Mass Protests Research Articles

문제극에서 희극으로: 『자에는 자로』의 마당극 각색공연<법대로 합시다!>의 성취와 셰익스피어의 한국화

Im, Jintaek, one of the foremost practitioners of the madang-geuk―the Korean version of participatory political theater, staged Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure late in 2016, when the Candlelight Protest was expanding nation-wide. Most noticeable in Im’s adaptation was his decision to turn the original play into a genuine comedy. This unusual and defining feature of the adaptation was an eager intervention to the political moment. The comic ending anticipated and celebrated in advance the historic victory of the peaceful mass protest. This performance is truly a rare case of politically relevant Koreanized Shakespeare. This paper aims, above all, to analyze how the genuine comic ending is prepared by systematic adaptation and to illuminate its rich political messages so resonant in the context of the Candlelight Protest. Another focus of analysis will be on the seemingly conflicting aspect of the adaptation: the full actualization of the original play’s potential critical themes, explicitly guided by Brecht’s influential suggestion that the play’s so-called many problems including the dubious comic ending are embedded as clues for its intended political criticism. Lastly, the creative, modified use of madang-geuk theatrical styles will be examined, especially focusing on how it complements the adaptation to anticipate the comic ending.

THE REVOLUTION OF DIGNITY AS SEEN BY TURKISH MEDIA

Euromaidan, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, is undoubtedly an epoch-making event in the history of independent Ukraine. The mass protests, which began in Kyiv as a response to the government’s sudden decision to abandon the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU and a short time later spread far beyond the capital of Ukraine, could not but capture the global community’s attention. Numerous media outlets widely covered those historic events. Turkey, whose political life has always been full of contradictions, did not stand aside either. The paper provides a comprehensive picture of how different Turkish newspapers portrayed the Euromaidan events and what they put special emphasis on. The following aspects have come to the fore: a) what caused mass protests in Kyiv’s Independence Square (both immediate and remote causes were being explained); b) who were Euromaidan participants, how they looked and behaved, how they described their political views and explained their own motives for participation in anti-government protests; c) what was the character of protests and how it changed over time; d) what forces contributed to the continuation of protests; e) the outcomes of the Revolution of Dignity; f) predictions about what “a post-Maidan Ukraine” will look like in the near future. In total, about 20 newspaper articles from various sources (“Cumhuriyet” – “The Republic”, “Milliyet” – “The Nation”, “Avrasya Haber” – “Eurasian News”, “Özgür Gündem” – “The Free Agenda”, etc.) have been analysed. The findings were initially presented at an international conference “The Maidan Phenomenon in Ukrainian Society: Sociological Interpretations” held in memory of an eminent Ukrainian sociologist Natalia Panina (Kyiv, Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 10 December 2014).

Effects of traffic perturbations on bike sharing demand – a case study of public transport strikes and protests in Paris

Abstract. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the interactions between traffic perturbations and bike sharing use. More specifically we propose a framework for comparative spatial temporal analyses of public transport strikes and massive protests effects on bike sharing program in Paris. We find opposite effects on bike sharing demand due to public transport strikes and protests. The former causes a considerable rise in bike sharing demand particularly during the daily rush hours, while the latter precipitates a drop of activity constantly during the protest day. Our approach allows tracing bike sharing demand changes induced by traffic perturbations on an hourly level.

Features of the Political Process in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1997-2021)

The article contains analysis of political transformations in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in the 1997-2021 aiming to identify its political process’ features within the framework of «one country, two systems» model. A brief description of Hong Kong’s political life events in preceding decades is given, which reflects the key tendencies of Hong Kong’s socio-political development under the British colonial rule. It is stated that establishing of the new political order in the SAR by PRC, intended to form a more accountable administrative model, is realized using the traditional Chinese scheme, which implies establishing China’s unconditional dominance and control over the local administrations’ activity. According to this, institutional transformations were implemented resulting in recentralization of power in the hands of the SAR’s government, also administrative model was changed. The consequences of this shift were series of mass protest actions and reinforcement of political discord in public and government circles. The authors come to the conclusion about conflictive character of Hong Kong’s political process, periodically proceeding on the brink of stability disruption. Currently, prospects of its democratization appear to be unlikely.

Cartographies of sexual violence from Delhi to Hathras: an intersectional feminist understanding

The gang-rape case of Delhi in December 2012, usually referred to as Nirbhaya to the very recent Hathras case of September 2020, led to mass protests and demonstrations. However, reading it through the feminist intersectional lens clearly indicates the difference in public response, political stance, and legal progression. There was a protracted struggle, indeed, but sexual violence in Delhi subsequently led to the change in legal reforms, aligning itself towards rendering justice to the victim, but in the case of Hathras, it’s treading upon blurred pathways of judicial proceedings. This article evaluates the altered textures of protest and the trajectory of feminist intervention when it intersects with the spectrum of caste, class, space, and gender. Therefore, even beyond the social and economic position, the location plays a crucial role in deciphering the discourse of rape or sexual violence. Through the intersectional reading of these two case studies, this article evaluates the discourse of sexual violence in both urban and rural India and the politics of justice meted out to them.

Responsibility, Recourse, and Redress: A Focus on the Three R’s of AI Ethics

In August 2020, students took to the streets of London in a mass protest over their A-level results (that determine entry to university), chanting “F*ck the algorithm.” Their A-level grades had been determined by an algorithm that depended on past school performance, a system of teacher ratings, and for smaller student groups, the use of Centre Assessed Grades. Commendably Ofqual (the U.K. Government Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation) were transparent in their use of the algorithm so that affected stakeholders were informed of the algorithm’s existence and the key details of how it was developed. The design of the data set produced an algorithm with biased outputs, which hardcoded preexisting educational, policy, and societal biases. Due to the large numbers of students, the single “results day” output and the wider interests of schools, teachers, parents, and universities, the unfairness of the outcome was magnified. Add to this that the students were, by definition, academically proficient individuals, many of whom derived from privileged and supportive backgrounds, which meant that they had the awareness and capacity to challenge. Hence, the impact of this biased algorithm was not received silently and so it was hard to deny, deflect, and dismiss. However, this is not always the case, and many systems are deployed with similar biases and harmful outcomes but the impact is dissipated over time and individuals, and therefore not so immediately obvious and easy to challenge. This is particularly the case when the people impacted do not have the advantages that enabled the A-level students to challenge.

Crisis and opportunity

It is not a good time for the global economy. Many countries are experiencing an economic downturn due to several factors. COVID-19 remains a persistent challenge to many countries despite high vaccination rates. In Asia and beyond, a new surge of cases has been delaying the ability of economies to recover and “normalize” since early 2020. Another factor is the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war that started in February 2022. With no end in sight, the war has taken a toll on global supply chains including food (i.e., wheat, potatoes) and oil. Rising food and oil prices have affected societies worldwide unequally with the poor and marginalized receiving the greatest negative impact of actions and decisions made beyond their states' borders. Governments will face tremendous challenges in addressing the economic hardship experienced by their people. Their pandemic response has drained their fiscal resources and led many states to borrow extensively. In the Philippines, for example, government debt has doubled since the pandemic began. This has severely limited the ability of its government to effectively respond to inflation and jumpstart the economy. But it is in Sri Lanka where a full-fledged economic crisis wreaked havoc with the resignation of the government. Without sufficient foreign currency reserves, the Sri Lankan economy virtually shut down with a shortage of oil and gas as well as basic food necessities. As seen in the past, such economic hardship caused popular outrage with massive protests unseen in its contemporary history. The global economic downturn is a serious legitimacy challenge to governments of all types. The dire global economic situation requires states and international institutions to immediately act, seriously work in a collective manner, and commit to uplift everyone from the crisis. This is not an easy decision as retreating to protectionist measures is the easy and rational path in the short run. The looming food crisis around the world is not because there is a lack of supply but with political decisions that seek to protect domestic markets at the sacrifice of foreign markets. This “protectionist reflex” could cause more hardship, especially in low-income economies and highly unequal societies. We will have to wait in the coming months whether the global economy can indeed fix these market distortions on its own but as history has taught us, previous international economic crises required proactive measures of states and international organizations. Asian Politics & Policy has published numerous articles on the linkages between economic crisis and political factors. Yu's (2010) study about China's proposal to develop a Western Economic Triangle has been met with skepticism given the various challenges in the country's western frontier. This inequality within one of the world's biggest economies will continue to impact the ability of China to recover from the current economic downturn. China's more assertive stance in the region will also influence its ability to present itself as a problem solver to the current economic crisis. The country's ability to integrate itself into the global economy and be more interdependent with other countries has not necessarily released the mechanisms attributed by international relations theory regarding liberal or democratic peace. Leon (2017) argued that this is because China remains in a process of power transition. Thus, it will take some time before China can act as a responsible economic actor. Finally, existing regional trade arrangements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership may require adjustments to appropriately and sufficiently address the current challenges faced by economies in the Indo-Pacific region. In one study, such trade arrangements may have to balance the desire to be autonomous from the global trade order with the necessity of linking with other economies to address the global economic crisis (Novikov & Shumkova, 2018). In this issue of Asian Politics & Policy, we are pleased to publish original research articles that covered topics ranging from military history, Taiwan's soft power diplomacy, irrigation policy reforms in Southeast Asia, policy brokers for infrastructure projects in Thailand, and youth violence in Nepal. We are also featuring two policy review articles regarding COVID-19 policy responses in Indonesia and Hong Kong as well as the usual media and book reviews. We hope that our journal can be a good academic medium for serious and rigorous debates and discussions on public policies and international affairs in Asia.

Radicalisation, Exhaustion, and Networked Movement in Abeyance: Hong Kong University Students’ Localist Identification after the Umbrella Movement

Between the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the unprecedented mass protests in 2019, Hong Kong experienced a period of movement abeyance during which localism became a prominent political identification, notably among young people. Localism, defined as a reactive form of radicalism, was one pathway after a cycle of contention, alongside persistence with moderate claims and exhaustion, an affective process of detachment from contentious politics after mobilisation. However, the existing literature seldom explores individual attributes to these pathways during movement abeyance. Using survey data gathered from five local universities (N = 1,365), this study seeks to examine how cognitive appraisal of previous protest events, political emotions, and media use during abeyance predict radical and moderate political identifications among university students in Hong Kong. Youths with stronger devotion to the Umbrella Movement and negative emotions after it were more likely to identify as localists. However, youths with these attributes who perceived negative consequences of the Umbrella Movement showed a lower likelihood of being localists or pan-democrats. These results can elucidate the trajectories for radicalisation and exhaustion during post-Umbrella Movement abeyance.

Information coverage of protests in the Republic of Belarus in 2020 in social media and mass media: Dynamics and patterns

The article presents a socio-media analysis of protest moods in the Republic of Belarus in 2020. As part of working with a database collected through IQ Buzz, the author presented the dynamics of protest mentions in social media by main time intervals and cities of the country, the rating of the most popular words, and also showed the role of external forces in influencing the protest moods of Belarusian citizens. The results obtained allow us to consider the process of organizing mass protests through media tools as a technology with its own patterns and features.

Beyond the "weakness of the state": Canada's intervention in post-agreement Colombia.

During the 2021 mass protests in Colombia, and while international calls for the Colombian government to respect human rights were intensifying, Canada's position remained somewhat ambiguous. Part of Canada's ambiguity can be explained by a simplistic characterization of Colombia as a "weak state." This article assesses Canada's bilateral relationship by historizing the development of Colombia's governance in the key overlapping sectors of security, human rights, and natural resources. From extensive fieldwork, we distinguish two competing rationalities based on the articulation of the notions of "conflict" and "dissent" with the notion of the "rule of law." We believe that Canada's bilateral relation with Colombia in the last decades has overlooked the contradictions that exist between democratizing rationalities and antipolitical rationalities. As a result, Canada's foreign policy has been based on an overly simplistic conception of the relationship between development, security, and the rule of law.

The Unknown Labour Camp in Slivnitsa (August – September 1989)

The labour camp in the military unit in the town of Slivnitsa as a place of state repression in the campaign for forced name change has not been the subject of special scientific research. In early 1985, hundreds of Turks from North-Eastern Bulgaria were summoned to the military checkpoints and as "mobilized" were sent to the unit, part of which was turned into a special labour camp. In Slivnitsa and other labour camps, the mobilized were subjected to heavy physical labour and psychological harassment. In the archive of the State Security documents are kept with some of the statistics on this form of violent dealing with the most active Turks – potential opponents of the forced name change and organizers of mass protests in North - Eastern Bulgaria. The repression in the labour camp in Slivnitsa from August-September 1989, happened during a period of the hardest field work for the tobacco producers. As "reserve troops" some of the most prominent Pomaks in Southern Bulgaria, including also some Turks from the Pazardzhik and Gotzedelchevski villages, were isolated. Subjected to humiliation, harassment and ideological manipulation, more than 100 people in a month were held halfhungry and forced to engage in heavy physical labour. This state violence scared the population and interrupted all possibilities for general opposition against the communist regime. This study aims to present this form of mass repression, carried out secretly and thoroughly concealed by the communist totalitarian regime in Bulgaria and plunged into oblivion. It is based on archival documents, memories, unknown to science notes and a list of the names of those brought in in 1989 in the labour camp in Slivnitsa.

The fundamental determinants of protest participation: Evidence from Hong Kong’s antiauthoritarian movement

Which fundamental traits are associated with individuals’ participation in antiauthoritarian protests? We conduct a series of surveys eliciting participation in Hong Kong’s antiauthoritarian movement, covering a period that included protests ranging from tens of thousands to over one million participants. For a sample of university students, we construct a comprehensive profile of fundamental economic preferences: risk and time preferences plausibly affecting an individual’s costs of protest participation; social preferences affecting the benefits. We also elicit other fundamental traits: personality, cognitive abilities, and socioeconomic background. We document several facts about protest participants: (i) fundamental economic preferences, particularly risk tolerance and pro-social preferences, are the strongest predictors of protest participation; (ii) the strongest predictors are the same for modest and massive protests, with larger effects for massive protests; (iii) participation in massive protests is not driven by marginal types, but rather by inframarginal types; (iv) both the distribution of fundamental preferences and their relationship with protest participation are very similar between university students and the broader population; and, (v) willingness to respond honestly to sensitive survey questions is high and stable over the entire sample period. Our findings suggest that economic preferences be considered alongside class background and personality as deeply determined traits driving protest participation and can inform the development of dynamic models of protest movements.

Making sense of the January 2022 protests in Kazakhstan: failing legitimacy, culture of protests, and elite readjustments

ABSTRACT In January 2022 mass protests spread quickly across the whole of Kazakhstan, becoming the largest mass mobilization in the country’s modern history. We analyze these mass protests through the framework of regime-society relations, arguing that a ey failure of the regime built by Nazarbayev is the inability to reconcile its neoliberal prosperity rhetoric with citizens’ calls for a welfare state. We then explore how a tradition of protests has been developing since 2011 and address the structural components of regime (in)stability and how they contributed to violence in the protests.

Image, Touch, Possibilities: A Photograph from the 2013 Bulgarian Protests Travels the World

This paper follows the lives of a photograph, which captured anunlikely gesture amidst a scene of injury during the 2013 mass protests inBulgaria. It tracks the image’s impacts by focusing on six different registers:the ethnographer, the photographer, the girl in the photograph, a bloggerand participant in the protests, global image-sharing sites, and a Hollywoodproduction. The writing strives toward an attunement with the affective forceof the image and toward making visible some of the ways it manages to disruptand reconfigure existing worlds, brighten atmospheres and lives, and createdesire and anticipation for a world-in-common.

Post Endsars Protest: Exploring Subjective Perception of Police Victims in Lagos, Nigeria

This study examined public perception of police in post endsars mass protest. The aim of the study was to verify public relationship with police as spillover from violent mass protest. The study was hinged on value-added theory. Six-hundred respondents were surveyed and criteria for inclusion was victim of police brutality. Exploratory design was adopted using quantitative method. Sampling method consisted of purposive and accidental. Lagos was purposively chosen as epicentre of endsars protest; victims of police brutality were chosen purposively. Accidental method applied to select participants in the study. Data were collected and analysed quantitatively using descriptive and inferential statistics. Analytically, 78.5% male participated in the survey, mean age of respondents was 44.5. Subjective perception of police in pre-endsars was classified and consisted of fine officer (21.3%), disgusted officer (33.0%) and compromising officer (45.7%). Police rating in post endsars protest was classified. Thus, 71.5% rated police as partially law abiding and 18.3% felt police misconduct persisted. In the post protest, Level of police brutality was rated low given the score mark 40%. Using regression model, demographic characteristics predicted victims’ intention to participate in violent protest against police brutality (R.324, R2 .50). The model was significant at p<.000. Victims’ age (mean=1.5), occupation (mean=2.4), income (mean=1.9) and sex (mean=4.1) predicted protest intention against police. Level of police brutality in post Lagos endsars protest was low, consequent upon endsars protest. It is recommended that treatment of offenders by police should be guided by rules and regulations. Police require sound training to uphold ethnic of policing.
 
 Received: 14 March 2022 / Accepted: 30 April 2022 / Published: 5 May 2022

“Smart” Psychological Operations in Social Media: Security Challenges in China and Germany

Artificial intelligence (AI) is actively being incorporated into the communication process, as AI rapidly spreads and becomes cheaper for companies and other actors to use. AI has traditionally been used to run social media. It is used in the various platforms’ algorithms, bots and deepfake technology, as well as for the purpose of monitoring content and targeting instruments. However, a variety of actors are now increasingly using AI technology, at times with malicious intent. For example, terrorist organizations use bots on social networks to spread their propaganda and recruit new fighters. The rise of crimes involving AI is growing at a rapid pace. The impact of this type of crime is extremely negative – mass protests which demand the restriction of the use of technology, the involvement of manipulated persons in criminal groups, the destruction of the reputation of victims of “smart” slander (sometimes leading to threats to their life and health), etc. Combating these phenomena is a task which falls to security agencies, but also civil society institutions, the academic community, legislators, politicians, and the business community, since the complex nature of the threat requires complex solutions involving the participation of all interested parties. This paper aims to find answers to the following research questions: 1) what are the current threats to the psychological security of society caused by the malicious use of AI on social networks? 2) how do malicious (primarily non-state) actors carry out psychological operations through AI on social networks? 3) what impacts (behavioral, political, etc.) do such operations have on society? 4) how can the psychological security of society be protected using existing approaches as well as innovative ones? The answer to this last question is inextricably linked to the possibilities offered by international cooperation. This paper examines the experiences of Germany and China, two leaders in the field of AI which happen to have different socio-political systems and approaches to a number of international issues. The paper concludes that by increasing international cooperation, it is possible to counter psychological operations through AI more effectively and thereby protect society’s interests.

Protest and Electoral Breakthrough: Challenger Party-Movement Interactions in Germany

This paper studies party-movement interactions in Germany, focusing on Die Linke and the AfD, the two most recent additions to Germany’s multi-party system. The electoral rise of both challenger parties went along with mass protests, opposition to Hartz IV in the mid-2000s and anti-Islamic PEGIDA mobilisation in the mid-2010s. We shift the emphasis from how social movements turn into political parties, including significant organisational and personal overlap, to more indirect ways of how protest and electoral politics interact. Specifically, we identify a process composed of two interrelated mechanisms: an external politicisation spiral and an intra-party innovation spiral. We show how mass protest triggers both discursive shifts in the public sphere and internal strategic realignment, providing an opportunity for parties to ride the wave, secure their competitive advantages, and mobilise on the protestors’ grievances in the electoral arena. In such a way, challenger parties can take advantage of street protests even when they do not directly emerge from a movement. Methodologically, the article is based on a paired comparison, relying on survey data and an original protest event analysis that provides novel data on anti-Hartz IV and PEGIDA protest mobilisation in Germany.

THE REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL LAW ON THE CAUSES OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT

This research is to find out the cause of the war between Russia and Ukraine that just started on Thursday, February 24, 2022. This war took place after months of increasing tensions between the two countries. On Monday, February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the creation of two states in the separatist region of eastern Ukraine. Then what is the background of the conflict in Ukraine which is now expanding into a West-Russian escalation. In February 2014, pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor Janukovich was ousted from power by mass protests in the capital Kiev. Previously, Janukovich refused to sign an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union under Russian pressure. The refusal has angered many citizens who are already excited about joining the European Union. Moreover, there were many accusations of corruption of government officials, including Viktor Janukovich, who eventually fled to Russia. Russia retaliated by sending troops to the Crimean Peninsula. After taking control of Crimea, Russia has fomented a separatist insurgency in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbas region, by sending weapons to the separatists. This study uses a Historical Normative approach by collecting various literatures as the main source. The results of the analysis show that in April 2014, Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and proclaimed the creation of two new republics. The following month, the two separatist territories applied to become part of Russia. But Moscow has not officially responded to the request. Russia is known to want to prevent Ukraine from becoming a member of NATO, like other Eastern European countries. In conclusion Moscow also denies sending troops and weapons to eastern Ukraine, saying that Russian citizens fighting in eastern Ukraine are volunteers to prevent the genocide of the Ukrainian government.

The Popular Appeal of Human Rights Activism: Reimagining Transitional Justice as a Political Struggle

AbstractHow do human rights activists imagine transitional justice amid sociopolitical conflicts that surface after peace agreements? Since its inception in the 2016 peace accords, Colombia's renewed endeavor to come to terms with its violent past has been overshadowed by massive protests and political polarization. In this article, I argue that populism, defined as a grid of intelligibility to make sense of frustrated demands and engage in politics, can help us understand the protest discourses of human rights defenders on transitional justice as they emerge from experiences with political marginalization and broken state promises. Based on interviews during six months of fieldwork in different conflict-affected regions, I contend that human rights defenders imagine transitional justice in terms of a larger political struggle that exceeds justice for past atrocities and can be described through three tropes that both resound with and challenge populism debates: truth as the frontier of political confrontation with right-wing elites, the “rights-defending victim” as a form of popular subjectivity and political underdog, and liberal overhaul of corrupted democratic institutions. Conceptually, my reconstruction of activist discourses serves a two-fold purpose: it bridges debates on transitional justice and contentious politics, and constructively challenges the ostensible incompatibility of human rights and populism.

Bulgaria and Slovenia Protest Event Dataset (2009-2017): Protest cycles and protest patterns in Southeast Europe

This article aims to present findings from an original dataset on collective action in the protest arenas of Bulgaria and Slovenia in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, 2009-2017. Unlike other empirical studies which focus either on particular social movements or individual-level measurements, this dataset consists of all reports of collective action in the form of protests demonstrations, strikes, blockades, occupations, sit-ins, marches, petitions etc., derived from the national Bulgarian and Slovenian press agencies, including information about claims and actors. Along with a description of the data collection, techniques, and coding, the article identifies the phases of protest cycles and explores general protest patterns. The findings depict three distinct periods of activity in Bulgaria and Slovenia: the ascending phase of protest cycle involving immediate protest responses against austerity measures (2009-2011), massive anti-establishment discontent involving the dominant role of new informal protest movements (2012-2013), and the de-mobilization phase of mass protest and the rise of contention about cultural issues (since 2014).