Protest Crowds through the Lens of Distributed Cognition

In: Social research: an international quarterly, Band 90, Heft 2, S. 293-314

Abstract

Abstract: How are ideas transformed into collective causes that can rally and sustain protest crowds? We present a theoretical framework of crowd mobilization through the perspective of distributed cognition. We look at protest crowds as distributed processes that happen across brains, bodies, social interactions, and material-technological resources. This perspective is illustrated by protest crowd dynamics as they are facilitated by social interaction, symbols, narrative forms, and physical and virtual spaces.