Roundtable: Understanding Contemporary Waves of Protest

The recent series of protests sometimes discussed as the "Arab Spring", "European anti-austerity movements" and "Occupy" have been characterised as a global wave of mobilizations. Some common elements often identified include a critique of the lack of "real" democracy and a call for economic justice in the context of a global crisis. The extent to which these protests are in fact related to each other, and if so how, is a question that scholars are still developing effective tools to answer. Comparative methods alone are insufficient to effectively study the degree of transnational diffusion between protest movements or the interaction between what are best understood as contested processes in longer historical timeframes rather than discrete events. This interdisciplinary roundtable brings together experienced researchers studying a range of countries (Egypt, UK, Tunisia, Greece, Spain, Ireland) who will draw on their own empirical research to discuss wider topics such as:

- the key theoretical questions in understanding waves of mobilization at an international or global level rather than within a single national context;
- how to define waves of mobilization and develop appropriate research questions and strategies;
- methodologies for studying "protest waves", the limitations of protest event data and the challenges and opportunities of using new media as data sources;
- how to conceptualize social movement latency and other activity which is not captured by an emphasis on visible protest;
- understanding the current wave of mobilization in a longer historical perspective.