Recognizing the 2011 United Kingdom Riots as Political Protest

Akram, Sadiya

doi:10.1093/bjc/azu013

Cited by 33 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…The second perspective tends to focus on attacks on police and property, understanding them in terms of structurally driven political protest (e.g. Akram, 2014; Moran & Waddington, 2015). In this account, the spread of the riots can be understood as a direct expression of grievances among the rioters about the illegitimacy of their surrounding social structural conditions (e.g.…”

Section: Explaining the 2011 English Riotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolving normative dimensions of ‘riot’: Towards an elaborated social identity explanation

Stott

Ball

Drury

et al. 2018

Euro J Social Psych

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The question of how normative form changes during a riot, and thus how collective behaviour spreads to different targets and locations, has been neglected in previous research, despite its theoretical and practical importance. We begin to address this limitation through a detailed analysis of the rioting in the London borough of Haringey in 2011. A triangulated analysis of multiple sources of data (including police reports, media accounts, and videos) finds a pattern of behaviour shifting from collective attacks on police targets to looting. A thematic analysis of 41 interview accounts with participants gathered shortly after the events suggests that a shared anti‐police identity allowed local postcode rivalries to be overcome, forming the basis of empowered action not only against the police but to address more long‐standing grievances and desires. It is argued that collective psychological empowerment operated in a ‘positive feedback loop’, whereby one form of collective self‐objectification (and perceived inability of police to respond) formed the basis of further action. This analysis of the development of new targets in an empowered crowd both confirms and extends the elaborated social identity model as an explanation for conflictual intergroup dynamics.

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Section: Explaining the 2011 English Riotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolving normative dimensions of ‘riot’: Towards an elaborated social identity explanation

Stott

Ball

Drury

et al. 2018

Euro J Social Psych

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show abstract

“…Instead of asking what the family backgrounds of the rioters were (the Mayor of London Office's approach) or why they have embraced a consumerist ideology, we should instead focus on why these familiar places had such emotional resonance. It could be because of a history of marginalisation and alienation (Akram, 2014), more recent threats of gentrification (Valluvan, 2011), or an amoral 'sense of entitlement' (Prime Minister David Cameron). Answering these questions will require significant empirical attention in the future but, for now, it is worth noting that structural economic and political factors are likely to be much more important than many commentators have wanted to admit.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reclaiming the everyday: the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots

Tiratelli

2017

Social Movement Studies

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This paper examines the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots. The empirical contribution is to challenge the dominant explanation of the riots as an outbreak of 'criminal opportunism'. I use the Metropolitan Police record of all riotrelated crimes in London to test several hypotheses and show that this 'criminal opportunism' theory cannot account for the riots' spatial patterning. This opens space for alternative explanatory mechanisms. I then use video footage and testimonies of events on the ground to examine the interactions which made up the London Riots. These suggest that the riots were, in part, a way for people to stake a claim to the public spaces in which they lived, to reclaim the everyday. Theoretically this builds on Randall Collins's 'micro-situational' approach to violence (2008) but extends it by embedding historical and structural factors into that micro perspective. Specifically, the emotional dynamics of these riot interactions cannot be understood without acknowledging participants' pre-existing expectations of the police and of the everyday places of the riot.

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“…During climate change, young people are living through no less than the collapse of modernity, in democratic societies like ours in the UK, where people in power continue to promise growth, success and happiness while drilling new oil wells (Kirka and Lawless 2023) and offering billions of pounds in tax relief to fossil fuel companies (Graham 2022). Young people who hope for a future despite climate change watch the news on their phones and see powerful, global movements of individuals and communities calling for systemic change to dismantle sexism (Irma Erlingsdóttir and Chandra 2021), racism (Garza 2016), police violence (Akram 2014) and many other truly enormous challenges. How can a young person be expected to come up with a clear vision for the future when the present is such a mess?…”

Section: The Precarious Activism Of Young People In Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

The precarity of hope at the end of the world: young climate activism in search of a future

Bowman,

Starzak

2024

Preprint

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Young people are imagining a better world in conversations locally and globally, in the streets, in the classrooms and in their everyday life. Young climate activists are people who work for transformative change, radical kindness towards others and climate justice in a deeply unjust world. Some activists call themselves activists, and some do not, but we use the term activist to bring attention to the diverse range of things young people do for climate justice. At the same time, young people must navigate a complex intersection of profound crises and sudden ruptures, from war to pandemics, from the continuing legacies of colonialism to racist police violence in their city streets. This chapter, which is written in collaboration between a researcher and a food grower, reflects on the activism of young people during the climate crisis. We use the concept of “precarious hope” (Nunn et al. 2021) to argue that traditional and adult-centred approaches to young people’s participation tend to be optimistic and progressive. Young hopes are often found pushing through the cracks, and rupturing the structures and systems of the dystopian future they live in. We hope that a concept of precarious hope will uphold young people in future activism, and support researchers in the study of young people who are taking action for a liveable planet.

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Recognizing the 2011 United Kingdom Riots as Political Protest

Cited by 33 publications

References 27 publications

The evolving normative dimensions of ‘riot’: Towards an elaborated social identity explanation

The evolving normative dimensions of ‘riot’: Towards an elaborated social identity explanation

Reclaiming the everyday: the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots

The precarity of hope at the end of the world: young climate activism in search of a future

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