Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-93). ; This study investigates the willingness of Zimbabweans to use protest participation as an alternative route to the democratisation of Zimbabwe. A set of theoretical determinants from the literature are tested against individual reports of protest participation usmg the Afrobarometer survey: Round 3. Explanations include economic, political, cultural, cognitive and collective action factors. The evidence from this study reveals that, while conventional wisdom would associate protest with the economically insecure, the unemployed and individuals who belong to the working class, in Zimbabwe protest potential is high among the urbanised, the young, professionals, educated and the economically secure. The study raises questions about the efficacy of the strategies of civil society and opposition in Zimbabwe to mobilise protest Zimbabweans, despite being marginalised and confronted with the most severe crisis, are not inclined to push for economic and political transformation.
Digital photograph diptych of political protesters. Presented as part of the 2020 Annual Student Exhibit in the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. ; https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/asae_images/1062/thumbnail.jpg
Protests often indicate social states of emergency. The Gezi protests, in which people from various social, political, and class backgrounds went to the streets to voice their dissent, reflected a state of emergency in Turkey. Young people, often referred to as members of the country's post-1980 apolitical generation within public discourse, unexpectedly gathered on the streets and acted as the frontrunners of this mass movement. Their way of protesting through creative performances and humor effectively increased their visibility. Drawing upon the concept of emergency, and guided by a cultural performative approach, this article focuses on young people's experiences of protest. It is a study of the reasons and meanings behind young people's participation in the protests, as well as of values such as trust, solidarity, and collectivity upon which their action was grounded. My findings are based on qualitative field research, i. e., in-depth interviews conducted with young participants of the Gezi protests in İstanbul. The investigation is driven by the questions of how young people describe the notion of the political in relation to trust, solidarity, and collectivity, and how these diverse ways of describing the political through practices foreshadow a new understanding of the political.
This paper explores the spillover of protests across countries using data on nonviolent and spontaneous demonstrations for 200 countries from 2000 to 2020. Using an autoregressive spatial model, the analysis finds strong evidence of "contagious protests," with a catalyzing role of social media. In particular, social media penetration in the source and destination of protests leads to protest spillovers between countries. There is evidence of parallel learning between streets of nations alongside the already documented learning between governments.
Protests often indicate social states of emergency. Protesters no longer agree with the existing situation and the way their lives are regulated; therefore, they demand immediate change. The Gezi Protests, in which people from various social, political, and class backgrounds went to the streets to voice their dissent, certainly reflected a state of emergency in Turkey. Young people, often referred to as members of the country's post-1980 apolitical generation within public discourse, unexpectedly gathered on the streets and acted as the frontrunners of this mass movement. What is more, their way of protesting through creative performances and humor effectively increased their visibility. Drawing upon the concept of emergency, and guided by a cultural performative approach, this article focuses on young people's experiences of protest. It is a study of the reasons and meanings behind young people's participation in the protests, as well as of values such as trust, solidarity, and collectivity upon which their action was grounded. My findings are based on qualitative field research, i.e., in-depth interviews conducted with young participants of the Gezi protests in İstanbul. The investigation is driven by the questions of how young people describe the notion of the political in relation to trust, solidarity, and collectivity, and how these diverse ways of describing the political through practices foreshadow a new understanding of the political, which gained momentum from the state of emergency of the Gezi Protests
Tekst se zasniva na rezultatima empirijskog istraživanja koje je realizovano na uzorku učesnika beogradskog Protesta 96/97. Prezentovani nalazi istraživanja odnose se na sociodemografske karakteristike učesnika Protesta, njihov politički profil, karakter protesta, odnosno zahteve koje ističu demonstranti, kao i na njihovo ponašanje za vreme Protesta. ; The text is based on the results of an empirical survey an a sample of participants in the Belgrade 96/97 Protest. The research findings presented here relate to the socio-demographic characteristics of protest participants, their political profile, nature of the protest, i.e. demands put forward by the demonstrators, as well as their behavior during the Protest.
Although military personnel in Western democracies rarely resort to protest tactics, this does not mean that they never experience discontent. In light of the transformation of the military organization in the period following the Cold War, socio-economic pressures on military personnel have intensified. When facing these challenges, military personnel operate within a specific context in which the unique military culture and a specific legal framework often make engaging in protest more difficult than elsewhere in society. This article integrates the literature on the transformation of Western militaries, the unique context of the military organization and the empirical evidence on protest within the military organization. The article assesses the evidence amassed so far, identifies the limitations in the existing research and proposes an encompassing framework for future study of protest within militaries in Western democracies.
In 2011, political protests sprang up across the world. In the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, the United States unlikely people sparked or led massive protest campaigns from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street. These protests were made up of educated and precariously employed young people who challenged the legitimacy of their political leaders, exposed a failure of representation, and expressed their dissatisfaction with their place in the aftermath of financial and economic crisis. This book interrogates what impacts—if any—this global protest cycle had on politics and policy and shows the sometimes unintended ways it continues to influence contemporary political dynamics throughout the world. Proposing a new framework of analysis that calls attention to the content and claims of protests, their global connections, and the responsiveness of political institutions to protest demands, this is one of the few books that not only asks how protest movements are formed but also provides an in-depth examination of what protest movements can accomplish. With contributions examining the political consequences of protest, the roles of social media and the internet in protest organization, left- and right-wing movements in the United States, Chile's student movements, the Arab Uprisings, and much more this collection is essential reading for all those interested in the power of protest to shape our world.
It is argued that civil war and protests are mutually exclusive processes. However, the prevalence of protests and their proximity with or simultaneity to armed conflict contradicts this idea. Conflict and confrontation involve different types of interactions between the state and its opponents, which can involve protests, mass mobilization, clashes, and even armed conflict. Thus, we can understand conflict as existing in a continuum. Analyzing protests and protestors as related to armed conflict may serve to widen our understanding of conflict. This chapter presents the case for linking protest with a wider understanding of conflict, considering its links with other categories of contestation such as arme conflict. We can thus envision different types of contestation as being related. If we consider this possibility, we can then analyze processes of escalation and de-escalation between different expresions of contestation. This chapter reflects on the similarities and differences between different categories used to understand contestation, focusing on the categories of protests, civil conflict, and civil war. I claim that while a distinction between protests and armed violence is often made on the basis of the degree of violence involved in these processes, this in itself does not mean that these forms of conflict are disconnected. Through focusing on the nature of their political claims, we can understand these processes of contestation as related to each other. Thus, we can analyze how mass mobilization escalates into armed conflicts, and we also observe cases of post agreement scenarios where mass mobilization follows the signature of peace agreements (a de-escalation process). Evidence from the case of South Africa is presented to illustrate this.
Abstract: It is argued that civil war and protests are mutually exclusive processes. However, the prevalence of protests and their proximity with or simultaneity to armed conflict contradicts this idea. Conflict and confrontation involve different types of interactions between the state and its opponents, which can involve protests, mass mobilization, clashes, and even armed conflict. Thus, we can understand conflict as existing in a continuum. Analyzing protests and protestors as related to armed conflict may serve to widen our understanding of conflict. This chapter presents the case for linking protest with a wider understanding of conflict, considering its links with other categories of contestation such as armed conflict. We can thus envision different types of contestation as being related. If we consider this possibility, we can then analyze processes of escalation and de-escalation between different expressions of contestation. This chapter reflects on the similarities and differences between different categories used to understand contestation, focusing on the categories of protests, civil conflict, and civil war. I claim that while a distinction between protests and armed violence is often made based on the degree of violence involved in these processes, this in itself does not mean that these forms of conflict are disconnected. Through focusing on the nature of their political claims, we can understand these processes of contestation as related to each other. Thus, we can analyze how mass mobilization escalates into armed conflicts, and we also observe cases of post agreement scenarios where mass mobilization follows the signature of peace agreements (a de-escalation process). Evidence from the case of South Africa is presented to illustrate this.
International audience ; The political power of maps can be initially approached with a Foucauldian lens to show how maps can be considered to be "discourse," a way of not only displaying spatial information but organizing geographical knowledge that structures a collective understanding of situations. The spread of mobile technologies has transformed maps and mapping, and along with counter-mapping have become powerful tools for challenging the dominant spatial order and its representations. Three broad types of maps related to protest activities can be identified: maps of protests that locate the site of rallies and demonstrations; maps to protest that are agenda-driven either because they challenge existing representations or they make problems in governance visible, and maps for protest that enable and promote alternative and emancipatory uses of space.
International audience ; The political power of maps can be initially approached with a Foucauldian lens to show how maps can be considered to be "discourse," a way of not only displaying spatial information but organizing geographical knowledge that structures a collective understanding of situations. The spread of mobile technologies has transformed maps and mapping, and along with counter-mapping have become powerful tools for challenging the dominant spatial order and its representations. Three broad types of maps related to protest activities can be identified: maps of protests that locate the site of rallies and demonstrations; maps to protest that are agenda-driven either because they challenge existing representations or they make problems in governance visible, and maps for protest that enable and promote alternative and emancipatory uses of space.
International audience ; The political power of maps can be initially approached with a Foucauldian lens to show how maps can be considered to be "discourse," a way of not only displaying spatial information but organizing geographical knowledge that structures a collective understanding of situations. The spread of mobile technologies has transformed maps and mapping, and along with counter-mapping have become powerful tools for challenging the dominant spatial order and its representations. Three broad types of maps related to protest activities can be identified: maps of protests that locate the site of rallies and demonstrations; maps to protest that are agenda-driven either because they challenge existing representations or they make problems in governance visible, and maps for protest that enable and promote alternative and emancipatory uses of space.
Actualizado en abril de 2021 ; Using Facebook's release in a given language as an exogenous source of variation in access to social media where the language is spoken, we show that Facebook has had a significant and sizable positive impact on citizen protests. By exploiting variation in a large sample of countries during close to 15 years and combining both aggregate and individual-level data, we confirm the external validity of previous research documenting this effect for specific contexts along a number of dimensions: geographically, by regime type, temporally, and by the socioeconomic characteristics of both countries and social media users. We find that \coordination" effects that rest on the \social" nature of social media play an important role beyond one-way information transmission, including a \liberation effect" produced by having a direct outlet to voice opinions and share them with others. Finally, we explore the broader political consequences of increased Facebook access, helping assess the welfare consequences of the increase in protests. On the negative side, we find no effects on regime change, democratization or governance. To explain this result, we show there are no effects on other political engagements, especially during critical periods, and that social media access also helps mobilize citizens against opposition groups, especially in less democratic areas. On the positive side, we find that Facebook access decreases internal con ict, with evidence that this re ects increased visibility deterring violence and that social media and the resulting protests help voice discontents that might otherwise turn more violent.
Viele Studien zeigen, dass die Beteiligung an politischen Protesten in mittel- und osteuropäischen Ländern geringer ausfällt als in Westeuropa. Das Ausmaß und die Ursachen dieser Ost-West-Partizipationslücke werden jedoch immer noch debattiert. Diese Dissertation untersucht die Ursachen dieses europäischen Protestgefälles. Inspiriert von den Theorien politischer Sozialisation wird untersucht, inwiefern ein frühes Erleben von (1) Repression und (2) Mobilisierung während der Transition zur Demokratie das Protestverhalten verschiedener Generationen in Mittel- und Osteuropa geprägt hat. Hierfür werden mehrebenen Alters-Perioden-Kohorten-Modelle mit wiederholten länderübergreifenden Umfragedaten genutzt. Studie 1 zeigt, dass ein frühes Erleben von Repression einen nachhaltigen Effekt auf die Teilnahme an Demonstrationen hat, nicht aber auf Petitionen und Boykotte. Darüber hinaus beeinflusst die Art der erlebten Repression die Richtung des Effekts: Personen, deren Bürgerrechte während ihrer Jugend eingeschränkt wurden, scheinen in ihrem späteren Leben häufiger an Demonstrationen teilzunehmen. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall für Personen, die Verletzungen persönlicher Integrität erlebt haben. Studie 2 zeigt, dass das Erleben der Mobilisierung während der Transition zur Demokratie diese Ost-West-Protestlücke nicht moderiert. Studie 3, eine Analyse des Protestverhaltens von Ostdeutschen, bestätigt, dass die Erfahrung der bottom-up Transition die mit gewaltsamer Repression verbundene Demobilisierung nicht kompensiert. Durch diese neu gewonnen Erkenntnisse zum Verhältnis von Regimewechsel und Zivilgesellschaft, verbindet und bereichert diese Dissertation die Forschungsfelder zu politischem Verhalten, sozialen Bewegungen und Demokratisierung. ; Many studies have shown that protest participation is lower in Central and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe. Yet, the extent of and causes underlying the East-West participation gap are still debated in the literature. This thesis sheds new light on the sources of the European protest divide. Inspired by political socialization theories, it examines how early exposure to (1) repression and (2) mobilization during the transition to democracy has shaped the protest behavior of different generations in postcommunist democracies. This projects applies multilevel age-period-cohort models on data from repeated cross-national surveys to measure the effects of these types of exposure. Study 1 reveals that early exposure to repression has a lasting effect on demonstration attendance but not on participation in petitions and boycotts. Furthermore, the direction of this effect depends on the type of repression experienced by citizens: early exposure to civil liberties restrictions increases citizens' participation in demonstrations while exposure to personal integrity violations depresses their participation. Study 2 demonstrates that exposure to mobilization during the transition to democracy does not moderate the East-West protest gap. Study 3, an analysis of East Germans' protest behavior, confirms that the experience of a bottom-up transition does not compensate for the demobilization associated with violent repression. By generating new insights into the relation between regime change and civil society, this project bridges and contributes to the fields of political behavior, social movements, and democratization.
