ABSTRACT
This chapter thinks what it is that activists inside the bureaucracy actually do. It makes two general arguments. First, this kind of activism involves an artisanal effort to promote change in rigid bureaucratic structures and under often powerful political constraints. Second, as they persevere under such frustrating circumstances, the activists that are studied are not alone. Their connections to social movement networks provide both resources and obstacles for activism inside of the state. The term institutional activism describes what people are doing when they take jobs in government bureaucracies with the purpose of advancing the political agendas or projects proposed by social movements. This tends to be a less glamorous form of activism than the kinds of grand repertoires of protest normally associated with social movements. The chapter examines action at the micro-level, which may be neither heroic nor radically transformative. Instead, it involves a daily effort at experimentation and problem-solving, the results of which are not always immediately perceptible.
