Protest Activity Research Articles

Defenders of the status quo: energy protests and policy (in)action in Sweden

Abstract Are the positions that protesters take—in favor or against change—consequential for their ability to affect policy? While previous research suggests that protests can inform legislative priorities and facilitate policy introduction, this paper emphasizes policy inaction and stasis as goals of some protest actions. Analysis uses novel and detailed data on energy-related protest and policy actions in Sweden covering a forty-year period and considers protest frequency and size in relation to proposal introduction. The research design uniquely distinguishes between protests in favor or against a specific energy source and proposal activity in line with those demands and also controls for public opinion on each energy source. Findings suggest that pro-renewable energy protests do not yield pro-renewable policies but prevent undesired policies that support non-renewable energy sources. In contrast to pro-renewable protests, protests against renewable energy sources are somewhat more influential. They likewise prevent the introduction of their undesired proposals and also influence the introduction of proposals supporting non-renewable energy sources. Overall, the paper examines policy inaction as a desired protest outcome and argues protest—as a tactic—may be more effective when pushing against rather than for policy change.

Strategic authenticity in the promotion of a protest action on social media: the case of the School Strike 4 Climate in Sydney

ABSTRACT Protest organisers around the world are increasingly trying to pressure governments to act on climate change. Young people have been at the forefront of the mobilisation to raise awareness about the issue and to call for change. Student movements across the globe are redefining the political through innovative and creative actions. I focus on one of these actions with a case study of how young people from the School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C) movement in Sydney use social media to promote a protest event. In doing so, I propose the concept of ‘strategic authenticity’ to define the balance between professional communication and authenticity in young peoples’ communicative action online. Such a balance is achieved by melding well-crafted content with humour and references to popularity and internet culture. Studying students’ practices of ‘strategic authenticity’ contributes to deepening our understanding of democratic renewal and young people’s political engagement in the context of the climate change movement.

Apocalypse now? – The Last Generation in digital capital’s affective ecology

Abstract This essay situates the protest actions of the German environmentalist group Die letzte Generation (LG) within an environmental critique of digital capitalism. It specifically examines the temporality of LG’s activism at the intersection of the affective ecology of digital capital and certain aspects of an apocalyptic imagination. I propose a Spinozist approach to the media environment in which LG operates that may open a path toward an immanent critique of LG’s publicity-oriented practices.

Do You See What I See? Emotional Reaction to Visual Content in the Online Debate About Climate Change

ABSTRACT This paper explores the visual echo chamber effect in online climate change communication. We analyze communication by progressive actors and counteractors involved in the public debate about climate change on Facebook, to address the possibility that visual content can bridge ideologically diverse communities. Specifically, we investigate whether visual content depicting protest serves this purpose. The findings reveal a small amount of shared visual content. Interestingly, the emotional reactions to this content for the most part diverge significantly, suggesting that pre-existing attitudes, such as climate ideological position, influence interpretation. Contrary to our expectations, however, we do not observe visual content representing protest activity bridging the two groups. This work posits the possibility of a two-fold (de)polarization around visual content that both connects and divides, which contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the social dynamics that create and sustain the echo chamber effect observed in online climate change debates. KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS Even when taking into account visual communication, the online debate around climate change is characterized by the presence of echo chambers with only a small fraction of content that circulates among both climate activists and climate skeptics. In cases where the same visual content circulates within the two groups, the emotional reactions are often opposed, with reactions that are more defined by the pre-existing climate ideological alignment than with an actual engagement with the content.

“It feels like a parallel universe.” Worldbuilding through climate action

ABSTRACT This study set out to explore the everyday experiences of people engaged in climate action. We focus not on one specific self-defined and bounded social movement, but on individuals engaging in different forms of climate action from protest and direct action to art and social media activism. Data were drawn from focus groups and interviews with 26 UK-based climate actors to explore motivations, experiences, emotions, conflicts and successes. Participants included scientists, artists, civil servants, community organisers, media, school students and teachers. Different ways of doing and experiencing climate action were found. Drawing on literature from science fiction and game studies, we argue that these different approaches to climate action can be conceptualised as worldbuilding. Climate action as worldbuilding consists of three key features: intentionality, separation and creating new norms. We conclude that worldbuilding is an inclusive conceptualisation as it makes space for different approaches to climate action, and allows for tensions within and between climate action movements to be viewed as a resource for learning, imagining and bringing into being preferred futures together. The study demonstrates how social movement research in the context of game design can contribute to the theorisation of activism through the production of a cultural artefact.

National goal, local resistance: How institutional gaps hinder local renewable energy development in Taiwan

In most countries, energy transitions are well supported by the public; however, the implementation of renewable energy policies at the local level is often beset with resistance. Previous research has mainly focused on factors influencing community acceptance and strategies to improve social acceptance. Meanwhile, there has been limited analysis of the institutional gaps that lead to local resistance and the dynamic effects of institutional factors on renewable energy implementation at the local level. This paper thus investigates Taiwan's regulations for renewable energy development, presenting a detailed case study from a local context. It examines the factors contributing to local resistance to the implementation of national renewable energy policy targets and explores the dynamics of these resistance actions. Furthermore, through the lens of multi-level governance, the study reveals the institutional gaps and interactions that influence the execution of national policy at the local level. Six major institutional gaps in Taiwan's renewable energy governance were identified, including the lack of energy governance authorizations for local governments, a lack of superordinate site selection criteria and evaluation mechanisms for development zones, lack of governance systems that can address multiple issues, lack of scientific and academic information, lack of information disclosure and public participation mechanisms, and the burden of carbon reduction responsibilities and costs on local communities with few or no benefits. Compounded together, these six institutional gaps lead to the buildup of negative experiences interacting with the government and the renewable energy industry and feelings of worry, panic, distrust, and injustice among the local populace. These ultimately trigger resistance attitudes and the adoption of protest actions, hindering solar farm developments from reaching national policy targets. This study highlights the critical role of multi-level governance in facilitating the energy transition, emphasizing that the successful development of renewable energy requires a robust institutional framework. Such a framework is essential for addressing the complex governance challenges that arise during this transition, particularly aspects supporting local engagement. The six institutional gaps identified from the Taiwan case can serve as policy references for countries or cities intending to promote ground-mounted solar power.

Constitutional Overhaul, the War in Gaza, and the Puzzle of Civic Mobilization in Israel

Abstract Much has been written on the constitutional overhaul in Israel, and the attendant constitutional crisis in the first nine months of 2023. Since October 7, however, with the breakout of the Israel-Gaza war, the overhaul was seemingly shelved. This Article seeks to connect both events, by comparing the legal-political response to the overhaul with the legal-political response to the war. It asks why, given the intensity of the protest movement generated by the overhaul, there was a dearth of protest activity after the war, even though both events implicated similar values, namely the rule of law and individual rights, championed by the protest movement. I argue that a central reason for the disparity cannot only be explained by the dynamics of war but also due to the tensions and complexities inherent in Israel’s self-professed constitutional identity as a Jewish and democratic state. In particular, I argue that anti-overhaul protests appealed to liberal universalist values to garner bipartisan support, with the effect of bypassing substantive issues such as the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and discrimination faced by Israeli Palestinians. This explains the lack of Arab participation in the protests, as many perceived them to be an internal Jewish Affair. Thus, when post-war repressive measures mostly affected Israeli Palestinians, the protest movement failed to rally in their support. Although anti-overhaul protests could have brought about greater liberal consolidation in Israel, the relative lack of post-war mobilization casts lingering doubts on the possibility of long-term consolidation of liberal values in Israel. Attempts to depoliticize the protests, while perhaps successful in warding off the overhaul, and though impressive on their own, have likely failed in instilling deeper, more resilient, liberal values in Israel.

Репрессивные практики противоборствующих сторон в Кабарде в период российской революции (1917–1920 гг.)

This article investigates the issues surrounding the application of repressive practices in Kabarda during the period of the revolution and the civil war from 1917 to 1920. It examines the factors that led to a transition toward violence among the opposing factions and the nature of its escalation. It is emphasized that the political actors who came to power primarily sought to eliminate their opponents, represented by the previous ruling elite, and subsequently targeted broad segments of the population as public protest activity and resistance to the prevailing political course increased. The article also elucidates the forms of repressive practices employed during this tumultuous period. The most severe of these was the physical elimination of political adversaries, a tactic utilized by both sides in the civil conflict within the region. Arrest and incarceration were also frequently employed. Other forms of repression, predominantly exercised by the Bolshevik regime, included the disenfranchisement of individuals, conscription for forced labor, and confiscation of property.

From Victory to Democracy: The “Democracy” in Thailand’s Victory Monument

Abstract This paper discusses the symbolic transformation of Thailand’s Victory Monument in the Thai public memory, from embodying militarism to representing the complicated concept of Thai democracy. In the beginning, the monument had an indirect connection to democracy. However, due to the spatial agency, such as protest activities occupying this structure, it has turned into one of Bangkok’s democratic spaces. By looking at the stories of contentious politics and narratives surrounding this structure, this study reveals that the development of the Victory Monument’s meanings mirrors the democratic struggles of the Thai people. It also applies prevailing discourses on Thai democracy to elucidate the connection between the monument and democratic movements. This research provides an understanding of Thailand’s democratic struggles through a different lens, promotes historical awareness, and preserves public memory by emphasizing the role of public monuments in Thai history, society, and democracy.

Development or Ecocide? Sociotechnical Imaginaries and Contested Infrastructure in the “Tren Maya” Controversy

This article examines the controversy surrounding the Tren Maya railway megaproject in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula through the lens of sociotechnical imaginaries. We argue that the Tren Maya, much more than a technological intervention, came to embody differing visions of desired futures. Initially promoted by the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration as a state-led reindustrialization program to mitigate social inequalities, the project was engulfed by the nationalist-developmental imaginary of the so-called “Fourth Transformation.” The local impacts that materialized in the construction process, however, sparked significant socio-environmental conflicts and mobilized a diverse opposition movement comprising indigenous communities, scientific experts, and environmental organizations. As the controversy unfolded, protest actors leveraged various legal mechanisms to challenge the epistemic and normative claims underpinning the government’s plans, eventually giving rise to a subversive imaginary that reframed the Tren Maya as a criminal, “ecocidal” enterprise. Our study reveals the intricate interdependencies between material and discursive processes in the (de)legitimization of competing infrastructural imaginaries and their role in mobilizing social forces. In particular, we underscore the crucial yet often overlooked role of legal channels and institutions in generating, validating, and amplifying imagined futures. By illustrating how social relations and normative ideals are co-produced with technoscientific knowledge and material facts, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how different sociotechnical imaginaries interact, compete, and gain traction in the context of infrastructural transformations.

The dramaturgical infrastructure of counter-summitry – ethnographic insights from the Glasgow climate conference

ABSTRACT The annual UN climate conferences synchronize major social worlds, including politics, media, business, science, and law. They therefore attract anyone interested in high-profile performances such as protest action. With the post-Paris turn in global environmental governance, scholarly interest in theatrical aspects of climate governance is increasing. Activism at climate conferences, however, has not yet been studied through a dramaturgical lens. We propose the concept of ‘dramaturgical infrastructure’ to complement Goffman’s focus on self-presentation with the material and immaterial context beyond the micro-level of situated interactional practices. Based on fieldwork at the 2021 climate conference in Glasgow, we describe how activists draw on and mobilize a dramaturgical infrastructure of scripts, spaces, rituals, and requisites for their performances, and how this results in role-taking on the Glasgow stage. We identify the roles of the watchdog, the participant, the disrupter, and the connector, each with distinctive patterns of compliance with or distancing from post-Paris climate governance and the news media. The dramaturgical perspective suggests that climate conferences provide encounters that educate activists to be aware of the component of self-presentation in their activism and to design performances for high public, policy, and media attention.

Language as a Communication Tool for Maximum Participation in Municipalities: Lessons from Moqhaka Local Municipality, South Africa

This study attempts to accent the momentousness of public participation as an essential element of successful good local governance in the Republic of South Africa. Public participation is a fundamental dimension of democracy and an important factor in the deepening of democratic process. In this study, a total of 283 literate and semi-literate residents from the Moqhaka Local Municipality (comprising Kroonstad, Viljoenskroon and Steynsrus) participated in a purposive non-probability sampling exercise. Questionnaires were given to respondents following the population sizes, where Kroonstad (150 respondents) being the largest, followed by Viljoenskroon (80 respondents), and lastly, Steynsrus (53 respondents). The results showed overwhelmingly that both literate and semi-literate members of the Municipality strongly suggest that the use of African languages, in this case Sesotho is crucial for democracy to thrive. This paper intended to revitalise and encourage public participation at South African local municipalities, and to help minimise protest actions where residents constantly demand better service delivery. This has been true with the low voter turnout rate during the November 2021 local government elections. Local municipalities in South Africa are facing a huge task of advocating the involvement of communities and community organisations in local government. Language of communication is thus important in achieving this.

Varieties of trade union protest

Abstract The article examines varieties of trade union protest across industrial relations regimes, using protest event data for 27 European countries between 2000 and 2021. We present a large-n analysis of how the level and ‘movement character’ of union protest covaries with the strength and institutional settings of union movements across regimes. We show that unions remain important protest actors and that union protest in the public sphere notably outweighs workplace-related strikes. Furthermore, we find an inverse relationship between union institutionalization and the ‘movement character’ of union protest: While strong union movements in highly institutionalized regimes display a strike-heavy repertoire, weaker union movements in contexts of low institutionalization rely heavily on protest actions beyond the workplace strike. With these findings, we provide a novel empirical assessment of what unions do in the protest arena and how institutional settings can be conducive to strike-heavy versus protest-heavy union tactics.

The acoustemology of Hong Kong in protest: a sonic understanding of the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to construct a sonic understanding of the recent past of Hong Kong in protest. By utilizing and extending Steven Feld’s framework of acoustemology, I examine the sonic events during protests and identify sounds in the cultural system understood among the inhabitants. I conducted a digital archival search of newspaper articles and created a dataset of the events sounding ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ during the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. I explore three aspects: the participants, the space where the protest activities took place, and the sound generated and/or sounded in the activities. By demonstrating the interrelationality of them, I argue that sounds are able to reveal and (re-)claim spaces, establish a relationship between humans and space, bring an understanding of Hong Kong, and construct ‘Hong Kong,’ via collective sounding in protests and daily activities across time. This is the acoustemology of Hong Kong in protest.

Digital technologies and the protest paradigm: The discursive construction of the #WomanLifeFreedom protests in Time and Wired magazine

In today’s hybrid media landscape, scholars have questioned the “protest paradigm” as the leading interpretation of news coverage of protest action. While the press tends to cover protests in rather antagonistic terms, it is simultaneously highly celebratory of the digital, rehearsing long standing techno-utopian and techno-deterministic discourses. This study zooms in on the Iranian #WomanLifeFreedom movement, investigating how the political power of digital technologies is articulated in Time and Wired magazine. The findings highlight an overarching discourse of technology as a double-edged sword intersecting with discourses of tactical creativity, horizontalism, and digital “witnessing”; as well as two marginal but interlinked discourses: technology as last resort and human right. Findings show that while the protest paradigm persists in the contemporary coverage of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement, legitimizing and delegitimizing frames coexist to produce a more nuanced view of the movement, highlighting activist goals and grievances alongside elements of conflict and spectacle. Considering the transnational dimension of the protests, and the U.S. – Iran political context, the paper concludes that both the geography of protest and the integration of digital technologies in activism shape the coverage of contemporary movements.

European experience in counteracting disinformation influences

Information-psychological influences, attacks, and operations do not have a physical manifestation but generate destabilizing internal and external processes within a state. These processes cause aggression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction among the population, potentially leading to open physical conflict. The use of the Internet enables extremist organizations to access mass media, spreading propaganda, informing about their goals, tasks, measures, and forms of support. The authors emphasize the significant impact of modern information and communication technologies on increasing threats to political stability and the security of any state. The aim of this paper is to highlight foreign experiences regarding organizational and legal measures that prevent the spread of disinformation, aimed at inciting hostility and hatred within a state. The study draws on experiences from large-scale protest actions, organized and coordinated through social networks on the Internet. The authors note that blogs, social networks, electronic maps, and video hosting sites are currently used without restrictions for political destabilization. Social networks enable immediate support from like-minded individuals and the publication of extremist materials, which contribute to the escalation of socio-political, ethnic, and interfaith conflicts. The main research methods are comparative analysis, statistical method, historical method, structural-functional method of cognition. Having studied the periods of formation of the system for countering the spread of disinformation in the EU, the authors concluded that the work on countering the spread of disinformation is conducted comprehensively and systematically and is constantly being improved in accordance with the challenges. In the EU countries, not only the practice of combating disinformation has been developed, but also an array of normative legal acts has been adopted to prevent the spread of disinformation. The European experience demonstrates the importance of a balance between freedom of speech and security measures in the information space. Such a comprehensive and conceptual approach should be the basis for creating a system for countering the spread of disinformation in Ukraine.

Влияние социально-экономической дифференциации молодежи на ее политическую идентичность

This article examines the features of the political identity of provincial youth based on socio-economic differentiation. It is noted that the youth environment is not homogeneous in its socio-economic status and such differentiation in the context of a Special Military Operation, an unstable political situation, and social tension presupposes a different political identity. In turn, this leads to destructive activity of young people in relation to government officials, as well as to intergroup conflicts. This assumption formed the basis of the author’s analysis in considering the possible dependence of the ideological identification of young people on their place in the social structure of society. The scientific tasks to be solved by the analysis are the understanding and conceptualization of the political and ideological orientations of modern youth in the context of socio-economic differentiation. The working hypothesis was that the least financially protected groups of young people are the most radical in relation to the authorities. Therefore, the author conditionally distinguishes two groups of young people. The first group of young people are those who have a low standard of living, suffer from a lack of social elevators and social injustice, do not have the opportunity to get a good education and are ready to change their position in society during protest actions. The second group of young people is the generation that grew up as “qualified consumers”, who saw risks in reducing their consumption levels and are therefore ready for protest actions in order to defend their rights as consumers. However , the study of this problem revealed that modern youth are quite apolitical, this was shown by answers to the question about choosing an ideology whose values are closest to the respondent, as well as a rather low percentage of radically minded youth, regardless of financial situation, which does not significantly affect the political process. At the same time, in conditions of political instability and elite conflict, these groups of youth can become a destructive resource for political actors in the conflict.

Социальные последствия воздействия иностранных СМИ на протестную активность молодежи

Today, the Russian Federation, in the new dynamically transforming realities: the confrontation of Western ideology, the cultivated "culture of cancellation", as well as conducting of a special military operation of Russia on the territory of the Ukraine (SVO), faces many tasks protecting the population from aggressive information and the influence from the outside. Especially vulnerable to digital "stuffing" are young people – a socio-demographic group characterized by an unformed worldview and value attitudes. The article examines the activities of foreign mass media and their impact on the protest activity of young people, as well as the impact on the spread of extremist ideas and increasing criminality among the minors. An up-to-date definition of the media is given in accordance with the current regulatory legal acts. The main social consequences of the negative impact, based on the monitoring of the secondary analysis of sociological research (the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion and Regional Studies), are revealed. The analysis of the main ways and methods of dissemination of information by foreign mass media is carried out. The author formulates the main social consequences of the influence of foreign mass media, affecting the escalation of protest activity of modern Russian youth.

Follower Status: Forms and Strategies of Mass Movements toward Controversial Social Concepts of Protest Activism

Follower Status: Forms and Strategies of Mass Movements toward Controversial Social Concepts of Protest Activism

Challenging dominant education paradigms: posthuman feminist inspirations towards alternate pathways for decolonising the curriculum

AbstractSouth Africa’s curriculum, and education system at large, remains humanistic and dominated by Western Eurocentric ways of thinking, doing and being. The ongoing protest action in higher education has made explicit the inequalities that continue to keep epistemic violence, Eurocentrism, and human exceptionalism intact. Central to this protest action has been the need for curriculum inquiry to reinvent itself and go against the pedagogical grain by advocating for a decolonised curriculum. However, the decolonial turn has largely been a structural exercise of abstract and rhetoric intensity fueled by a language of critique that is entrapped in discursive tendencies that inhibit the type of radicalism needed for it to invigorate alternatives that can challenge dominant education paradigms. This article is inspired by posthuman feminist theory that troubles the logic of advanced capitalism, epistemic injustice and dominant education paradigms. Invoked by new materialism, intra-actions of our becoming within and as part of the world are the deep entanglements of ethics, knowing and being that can spur scholarly activism. Four curriculum studies scholar activists shared their narratives of how they are enacting their curriculum to challenge dominant education paradigms. Their lived experiences as material, relational, embodied and embedded incite posthuman tendencies of what it means to teach to transgress. Experimenting with transversal transgressions this article attempts at a non-anthropocentric, feminist inspired perspective for curriculum inquiry to find alternative pathways for decolonising the curriculum so that it can rise to the challenges of our time.