Parades
- Religious processions
- Pilgrimages
- Motorcades
- Political mourning
- Mock funerals
- Demonstrative funerals
- Homage at burial places
- Assemblies of protest or support
- Protest meetings
- Camouflaged meetings of protest
- Teach-ins
- Walk-outs
- Silence
- Renouncing honors
- Turning one's back
Social Noncooperation
- Social boycott
- Selective social boycott
- Lysistratic nonaction
- Excommunication
- Interdict
- Suspension of social and sports activities
- Boycott of social affairs
- Student strike
- Social disobedience
- Withdrawal from social institutions
- Stay-at-home
- Total personal noncooperation
- "Flight" of workers
- Sanctuary
- Collective disappearance
- Protest emigration (hijrat)
Economic Noncooperation:
Economic Boycotts
- Consumers' boycott
- Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
- Policy of austerity
- Rent withholding
- Refusal to rent
- National consumers' boycott
- International consumers' boycott
- Workers' boycott
- Producers' boycott
- Suppliers' and handlers' boycott
- Traders' boycott
- Refusal to let or sell property
- Lockout
- Refusal of industrial assistance
- Merchants' "general strike"
- Withdrawal of bank deposits
- Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
- Refusal to pay debts or interest
- Severance of funds and credit
- Revenue refusal
- Refusal of a government's money
- Domestic embargo
- Blacklisting of traders
- International sellers' embargo
- International buyers' embargo
- International trade embargo
Economic Noncooperation:
the strike
- Protest strike
- Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
- Peasant strike
- Farm workers' strike
- Refusal of impressed labour
- Prisoners' strike
- Craft strike
- Professional strike
- Establishment strike
- Industry strike
- Sympathy strike
- Detailed strike
- Bumper strike
- Slowdown strike
- Working-to-rule strike
- Reporting "sick" (sick-in)
- Strike by resignation
- Limited strike
- Selective strike
- Generalised strike
- General strike
- Hartal
- Economic shutdown
Political Noncooperation
- Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
- Refusal of public support
- Literature and speeches advocating resistance
- Boycott of legislative bodies
- Boycott of elections
- Boycott of government employment and positions
- Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
- Withdrawal from governmental educational institutions
- Boycott of government-supported institutions
- Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
- Removal of own signs and placemarks
- Refusal to accept appointed officials
- Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
- Reluctant and slow compliance
- Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
- Popular nonobedience
- Disguised disobedience
- Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
- Sit-downs
- Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
- Hiding, escape, and false identities
- Civil disobedience of "illegitimate" laws
- Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
- Blocking of lines of command and information
- Stalling and obstruction
- General administrative noncooperation
- Judicial noncooperation
- Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
- Mutiny
- Quasi-legal evasions and delays
- Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
- Changes in diplomatic and other representation
- Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
- Withholding of diplomatic recognition
- Severance of diplomatic relations
- Withdrawal from international organisations
- Refusal of membership in international bodies
- Expulsion from international organisations
Nonviolent Intervention
- Self-exposure to the elements
- The fast
- Fast of moral pressure
- Hunger strike
- Satyagrahic fast
- Reverse trial
- Nonviolent harassment
- Sit-in
- Stand-in
- Ride-in
- Wade-in
- Mill-in
- Pray-in
- Nonviolent raids
- Nonviolent air raids
- Nonviolent invasion
- Nonviolent interjection
- Nonviolent obstruction
- Nonviolent occupation
- Establishing new social patterns
- Overloading of facilities
- Stall-in
- Speak-in
- Guerrilla theatre
- Alternative social institutions
- Alternative communication system
- Reverse strike
- Stay-in strike
- Nonviolent land seizure
- Defiance of blockades
- Politically motivated counterfeiting
- Preclusive purchasing
- Seizure of assets
- Dumping
- Selective patronage
- Alternative markets
- Alternative transportation systems
- Alternative economic institutions
- Overloading of administrative systems
- Disclosing identities of secret agents
- Seeking imprisonment
- Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws
- Work-on without collaboration
- Dual sovereignty and parallel government
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