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Studies of repression's effects on mobilization overwhelmingly focus on how severe repression affects the volume of protest, overlooking how activists perceive and experience a range of repressive tactics and how their tactical adaptations to this repertoire produce broader patterns of contention. This study therefore identifies repression's variegated forms and movements' corresponding responses using fifty-seven interviews with reform-oriented activists in Jordan, a "liberalized" authoritarian state, obtained in 2011. The findings demonstrate that activists (1) transformed softer repression into valued opportunities for communication with officials, and (2) responded to harder forms by publicizing repression through protests and their alliance networks, which persuaded the image-conscious regime to temper its tactics and prompted both sides to return to bargaining. This dynamic exemplifies a process of contained escalation, which helps to explain why Jordan's Arab Spring remained nonrevolutionary. I conclude by discussing the implications for studies of repression and response in illiberal contexts.

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This article reexamines spontaneity as an important, albeit neglected, mechanism in collective action dynamics, and elaborates on its operation and effects in protest events and social movements. We do not presume that spontaneity is routinely at play in all collective actions. Rather, based on our grounded analysis of historical and ethnographic data, we contend that spontaneity is triggered by certain conditions: nonhierarchical organization; uncertain/ ambiguous moments and events; behavioral/emotional priming; and certain ecological/ spatial factors. We conclude by elaborating why the activation of spontaneous actions matters in shaping the course and character of protest events and movements, and we suggest that spontaneity be resuscitated in the study of collective action and everyday life more generally.