Flashpoints Revisited: A Critical Application to the Policing of Anti-globalization Protest

‘The biggest gang’? Police and people in the 2011 England riots

“…The most important of these policies, they argue, 'clearly lie in the area of political and economic justice but others centre on the role of the police as it affects communities in general and particularly around potential flashpoints' (Waddington et al, 1989: 152). Studies of riot 'flashpoints' regularly identify the police, and the actions of police officers, as a significant contributory factor in the escalation of activity toward disorder (see also King and Waddington, 2006;Body-Gendrot, 2013;Fassin, 2013). As they go on to observe, none of this is to blame the police for urban disorder or even to suggest that changes in police practices would, in themselves, necessarily solve the problems that give rise to rioting.…”

Taking Control or Losing Control? Activist Narratives of Provocation and Collective Violence

“…Instead, due to interactional dynamics brought into play during encounters with authorities, large protests often turn out to be both improvised and even uncontrollable by any single actor (Drury & Reicher, 2000). The flashpoint theory affirms the interplay of, among other things, culture, situation, and interaction in the explanation of protest characteristics (King & Waddington, 2005). However, it remains silent about how the situational contingencies of protests reflect back on the cultural level on the part of the activists.…”

“…Such explanations are consistent with research evidence that outbursts of violence are largely attributable to social interactions during the situations in which they occur (Collins, 2008). However, as illustrated, for example, by research based on the 'flashpoint model' (King & Waddington, 2005;Waddington et al, 1989), episodes of collective violence are also affected by factors beyond the specific situational 'flashpoint', that is, factors related to social structures, ideologies, organizational and group cultures, long-term interaction with the police, etc. (see also della Porta, 1995).…”

The Madness of the Mob? Explaining the ‘Irrationality’ and Destructiveness of Crowd Violence

“…Keith's approach has a great deal in common with ‘multivariate’ models of public disorder [see, for example, Locher's (2002) analysis of the 1992 Los Angeles riot], which emphasise the importance of the precipitating incident in the context of wider social relations. Another explanation of this type is my own Flashpoints Model of Public Disorder , which I have developed in conjunction with several colleagues in the course of the past three decades (King and Waddington 2005; Waddington 1992, 2007; Waddington and Critcher 2000; Waddington et al. 1989).…”