Bystander Assessment: Understanding Processes of Meaning-Making in Protest Situations

• In Event: 511 - Section on Social Psychology Paper Session. Ethnographic Contributions to Social Psychology

Abstract

This article draws from my active participant ethnographic fieldwork with a new religious movement attempting to ignite a worldwide cultural revolution in order to describe dynamics mediating bystanders’ assessment of protest situations. Specifically, I focus on their efforts to “reclaim” the clitoris in order to liberate women’s sexuality and their efforts to “reclaim” the swastika. In order to extend our understanding of dynamics influencing bystander recruitment, I make the microsociological shift away from the individual and onto the situation. Next, I integrate cultural sociology with social psychology in order to explain processes of meaning-making as bystanders enter protest situations. My fieldwork uncovers four major processes mediating bystanders’ engagement with protests: (1) spatial dynamics as they mediate emotions and cognitions; (2) the presence of potentially polluting symbols; (3) the consequences of emotional inconsistencies; and (4) meaning-making processes afforded through the passage of time. In closing, I argue we can extend our understanding of bystander recruitment, especially unexpected variation, by performing the analytic shift onto the protest situation and dissecting processes of meaning-making.

Author

• Justin C. Van Ness, University of Notre Dame