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Protests at recent international summit meetings have prompted assertions about 'global protest' and 'global civil society'. This article provides a detailed and contextualized analysis of the 2005 G8 summit in Scotland, focusing on the dynamic interplay between police and protestors. The authors argue that local variables were critical to the experience of this manifestation of 'global protest'. Focusing on the policing of events in Edinburgh, they highlight the preconceptions and assumptions (frames) underpinning police operations and contribute to a more interactive understanding of police-protestor relations. Protest emerges in relation to the 'polis' (simultaneously denoting both the political community and the police), and neglecting this relationship leads to incomplete analyses. In concluding, the authors consider the implications of their research for the policing of political protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent analyses of protest policing in Western democracies argue that there has been a marked shift away from oppressive or coercive approaches to an emphasis on consensus based negotiation. King and Waddington (2005 ) amongst others, however, suggest that the policing of international summits may be an exception to this rule. This paper examines protest policing in relation to the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. We argue that ‘negotiated management’ cannot be imported wholesale as a policing strategy. Rather it is mediated by local history, forms of police knowledge and modes of engagement. Drawing on interviews and participant observation we show that ‘negotiated management’ works best when both sides are committed to negotiation and that police stereotyping or protestor intransigence can lead to the escalation of any given event. In closing we note the new challenges posed by forms of ‘global’ protest and consider the implications for future policing of protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]