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Reclaiming the everyday: the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots.
- Source :
-
Social Movement Studies . Jan2018, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p64-84. 21p. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- 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 riot-related 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, toreclaim the everyday. Theoretically, this builds on Randall Collins’s ‘micro-situational’ approach to violence 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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Subjects :
- *LONDON Riots, 2011
*POLICE records & correspondence
*CRIME
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14742837
- Volume :
- 17
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Social Movement Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 126920393
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2017.1348942