New Perspectives on Protest: Ordinary Citizens in Extraordinary Movements

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Arab Springs, the Movement of the squares, Occupy Wall Street, the Yellow Vests movement, the Umbrella Revolution… In the 2010s, ordinary citizens have irrupted in the public sphere and affected significantly the expression of contentious politics. Through their rejection of traditional leadership and mobilizing structures, they are challenging some well-established aspects of social movements literature and call for new perspectives, which this panel offers by putting recent mass protests under comparative scrutiny.

Even though these movements differ due to their national contexts, they share at least three characteristics: a request for horizontality in opposition to the verticality of representative government; a call for elite’s and elected representatives’ accountability; and a claim for social and tax justice. In many ways, these protests significantly renew the social movements repertoire: by using digital media, by occupying the urban space (such as squares and roundabouts), and by sometimes resorting to violence while also deploying novel forms of civility. Most importantly, they gather unprecedented numbers of ordinary citizens with neither previous political commitment nor important cultural capital. First-time protestors’ mobilization appears all the more destabilizing to political leaders (be they democratically elected or not) as it refutes notions of people’s apathy and resignation, if not fear, that allow them to get and hold on to power, and underpin their legitimacy. Ordinary citizens’ engagement also raises a conundrum for scholars of social movements and political participation, insofar as it contradicts widespread assumptions on the depoliticization of masses and the importance of ingrained dispositions to activism.

Taking cues from historian Haim Burstin, participants in this panel focus on “protagonists”, i.e. ordinary citizens engaged in political crises and revolutions whose commitment makes these events extraordinary. Confronting four cases – Yellow Vests in France, the 2019-20 movement in Chile, the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests and social movements in post-2011 Algeria – they question how first-time protesters’ encounter with concrete forms of equality, fraternity and, sometimes, liberty in the social movement, profoundly reshapes their perception of the political order, their understanding of citizenship, and their will to consider citizens and rulers as equal. Thereby the papers shed light on the logics of ordinary citizens’ unprecedented mobilization and on what they reveal about underlying social conflicts and changes. Moreover, they showcase how these “protagonists” who feel that they are making history are actually giving their specific, innovative shape to the movements under study.

To do so, the four papers move beyond the classic divide between established democracies and developing countries. Jouhanneau, Reungoat and Buton shed light on French Yellow Vests’ first-time protestors and delineate their two-pronged politicization process. Based on an original focus group method, Angelcos, Espinoza, Aguilera and Gutierrez analyze the multiple meanings that first-time Chilean protestors ascribe to their mobilization. Serrano’s analysis of Hong Kong protestors’ trajectories and discourses shows that a new generation of participants has renewed the collective action repertoire. In contrast, Derradji’s long-term fieldwork exposes the power struggles between ordinary citizens and experienced activists in Algeria’s post-2011 protests. As well as fresh data on recent, compelling mass protests, the authors bring together a variety of qualitative approaches and sources – biographical interviews; ethnographic observation; questionnaires; written, audio and video archive – and discuss their respective value.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Cosponsors

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

• Related Groups / French Politics Group

Individual Presentations

• Becoming Yellow Vests: The Politicization of Ordinary Citizens (France 2018-20) - Cecile Jouhanneau, University Paul Valery Montpellier; Emmanuelle Reungoat, Université de MONTPELLIER-CEPEL; François Buton, National center for scientific research (CNRS France)

• Listening to First-Time Protesters. The Multiple Meanings of the Chilean Revolt - Nicolás Angelcos; Vicente Espinoza, Universidad de Santiago; Carolina Aguilera, Universidad Católica; Francisca Gutiérrez, Universidad Alberto Hurtado

• Learning to Fight in Hong Kong: The Radicalization of the 2019 Protests - Juan Enrique Serrano Moreno, University La Frontera

• Ordinary Citizens vs. Experienced Activists in Algeria’s Post-2011 Protests - Islam Amine Derradji, Université de Montréal

Chair

• Emmanuelle Reungoat Université de MONTPELLIER-CEPEL

Discussant

• François Buton National center for scientific research (CNRS France)