Silent Walk as a street mobilization: Campaigning following the Grenfell Tower fire

Selin Tekin,John Drury

doi:10.1002/casp.2521

Abstract

AbstractThis paper uses ethnography and interviews with 15 participants who were actively involved in the campaign following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire to address the question of how campaigners use street mobilization to seek justice in the aftermath of a disaster. Analysis of observations and themes suggests that campaigners used street mobilization to do two things. First, they used it to build solidarity with supporters through accessibility, the use of shared social spaces and collectively showing respect for losses. Second, they used it to protest in a way that challenged negative stereotypes and projected their power to the authorities, who could not ignore such a large and dignified mobilization. Whereas previous social psychology research on disaster communities focuses on the determinants of the immediate responses of people who experienced a disaster, we show the strategic aspects of such disaster communities. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Highlights

This paper uses ethnography and interviews with 15 participants who were actively involved in the campaign following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire to address the question of how campaigners use street mobilization to seek justice in the aftermath of a disaster
One of the most prominent campaign features through which those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire sought justice was a street mobilization, a monthly Silent Walk, which both commemorated the dead and sent a message to the authorities (Renwick, 2019). Based on both the social psychology and disasters literature, we examined how post-disaster campaign activities such as this can operate as a mechanism to collectively overcome injustice and enable campaigners to articulate their identity politically
This paper addresses the question of how street mobilization was used and sustained by participants as a campaigning strategy following the Grenfell Tower fire, by focusing on the monthly Silent Walk

Summary

Introduction

Analysis of observations and themes suggests that campaigners used street mobilization to do two things. They used it to build solidarity with supporters through accessibility, the use of shared social spaces and collectively showing respect for losses. They used it to protest in a way which challenged negative stereotypes and projected their power to the authorities, who could not ignore such a large and dignified mobilization. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article’s Community and Social Impact Statemen

Methods

Conclusion