The Neglect of Spatiality in Studying Critical Events: Territorial-Related Attributes of Contention Following Bloody Sunday

• In Event: 50662 - Section on Peace, War, and Social Conflict Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Conflict and Theory

Abstract

Social movements scholars’ attention to the notion of critical events has been gaining consistent and noticeable traction. Converging around the point that events per se do not influence the dynamics of conflict and contention, but rather “actors’ interpretations and organizational structures intervene between events and their outcomes” (Staggenborg 1993:320), scholars have been studying various impacts and effects of such events. An important and recurring dimension of "event criticality" that has surprisingly received little scholarly attention regards the spatial dimension (see, as notable exceptions Tilly 2000; Andrews and Biggs 2006; Ó Dochartaigh and Bosi 2010; Wang, Ye, and Chan 2018). Despite early on attention to the impact of certain influential events on changes in sites and spaces of contention (e.g., Goldstone 1994; Rasler 1996), and several attempts to further the study of such a promising venue (e.g., Alimi 2007; Pilati 2016), scholarly attention to this important dimension of criticality is still in noticeable deficit. I argue that attention to the spatial dimension of the effect of critical events promises to deepen understanding of other dimensions of criticality. Additionally, and more centrally to this paper, greater attention to the spatial dimension of the effects of critical events promises to generate new insights regarding space and contention, and the dynamics of contention more broadly. I present and discuss findings from a systematic analysis of territorial-related attributes of contention and repression in Northern Ireland’s “early” Troubles, before and after Bloody Sunday of January 30, 1972. The analysis is based on a newly-developed and unique dataset and combines an exploratory Geographic Information System (GIS analysis of maps and an explanatory event, count data analysis of the conflict environment in Northern Ireland.

Author

• Eitan Y. Alimi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem