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This article examines four different trajectories of contestation individuals go through. We highlight how the five motivational dynamics function per trajectory, depending on how they interact within individuals' psyche, their perceptions, and the surrounding political setting. We argue that through the citizens' narratives about these political moments we can better understand how the motivational dynamics function per trajectory of contention. Our focal point is to disentangle how, under the same political conditions, individuals act differently, even though they might hold the same political stances. Repression is a focal point of analysis in the article showing how the individuals within the various trajectories react to regime's repression differently. It is the context within which individuals within the four trajectories function that is affecting their behaviour. We investigate how the ways individual express dissent change by interacting with the regime whose repressive actions might push them to change their attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2009.01626.x Byline: Jacquelien van Stekelenburg (1), Bert Klandermans (1), Wilco W. van Dijk (1) Abstract: The emphasis in the social-psychological collective action literature is on why individuals take part in collective action; however, it does not elaborate on how different mobilizing contexts may appeal to distinct motivational dynamics to participate. The present study connects the microlevel of motivational dynamics of individual protesters with the mesolevel of social movement characteristics. To do so a field study was conducted. Protesters were surveyed in the act of protesting in two different demonstrations in two different town squares simultaneously organized by two social movements at exactly the same time against the same budget cuts proposed by the same government. But with one fundamental difference, the movements emphasized different aspects of the policies proposed by the government. This most similar systems design created a unique natural experiment, which enabled the authors to examine whether the motivational dynamics of individual protesters are moderated by the social movement context. Previous research suggested an instrumental path to collective action, and the authors added an ideology path. The authors expected and found that power-oriented collective action appeals to instrumental motives and efficacy and that value-oriented collective action appeals to ideological motives, and, finally, that efficacy mediates on instrumental motives and motivational strength, but only so in power-oriented action. Author Affiliation: (1)VU University Amsterdam Article note: (*) Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, VU University Amsterdam, FSW/Sociology, Boelelaan 1081c, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands [e-mail: j.van.stekelenburg@fsw.vu.nl].

Scholars working from the political opportunity approach have upheld the notion that the political context sets the grievances around which activist mobilizes. Inspired by Tarrow and colleagues plea to explain political activism by analyzing how activists are mobilized, this article focuses on the individual protester. The research question in this article reads how are activist’s protest emotions shaped by characteristics of the political context, specifically by their political alliances? We focus on the emotional constellation evoked by environmental issues (e.g., climate change and nuclear energy) with Green Parties as movement allies and anti-austerity issues with Social Democratic parties as movement allies. Specifically, the parliamentary position of these allies is linked to the relative stake anger and frustration have within the emotional constellation of demonstrators. Results are based on survey data collected among 6,598 demonstrators, and their emotions dispersed over 28 demonstrations in seven European countries. We conclude that having a politically well-connected friend seems to matter more to demonstrators’ emotional constellation than the ideological support provided by that friend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development and wide popularity of the Internet, Chinese people have acquired a revolutionary channel to mobilize collective action and to participate in politics. In order to depict the various factors influencing online collective action in China, and to further explore the dynamic interaction between the Chinese authorities and the public in this new era of collective action, the article attempts to integrate the demand-supply model with relevant studies from both China and abroad to make a systematic analysis of the demand, supply and mobilization of Chinese online activism. The impact of the new communication technology on political participation and the political ecology is discussed and questions are raised for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sheds light on the debate regarding political trust and protest activity. The debate boils down to the question whether trust in politics is positively or negatively related to protest activity. We exploit a dataset encompassing data on about 9,000 demonstrators spread over seven European countries. These demonstrators' trust in their parliaments varies widely, ranging from trustworthy capable, to corrupt incapable. We examine the diverging sociodemographic profiles and motivational dynamics that turn distrusting and trusting citizens into demonstrators. We hypothesize and show that distrusting demonstrators turn their back to institutionalized politics; for them, demonstrating substitutes the party politics they distrust. For trusting demonstrators, demonstrating supplements party politics. Trusting and distrusting demonstrators also differ considerably in terms of motivation. Distrusting demonstrators are stronger motivated to demonstrate than trusting demonstrators. Moreover, while political cynicism amplifies the motivation of distrusting demonstrators, it suppresses the motivation of trusting demonstrators. We conclude that the question to be answered is not so much whether people who engage in protest activity trust or distrust their political elites, but rather who the trusting and distrusting protesters are and why they protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent economic crisis shaped a new wave of protest in Europe mobilising thousands of people. Austerity measures brought not only the ‘usual suspects’ onto the streets, they also awoke less frequent demonstrators. What brought all these people to the streets? Are their motivations the same for participation in all demonstrations? We compare participants in two types of mobilisations against austerity: those called particularistic (which are reactions to particular anti-austerity issues), and those universalistic (which address much broader issues such as questioning the political system). We also compare two typologies of participants taking into account their participation history: regular and occasional protesters. Employing a two-by-two design defined by type of demonstration (Particularistic vs. Universalistic) and the individual’s participation history (Occasionals vs. Regulars), we found that the differences between demonstrations were smaller than those within types of protesters. Nevertheless, even in this period of hardship, motivation to participate in particularistic or universalistic protests differ depending on the perceptions of political system, ideological positioning and organisational embeddedness. Interaction analyses showed that different levels of identity, trust in institutions and satisfaction with democracy are crucial in driving people to participate in different types of demonstrations as occasionals or regulars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the process of radicalization in the context of social movements and the impact of violent emotions in that radicalization with special emphasis on combines two theoretical models on psychological stages of violent tactics.

We present data on eighteen demonstrations against austerity politics. A distinction is made between demonstrations against the austerity measures governments are taking (11) and demonstrations against the governments that are taking these measures (7). In total, 3434 demonstrators completed a survey questionnaire inquiring about demographic characteristics, social and political embeddedness, mobilization channels, satisfaction with the way democracy works in their country, identification and motivation. We propose a theoretical framework for the comparison of participants in the two types of demonstrations. Employing anovas, manovas, and logistic regression analyses hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework are tested. With a proportion of correct classifications of 75.6% our model was able to satisfactorily account for the differences between the two types of demonstrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the popular Arab protests against oppressive regimes that began in 2010, people around the world protested in sympathy with the Arab peoples. The present research draws on two major theories of intergroup relations to develop an initial integrative model of sympathetic collective action. We incorporate social dominance theory’s (SDT) concept of (rejectionist) legitimizing myths with the solidarity and emotional mediation concept of the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) to understand motivations for sympathetic collective action among bystanders. Using data from 12 nations (N = 1,480), we tested three models: (a) SIMCA (i.e., solidarity, anger, and efficacy), (b) a social dominance theory model of collective action (i.e., social dominance orientation and ideologies concerning Arab competence), and (c) an integrated model of sympathetic collective action combining both theories. Results find the greatest support for an integrated model of collective action. Discussion focuses on theoretical pluralism and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a multilevel dataset of seventy-five European street demonstrations (2009-13), we assess how demonstrators evaluate the interactions between the police and other demonstrators. In doing so, we study demonstrators' perceptions of the protest atmosphere. Understanding these atmosphere assessments is relevant, as demonstrators and other protest actors (e.g., police and the media) widely refer to the atmosphere (i.e., mood or climate) of protest events. To the best of our knowledge, scholars have not yet studied this aspect of protest participation. We start our study with a conceptualization and operationalization of protest atmosphere. Subsequently, we assess how demonstrators perceive atmosphere. Our analyses reveal that four types of protest atmospheres can be distinguished: harmonious, volatile, tense, and chaotic. We describe examples of these atmospheres and study why they are perceived. We find that the perception of atmosphere by demonstrators is influenced by individual characteristics (e.g., age) and demonstration characteristics (e.g., police repression). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article provides a short account of the theoretical framework and the methodological set-up of a comparative study of street demonstrations. The following articles in this issue report results from this study. The data on over 90 street demonstrations and more than 17,000 participants were collected between November 2009 and Summer 2012 in nine different countries: Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. This introductory article presents the focal theme of the project – the impact of contextual variation on mobilization dynamics, the composition of the crowd and the demonstrators’ motives. The various contextual layers we are distinguishing are discussed. Following the theoretical framework the methodological set-up is presented. Identical measures and procedures are employed in all individual protest surveys. This introduction discusses the sampling procedures; but as each article concerns a different set of measures, the selection employed is discussed in the individual articles. The introduction concludes with an overview of the articles included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Social psychological research has taught us a lot about why people protest. This article provides a theoretical and empirical overview. Discussed are grievances, efficacy, identification, emotions and social embeddedness, followed by the most recent approaches, which combine these concepts into dual pathway models. Finally, two future directions are discussed: (1) to shed light on the paradox of persistent participation, and (2) to clarify how perceptions of sociopolitical context affects protest participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the theoretical underpinnings, design, methods, and measures of the pro-ject, Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation. This effort examines street demonstrations that vary in atmosphere, organization, and target. The project particularly focuses on participants, exploring who participates, and why and how people got involved. Data are collected before, during, and after a number of demonstrations, and captures the entire "demonstration moment. " We develop standardized measures and techniques for sampling and data collection at the individual demonstrator level and at the contexual level. Evidence was gathered not only from the demonstrators but also from police, organizers, and the mass media. Data-gathering efforts were standardized through identical methods, ques-tionnaires, fact sheets, and content analysis protocols. The CCC project examines demon-strations in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden between 2009 and 2012. Teams from Italy, Mexico, and the Czech Republic joined the project at a later stage. The project has covered 61 demonstrations and 12,993 questionnaires have been completed to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jacquelien van Stekelenburg argues that the Occupy Movement can be seen as a product of our time. The movement shows how people are becoming increasingly connected as individuals rather than as members of a community or group. The Internet she suggests is instrumental in forging and sustaining these new ways of organizing as individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]