A Study of Perceived Protest Atmospheres: How Demonstrators Evaluate Police-Demonstrator Interactions and Why (original) (raw)
Related papers
The phenomenology of protest atmosphere: A demonstrator perspective
European Journal of Social Psychology, 2015
This paper aims to improve our understanding of demonstrators' atmosphere perceptions, that is, demonstrators' affective state, which is induced by the protest environment. We examined how demonstrators perceive protest atmosphere, why they do so, and whether atmosphere perceptions influence demonstrators' future collective action preparedness. We hypothesized that demonstrators' atmosphere perceptions diverge on a dimension of pleasure, and relate to their grievance (i.e., perceived societal intolerance), group identification, empowerment, and perceived police aggression. A pleasant atmosphere perception was expected to stimulate a demonstrator's future action preparedness. We tested these hypotheses with a mixed-methods dataset of two Dutch protests, staged by Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders and anti-monarchists. Our analyses revealed that demonstrators' atmosphere perceptions diverge on a dimension of pleasure, and relate to group identification, empowerment, and, for anti-monarchists, perceived societal intolerance. A pleasant atmosphere perception deters a demonstrator's future action preparedness and also stimulates his or her group identification and empowerment, which, then, stimulate his or her action preparedness.
2021
Commentators often remark upon the “festive” or “tense” atmosphere of major protests. This seems to signify the general outlook of the protestors or the relations between them and the police. It signals the potential of the protests to unfold in a peaceful, joyous manner or with violence. While “festive” and “tense” are useful ways of thinking about protest atmospheres, they are often used in a highly reductive manner. The literature on atmosphere from social movement studies also tends to reproduce this reductive idea of atmosphere, whereby it can be understood through unidimensional metrics. This chapter discusses the social movement literature and opens the debate about atmospheres of protest more widely. Ultimately there is a much greater variety of atmospheric conditions in moments of protest. These nestle together, changing and interacting as the conditions shift. Atmospheres are the affective tone of space. They are produced by those gathered in that space, by the spatial dyn...
Climate Action in a Globalizing World, edited by C. Cassegård, L. Soneryd, H. Thörn and Å. Wettergren. New York: Routledge., 2017
In Chapter 3, Governing dissent in a state of emergency: police and protester interactions in the global space of the COP, Mattias Wahlström and Joost de Moor analyze how the French authorities governed climate protest in Paris during COP21, and how this impacted on the form and content of the major protest actions. Only two weeks prior to COP21, the French authorities had imposed a state of emergency as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. The emergency legislation granted the state the power to ban all public protest and expanded the capacities of the police. While authorities enforced the protest ban, it did so in an unpredictable manner, banning some protest events while allowing others to take place. This situation, and especially the uncertainty it created, strongly influenced how the mobilization of the climate movement unfolded. The authors argue that the overall aim of maintaining security during COP21 spilled over into significant repression of dissent and escalation of conflict in the public spaces of Paris – especially during the first days of action. Protest organizers experienced a high degree of uncertainty and fear of repression. This led to internal struggles within the movement when plans had to be adjusted, but also to a reframing of the protests in various ways, merging the climate change issue with demands for peace and civil liberties.
Comparing street demonstrations
Reference: Klandermans, B., van Stekelenburg, J., & Walgrave, S. (2014). Comparing street demonstrations. International Sociology, 29(6), 493-503. Abstract: This introductory article provides a short account of the theoretical framework and the methodological set-up of a comparative study of street demonstrations. The following articles in this issue report results from this study. The data on over 90 street demonstrations and more than 17,000 participants were collected between November 2009 and Summer 2012 in nine different countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. This introductory article presents the focal theme of the project – the impact of contextual variation on mobilization dynamics, the composition of the crowd and the demonstrators’ motives. The various contextual layers we are distinguishing are discussed. Following the theoretical framework the methodological set-up is presented. Identical measures and procedures are employed in all individual protest surveys. This introduction discusses the sampling procedures; but as each article concerns a different set of measures, the selection employed is discussed in the individual articles. The introduction concludes with an overview of the articles included.
How Do Street Protests Differ in Their Level of Politicization
This study aims to improve our understanding of protest politicization-i.e. the extent to which a street protest epitomizes a power struggle. Although scholars have implied that demonstrations may differ in their degree of politicization, we are unaware of any systematic research on the topic. We begin our study with a conceptualization of protest politicization. Then, we operationalize the concept as the extent to which demonstrators are angry and fight for a collective good; an opponent is identified and vilified; and a claim is specific and combatively made. To test whether these indicators hold, we use a dataset of two Dutch protests: a reactive protest against the Russian anti-gay law and the ritual Pink Saturday parade. These events were selected, because we considered them to differ in their level of politicization. The reactive protest was considered far more politicized. So, we expected the six indicators to manifest themselves here more prominently. These indicators were measured in various ways. Demonstrators reported their anger and participation motives in questionnaires. Researchers observed whether an opponent was identified and a claim was made. Also, we interviewed the protest organizers about their opponent and claim, and assessed media reports. Our results confirm our hypotheses. Therefore, we propose that the six indicators constitute a model to study how protests differ in their level of politicization. We conclude by discussing our findings and suggesting avenues for future research.
Policing Atmospheres: Crowds, Protest and ‘Atmotechnics’
Theory, Culture, Society
In 1983 the British police adopted their first public order policing manual, laying the foundations of a secretive archive. The manuals and training materials produced in the intervening years provide an untapped repository of affective thought. This article reads the 1983 and 2016 training materials for their atmospheric insights. It develops the term police ‘atmotechnics’ to describe interventions that are specifically designed to affect the crowded atmosphere of protest or other disorder. The manuals reveal a gradual shift from interventions designed to evince fear and awe, to ones that seek to calm crowds. But more importantly, they underline a shift from a linear understanding of atmotechnics (as a prelude to ‘the use of force’), to an affective feedback loop where specialised officers are deployed to ‘sense’ mood changes among crowds, allowing senior strategic and tactical decisions to take account of atmospheric conditions.
The paper provides a conceptual framework for understanding collectively shared political agency in public space. By using a phenomenological approach, it explores the spaces of protest movements by deploying Elias Canetti’s perspective on crowds and links this to an affectively embodied spatiality of protesting crowds, which is conceptually framed as atmosphere. This endeavour is substantiated with the differentiation between atmospheres and situations as in the neo-phenomenology of Hermann Schmitz on the one hand and the social theory of imitation by Gabriel Tarde on the other. The key argument of the paper is that the rhythmic appearance of imitative waves of sentiments and ideas within protest movements spatially manifests itself in an overarching atmosphere of protesting crowds. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the links between social movements, emotional crowd dynamics and the emergence of communal atmospheres of protest. It concludes with the argument that such atmospheres and techniques that facilitate them are of major importance for the understanding of the stability and sustainability of protest movements.
You do not even imagine us: Social portrait of protesters over time
«Вы нас даже не представляете»: социальный портрет митингующих в динамике, 2014
This article utilises the results of a face-to-face sociological survey carried out during the “For fair elections" protests between December 2011 – March 2012. Datasets: https://github.com/bardaguera/ForFairElections-datasets
Individual participation in street demonstrations
Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, Bert Klandermans, and Stefaan Walgrave. "Individual participation in street demonstrations." The Wiley Blackwell companion to social movements (2018): 369-391.
Protest participation has become normalized and all sorts of people resort to protest to demand social and political change. Participation in street demonstrations is the prototypical protest activity of citizens today. This chapter focuses on participation in street demonstrations, it first defines and conceptualizes the phenomenon; what is a street demonstration and how can it be distinguished from other gatherings such as riots and hooliganism? Next, focus is on the individual demonstrator: who is s/he, why does s/he participate, and how is s/he mobilized? Individual participation in demonstrations is the consequence of an interaction between individual and collective actors such as parties, interest groups and movement organizations. To illustrate this interaction the concepts of demand, supply and mobilization are used. Then the question how to investigate participation in street demonstrations. In doing so, the chapter distinguishes between methods that focus on the study of the protest events, and methods that focus on the participants. The conclusion raises methodological issues and challenges how scholars have studied the motives and recruitment techniques that bring individuals to a demonstration.