Social Movements: An Introduction by Donatella Della Porta & Mario Diani

Author:Donatella Della Porta & Mario Diani [Porta, Donatella Della & Diani, Mario]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social movements
Publisher: Blackwell
Published: 2007-09-23T20:49:00+00:00

7.1 Protest: A Definition

In the protest in Seattle and afterwards, activists marched and arranged blockades; there were concerts and vigils. People went around masked as nearly extinct turtles; others wore black masks. They occupied real and virtual spaces. What, then, do all these actions have in common? In the first place, they are forms of protest: i.e. nonroutinized ways of affecting political, social, and cultural processes. In fact, "social movements employ methods of persuasion and coercion which are, more often than not, novel, unorthodox, dramatic, and of questionable legitimacy" (Wilson 1973: 227). Protests are "sites of contestation in which bodies, symbols, identities, practices, and discourses are used to pursue or prevent changes in institutionalized power relations" (Taylor and van Dyke 2004: 268).

According to the principles of representative democracy, the decisions of a government can be challenged immediately by the parliamentary opposition or punished subsequently by the voting choices of citizens in elections. Aside from military intervention, the channels for exerting pressure on a foreign government include bilateral diplomacy or negotiations in one of the many international government organizations (IGOs). However, particularly since the 1970s, increasing numbers of citizens have come to affirm the legitimacy of other forms of pressure on governments. When faced with laws or decisions considered to be unjust these citizens adopt forms of action that challenge established norms. Especially from the 1960s on, a "new set of political activities has been added to the citizens' political repertoire" (Barnes et al. 1979: 149).1 In fact, researchers added a long list of new and unconventional forms of political participation - including signing petitions, lawful demonstration, boycotts, withholding of rent or tax, occupations, sit-ins, blocking traffic, and wildcat strikes - to the more traditional ones, such as following politics in the newspapers, discussing politics with others, working for political parties or their candidates, attending political meetings, contacting public officials, or persuading friends and acquaintances to vote in particular ways. These newer forms have become increasingly legitimized: "In advanced industrial societies direct political action techniques do not in fact bear the stigma of deviancy. Nor are they seen as antisystem-directed orientation" (1979: 157).

This expansion of the repertoire of political participation appeared to be a "lasting characteristic of democratic mass publics" (1979: 524). Indeed, more than two decades later, Pippa Norris (2002: 221) observed, on the bases of World Value Surveys polls, that "There are many reasons to believe that the shift from traditional interest groups to new social movements has influenced the agencies, repertoires, and targets of political participation ... The analysis of protest politics shows that many of these forms of activity, such as petitions, demonstrations, and consumer boycott, are fairly pervasive and have become increasingly popular during recent decades. Protest politics is on the rise as a channel of political expression and mobilization." According to Norris's data (2002: 197), in "older democracies" 60.7 percent of the population have signed a petition, 19.1 percent have attended a demonstration, and 17.1 percent have joined in boycotts. In eight postindustrial societies (Britain,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.