Violence during Demonstrations: A Configurational Analysis of Situational Interaction Dynamics

• In Event: 041 - Regular Session. Violence

Abstract

This paper investigates how police-protester interactions influence the emergence of violence during demonstrations. Research suggests both structural factors and actors’ motivations and strategies contribute to the emergence of violence. I posit that unplanned interactions lead even unmotivated actors to overcome inhibition thresholds to violence and test whether configurations of unplanned interactions lead to protest violence. Using a triangulation of visual and document data for configurational analysis, I analyze over one thousand demonstration documents from the 1960s through 2010. I use two samples and three steps of analysis. First, I develop an interactional approach, using meticulous case reconstructions. Second, I test this approach using a random sample of violent and peaceful protests, employing Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Third, I revisit cases to identify causal mechanisms and paths to protest violence. Results suggest five interactions are crucial to such violence, and these mechanisms create three paths that lead to it.

Author

• Anne Nassauer, Freie Universität Berlin