Browse Methods

Scholar Gene Sharp reviewed thousands of instances of nonviolent struggle and catalogued 198 different methods that were used in those encounters. At one point he called these methods "weapons," to emphasize that they are used in conflict situations. He listed them and gave historical examples of each in his 1973 book The Politics of Nonviolent Action. He grouped them into three broad categories: protest, noncooperation, and intervention, and then he further broke those into smaller classifications.

The methods of intervention may often be more directly confrontive, while the methods of noncooperation may in some situations be less so. These two groups of methods can be coercive, that is, make it impossible for an opponent to rule or carry out their policies. The other category, which Sharp calls "protest and persuasion," has methods that tend to be less confrontive, but in some situations (for example some police states) the opponent may consider them highly threatening and react accordingly.

We use Gene Sharp's classification of 198 methods in this database. He acknowledges that some methods can arguably be placed in a different category, depending on circumstance, and his classification should not be regarded as rigid. Some of the names of the methods may not be self-explanatory, so I have taken the liberty of interpreting some of them, often using Sharp's own words in the process. (Press the button "More" for further interpretation.) The material is drawn from his 1973 book, The Politics of Nonviolent Action: Part One, Power and Struggle (Boston: Porter Sargeant Publishers). Any errors I make of interpretation are my responsibility alone.

Additional methods: In researching for this database we have identified methods beyond Sharp's 198. They may of course be controversial. The user encountering them in reading the cases will probably want to return to this page and press the "More" button for those methods in order to discover our rationale for adding these methods to the 198. - George Lakey, 20/8/11

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion

Formal Statements

Communications with a wider audience

Group representations

  • 013. Deputations
    • 013. Deputations

      This action consists of a representative delegation meeting with the party responsible for a grievance, in order to present grievances or to propose a new policy. Also see the similar method, 015.

  • 014. Mock awards
  • 015. Group lobbying
    • 015. Group lobbying

      When lobbying of a parliamentary representative is done by a collective group of that representative's constituents, the act becomes a form of nonviolent action. Group lobbying differs from deputations in that it is generally directed towards elected governmental officials. Also see the similar method, 015.

  • 016. Picketing
  • 017. Mock elections

Symbolic public acts

Pressures on individuals

Drama and Music

Processions

  • 038. Marches
    • 038. Marches

      A march is a group of people intending to reach a particular point for a reason: it is the seat of government, or the place where an atrocity has been committed, or the burial place where a martyr is to be laid to rest, or a place where civil disobedience or some other action will then take place.

  • 039. Parades
    • 039. Parades

      In a parade the point of destination is not politically significant; it is only a convenient place of termination.

  • 040. Religious processions
  • 041. Pilgrimages
    • 041. Pilgrimages

      A walk (by individual or group) that has deep moral and religious qualities; it may last for days or months, often dispensing with banners in order to emphasize the spiritual dimension while at the same time intending to have an impact on the outward situation. Other forms of transportation can also be used in addition to walking.

  • 042. Motorcades
    • 042. Motorcades

      The same as a march or parade except that participants drive cars at slow speed.

Honoring the dead

Public assemblies

Withdrawal and renunciation

The Methods of Noncooperation

Social Noncooperation

Ostracism of persons

Noncooperation with social events, customs and institutions

Withdrawal from the social system

Economic Noncooperation: Boycotts

Action by consumers

Action by workers and producers

  • 078. Workers' boycott
    • 078. Workers' boycott

      Workers refusing to work with supplies or tools that are objectionable for some reason, such as having been made by non-union labor.

  • 079. Producers' boycott
    • 079. Producers' boycott

      Refusal to sell or deliver their products, or even refusal to produce a product. Sharp cites the Norwegian farmers who refused to deliver to the king the food needed by the soldiers; as a result three wars were brought to a halt. (p. 231) See 081.

Action by middlemen

Action by owners and management

Action by holders of financial resources

Action by governments

Economic Noncooperation: Strikes

Symbolic strikes

  • 097. Protest strike
    • 097. Protest strike

      Also called token strike and demonstration strike, lasts for a preannounced amount of time, often one hour or a day. No specific demands are made, but this action is merely an expression of a viewpoint or feelings on an issue. A protest strike is sometimes used as a warning before other forms of the strike are used.

  • 098. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural strikes

Strikes by special groups

Ordinary industrial strikes

Restricted strikes

Multi-industry strikes

  • 116. Generalised strike
    • 116. Generalised strike

      Several industries are struck simultaneously in an area, but the strikers are less than a majority of the workers in the important industries in that area. See General strike, 117.

  • 117. General strike
    • 117. General strike

      Widespread stoppage of labor attempting to bring the economic life of the area to a standstill. Can be used on local, regional, national, or international level. May intentionally leave certain vital services operating (food and water, hospital, e.g.). See Generalized strike, 116, and Economic shutdown, 119.

Combination of strikes and economic closures

  • 118. Hartal
    • 118. Hartal

      Indian method of protest in which economic life of an area is suspended on voluntary basis to show extreme dissatisfaction with a policy, etc. Usually 1-2 days long, not expected to have economic impact.

  • 119. Economic shutdown
    • 119. Economic shutdown

      Economic paralysis, when workers strike while employers and small shopkeepers halt economic activities. Can be powerful when an area is under occupation. This is a combination of the General strike, 117, and the Merchant's "general strike", 085.

Political Noncooperation

Rejection of authority

Citizens’ noncooperation with government

Citizens’ alternatives to obedience

Action by government personnel

Domestic governmental action

International governmental action

The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention

Psychological intervention

Physical intervention

  • 162. Sit-in
  • 163. Stand-in
  • 164. Ride-in
    • 164. Ride-in

      Best known in the version called “freedom rides” to stop bus companies in the U.S. from discriminating against African Americans.

  • 165. Wade-in
  • 166. Mill-in
    • 166. Mill-in

      Campaigners gather in a significant place but instead of sitting in or conducting a sit-down, they remain mobile. May be less confrontational than, for example, an occupation. May impede the normal operations in a site but the method does not intend to obstruct the activities. See 172.

  • 167. Pray-in
  • 168. Nonviolent raids
    • 168. Nonviolent raids

      Volunteers march to designated key points and demand possession. The method does not require that they succeed in entering the site, but they nevertheless try. See 170.

  • 169. Nonviolent air raids
  • 170. Nonviolent invasion
  • 171. Nonviolent interjection
    • 171. Nonviolent interjection

      Placing one’s body between a person and the objective of his work or activity, or between a soldier/police officer and a demonstrator, or placing oneself in the path of a vehicle. It is different from nonviolent obstruction (172) in that there is not a big enough obstacle actually to block the other. In the case, for example, of putting oneself in the path of a train or truck, the aim is to change the decision of the driver who will then stop the vehicle. See 172.

  • 172. Nonviolent obstruction
    • 172. Nonviolent obstruction

      Physical blocking, which depends on the number of bodies in relation to the space and how they organize themselves. The large number and arrangement of participants is such that the opponent's intended action is not physically possible. When in 1956, 10,000 people occupied a site in Sunakawa, Japan, intended for a U.S. air base; it turned out to be nonviolent obstruction. The plan for the air base was given up. See 171 and 173.

  • 173. Nonviolent occupation
    • 173. Nonviolent occupation

      This may be used after a nonviolent invasion (170) or a raid (168). It may also be used by people who have been ordered to leave their land or building. In Egypt in 2011 the campaigners who assembled in Tahrir Square to protest (047) were ordered to disperse; they maintained an occupation for weeks despite Mubarak’s effort violently to eject them. Some writers include in the term "occupation" what in this database is called a "stay-in strike" (#182), in which workers "occupy" their factory while still refusing to work, and also what we call a "nonviolent land seizure" (#183). This means that if you were searching for all cases in which what is loosely called "occupation" was used, you should search not only for 173 but also for 182 and 183.

Social intervention

Economic intervention

Political intervention

Additional Methods (named subsequent to Sharp’s list)

  • 199. Nonviolent confinement
    • 199. Nonviolent confinement

      In this method the campaigners restrict someone's freedom of movement, in a way that does not rely on physical barriers, and without the use or threat of injurious force.  This method is similar to Nonviolent obstruction (172) in that the physical mass of bodies might restrict freedom of movement, and Nonviolent interjection (171) in which the psychological impact might do the same.  However, interjection and obstruction are intended to prevent the opponent from carrying out an action which is objected to.  Nonviolent confinement may have additional uses: to strongly pressure the opponent to do something they would rather not do (negotiate a peace treaty) or to restrain someone who is judged to be irrational and needs a human container in order to come to their right mind.

      When the Liberian women's peace movement realized that delegates in a hotel to negotiate peace were not in fact doing so, the women surrounded the building and refused to let the delegates leave until a settlement was made ("Liberian women act to end civil war, 2003").  Nepalese students reportedly used the method in this same way at the castle in Khatmandu in 2001. In the Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador the ARCO oil company wanted to drill for oil. A delegation from the government and ARCO flew their helicopter into the jungle to meet with indigenous leaders, who confiscated the helicopter keys, felled trees across the airstrip and presented the delegation with a list of demands.  The delegation was, they said, free to walk back to the city (the nearest road was four days away).  After twelve days the officials signed an agreement ("Ecuadorian indigenous peoples resist oil drilling in the Amazon, 1989-1994").

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