The Mechanisms of Emotion in Violent Protest

19 February 2020

Details

Author: Johnston, Hank

Date of Publication: 2014

Publication: Bosi et. Al, 2014: “Dynamics of Political Violence. A process-oriented perspective on radicalization and the escalation of political conflict.” p. 27-49, Ashgate

Purpose of the study

Key questions

Asks questions about the emotional aspects of collective action.

The link between personal emotions and collective action.

Design of the study

Approach

This study summarises findings from other empirical studies, but the author also examines own empirical data.

Where

The West, and the Arab Spring, with a focus on Syria

Topic

How collective violence unfolds. Wants to deepen our understanding of how protests turn violent. Radicalization and mobilization to violence.

Key findings

Individual emotions are socially defined, channelled, and translated into collective action. Suggests two emotional management mechanisms in collective violence: fear abatement and anger spirals.

Reviewer's Notes

Key words: radicalization, political conflict, outrage, emotions

This study is about the “emotional context”/”breeding ground” for mobilization and radicalization to action.

NATO

In 2017, a NATO Research Task Group (HFM-278 RTG) was formed. The RTG, led and Chaired by the UK (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory - Dstl), comprised representatives from 8 countries and various backgrounds (government, academia, police and the intelligence communities). RTG members collaborated to design and develop an ‘Information Repository’ of evidence (literature, data, tools) on violent extremism. The goal was to design a ‘one stop shop’ to enable different end users (including policy makers, frontline CT practitioners, researchers) to quickly and easily access high quality (empirical, scientific, evidence-based) materials to help them to understand specific topic areas and to inform their work: This is the VERE (Violent Extremism Research and Evidence) repository.

VERE is unique in that each document is accompanied by a short overview, written to help the reader understand whether and how the information can be applied in practice. (Some parts of certain overviews include text directly quoting parts of the article that the overview author perceived as important to highlight.) For example, an overview might highlight factors such as the methodological approach taken by researchers, participant demographics and sample size, so that the reader can decide how appropriate it is to apply findings to their own work. In 2020 VERE was taken on by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) and thus amalgamated with the existing Radicalisation Research repository. This repository, alongside the wider Radicalisation Research repository, will be updated regularly to reflect the most up to date literature relating to violent extremism.

2016/04/29

External link to article

Journal Article

Hank Johnston

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