Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 25 Mar 2015
A Study of Perceived Protest Atmospheres: How Demonstrators Evaluate Police-Demonstrator Interactions and Why
A Study of Perceived Protest Atmospheres: How Demonstrators Evaluate Police-Demonstrator Interactions and Why
,
, and
Page Range: 81 – 100
Using a multilevel dataset of seventy-five European street demonstrations (2009-13), we assess how demonstrators evaluate the interactions between the police and other demonstrators. In doing so, we study demonstrators' perceptions of the protest atmosphere. Understanding these atmosphere assessments is relevant, as demonstrators and other protest actors (e.g., police and the media) widely refer to the atmosphere (i.e., mood or climate) of protest events. To the best of our knowledge, scholars have not yet studied this aspect of protest participation. We start our study with a conceptualization and operationalization of protest atmosphere. Subsequently, we assess how demonstrators perceive atmosphere. Our analyses reveal that four types of protest atmospheres can be distinguished: harmonious, volatile, tense, and chaotic. We describe examples of these atmospheres and study why they are perceived. We find that the perception of atmosphere by demonstrators is influenced by individual characteristics (e.g., age) and demonstration characteristics (e.g., police repression).
Adang, Otto M.J. 2011. "Initiation and Escalation of Collective Violence: An Observational Study." Pp. 47-68 in Preventing Crowd Violence, edited by Tamara D. Madensen and Johannes Knutsson. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Adang, Otto M.J., ed. 2009. Boven de Pet? Een Onderzoek naar Grootschalige Ordehandhaving in Nederland. The Hague, NL: Reed Business.
Addley, Esther. 2010. "Student Fees Protests: Who Started the Violence?" The Gardian, December 10. Retrieved September 30, 2013 ( http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/dec/10/student-proteststuition-fees-violence
Allport, Floyd H. 1924. Social Psychology. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Asthana, Anushka, Emily Dyer, and Toby Helm. 2010. "Riots, Fire, Anger and Tuition Fees Protest— and a Defining Political Moment." BBC, December 12. Retrieved September 30, 2013 ( http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/dec/12/riots-fire-anger-defining-political-moment
Bailey, Kenneth D. 1983. "Sociological Classification and Cluster Analysis." Quality and Quantity 17(4): 251-68.
Bessel, Richard, and Clive Emsley. 2000. Patterns of Provocation: Police and Public Disorder. New York: Berghahn Books.
Breaking News. 2013. Egyptian Civil Unrest, July 8. Retrieved July 9, 2013 ( http://www.breakingnews.com/item/2013/07/08/egyptian-military-sporadically-shooting-into-the-a/
Cocking, Chris. 2013. "Crowd Flight in Response to Police Dispersal Techniques: A Momentary Lapse of Reason?" Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling 10(2): 219-36.
Davenport, Christian. 2000. "Introduction." Pp. 1-24 in Paths to State Repression, edited by Christian Davenport. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
della Porta, Donatella. 1998. "Police Knowledge and Protest Policing: Some Reflections on the Italian Case." Pp. 228-52 in Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, edited by Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter. Minneapolis: Minnesota Press.
della Porta, Donatella, and Herbert Reiter. 1998. "The Policing of Protest in Western Democracies." Pp. 1-32 in Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstrations in Western Democracies, edited by Donatella della Porta and Herbert Reiter. Minneapolis: Minnesota Press.
della Porta, Donatella, Massimiliano Andretta, Lorenzo Mosca, and Herbert Reiter. 2006. "Transnational Protest and Public Order." Pp. 150-195 in Globalization from Below: Transnational Activists and Protest Networks. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
¡Democracia Real YA! 2011a. Manifiesto. Retrieved May 28, 2013 ( http://www.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto-comun/
¡Democracia Real YA! 2011b. Comunicado de Prensa. Retrieved May 28, 2013 ( http://www.insurgente.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7288:comunicado-de-prensa-de-democracia-real-ya&catid=232:convocatorias-y-documentos&Itemid=446
Drury, John, Christopher Cocking, Joseph Beale, Charlotte Hanson, and Faye Rapley. 2005. "The Phenomenology of Empowerment in Collective Action." British Journal of Social Psychology 44: 309-328.
Durán, Luis F. 2011. "24 Detenidos y Cinco Policías Heridos en la Protesta Antisistema de Madrid." El Mundo, May 16. Retrieved January 5, 2013 ( http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/05/16/madrid/1305498063.html
Earl, Jennifer, Sarah A. Soule, and John D. McCarthy. 2003. "Protest under Fire? Explaining the Policing of Protest." American Sociological Review 68(4): 581-606.
Earl, Jennifer, and Sarah A. Soule. 2006. "Seeing Blue: A Police-Centered Explanation of Protest Policing." Mobilization 11(2): 145-164.
Fillieule, Olivier. 1997. Stratégies de la Rue: Les Manifestations en France. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.
Fillieule, Olivier. 2006. "Du Pouvoir d'Injonction au Pouvoir d'Influence? Les Limites de l'Institutionnalisation". Pp. 85-112 in Police et Manifestants: Mantien de l'Ordre et Gestion des Conflits, edited by Olivier Fillieule and Donatella della Porta. Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.
Gifford, Robert. 1997. Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice. 2nd edition. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Harrison, Angela. 2010. "Violence at Tory HQ Overshadows Student Fees Protest." BBC, November 10. Retrieved September 30, 2013 ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11726822
Holgersson, Stefan, and Johannes Knutsson. 2011. "Dialogue Policing: A Means for Less Crowd Violence?" Pp. 191-216 in Crime Prevention Studies: Preventing Crowd Violence, edited by Tamara D. Madensen and Johannes Knutsson. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Klandermans, Bert, Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, Dunya van Troost, Anouk van Leeuwen, Stefaan Walgrave, Joris Verhulst, Jeroen van Laer, and Ruud Wouters. 2011. Manual for Data Collection on Protest Demonstrations. Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation (CCC-project). Version 3.0. Amsterdam and Antwerp: VU University and University of Antwerp.
Kotler, Philip. 1973. "Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool." Journal of Retailing 49(4): 48-64.
Le Bon, Gustave. [1895] 1985. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd.
Martin, Andrew W., John D. McCarthy, and Clark McPhail. 2009. "Why Targets Matter: Toward a More Inclusive Model of Collective Violence." American Sociological Review 74(5): 821-41.
McPhail, Clark. 1991. The Myth of the Madding Crowd. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Newsweek. 2010. "Hijacking The Students' Cause: London Protests Suggest a Wider Challenge to Authority by Anarchists, Others." Newsweek, December 10. Retrieved October 9, 2013 ( http://mag.newsweek.com/2010/12/10/latest-london-protests-not-all-about-students.html
Politie. 2015. Roze in Blauw. Retrieved January 16 ( http://www.politie.nl/onderwerpen/roze-in-blauw.html
Reicher, Stephen D. 1996. "‘The Battle of Westminster’: Developing the Social Identity Model of Crowd Behaviour in Order to Explain the Initiation and Development of Collective Conflict." European Journal of Social Psychology 26: 115-134.
Reicher, Stephen, Clifford Stott, John Drury, Otto Adang, Patrick Cronin, and Andrew Livingstone. 2007. "Knowledge-Based Public Order Policing: Principles and Practice." Policing 1(4): 403-15.
Schreiber, Martina, and Otto M.J. Adang. 2006. "The Poles are Coming! Fan Behaviour and Police Tactics around the World Cup Match Germany vs. Poland (Dortmund, 14 June 2006)." Sport in Society 13(3): 470-88.
Schreiber, Martina, and Otto M.J. Adang. 2010. "Fiction, Facts and a Summer's Fairy Tale—Mixed Messages at the World Cup 2006." Policing and Society 20(2): 237-55.
Scholl, Christian. [2010] 2013. Two Sides of a Barricade: (Dis)order and Summit Protest in Europe. New York: SUNY Press.
Shahid, Aliyah. 2010. "Student Protests in London, England turn Violent as Politicians Debate Tuition Hike." Daily News December 9. Retrieved October 9, 2013 ( http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/student-protests-london-england-turn-violent-politicians-debate-tuition-hike-article-1.472004
Soule, Sarah A., and Christian Davenport. 2009. "Velvet Glove, Iron Fist, or Even Hand? Protest Policing in the United States, 1960-1990." Mobilization 14(1): 1-22.
Stop Climate Chaos. 2009. About. Retrieved January 5, 2013 ( http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/about
Stott, Clifford. 2009. "Crowd Psychology and Public Order Policing: An Overview of Scientific Theory and Evidence." Submission to the HMIC Policing of Public Protest Review Team ( http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1vpaw/HMCICSubmissionCrowd/resources/1.htm
Stott, Clifford, Paul Hutchison, and John Drury. 2001. "‘Hooligans’ Abroad? Inter-group Dynamics, Social Identity and Participation in Collective ‘Disorder’ at the 1998 World Cup Finals." British Journal of Social Psychology 40(3): 359-84.
Tajfel, Henri. 1982. Social Identity and Intergroup Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
The Telegraph. 2010. "David Cameron Calls for ‘Full Force of Law’ Against Student Rioters." The Telegraph, November 11. Retrieved September 30, 2013 ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8126495/David-Cameron-calls-for-full-force-of-law-against-student-rioters.html
Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing.
Tilly, Charles. 1979. "Repertoires of Contention in America and Britain." Pp. 126-155 in The Dynamics of Social Movements, edited by Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
Tilly, Charles. 2003. The Politics of Collective Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Turley, L.W., and Ronald E. Milliman. 2000. "Atmospheric Effects on Shopping Behaviour: A Review of the Experimental Evidence." Journal of Business Research 49(2): 193-211.
Turner, John C., Michael A. Hogg, Penelope J. Oakes, Stephen D. Reicher, and Margaret S. Wetherell. 1987. Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorisation Theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Uhrich, Sebastian, and Martin Benkenstein. 2010. "Sport Stadium Atmosphere: Formative and Reflective Indicators for Operationalizing the Construct." Journal of Sport Management 24: 211-37.
Van Leeuwen, Anouk, Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, and Bert Klandermans. 2014. "‘The demonstration is a party! Can't wait for…’ How perceived protest atmosphere influences future collective action." Paper presented at the 2014 Young Scholars Conference, May 2, University of Notre Dame, IN.
Van Leeuwen, Anouk, and John D. McCarthy. 2014. "Has the Institutionalization of Negotiated Management of European Protest Come to an End?" Paper presented at the 21st International Conference of Europeanists, March 14, Washington, DC.
Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, and Bert Klandermans. 2009. "Social Movement Theory: Past, Present, and Prospect." Pp. 17-44 in Movers and Shakers: Social Movements in Africa, edited by Ineke van Kessel and Stephen Ellis. Leiden, NL: Brill.
Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, Stefaan Walgrave, Bert Klandermans, and Joris Verhulst. 2012. "Contextualizing Contestation: Framework, Design and Data." Mobilization 17(3): 249-62.
Vitale, Alex S. 2007. "Command and Control and the Miami Model at the 2004 Republication National Convention: New Forms of Policing of Protest." Mobilization 12(4): 403-15.
Waddington, David P. 2007. Policing Public Disorder: Theory and Practice. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.
Walgrave, Stefaan, and Joris Verhulst. 2011. "Selection and Response Bias in Protest Surveys." Mobilization 16(2): 203-22.
Walgrave, Stefaan, Ruud Wouters, and Pauline Ketelaars. Forthcoming. "Response Problems in the Protest Survey Design: Evidence from Fifty-One Protest Events in Seven Countries." Mobilization.
Walker, Peter, and Jonathan Paige. 2010. "Student Protests - as They Happened." The Guardian. December 9. Retrieved January 5, 2013 ( http://www.theguardian.com/education/blog/2010/dec/09/student-protests-live-coverage
Wikipedia. 2011. Plataforma ¡Democracia Real YA! 2011-2. Retrieved May 28, 2013 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%9312_Spanish_protests