Which elements do the Arab Spring, the Indignados and Occupy Wall Street have in common? How do they differ? What do they share with social movements of the past? This book discusses the recent wave of global mobilisations from an unusual angle, explaining what aspects of protests spread from one country to another, how this happened, and why diffusion occurred in certain contexts but not in others. In doing this, the book casts light on the more general mechanisms of protest diffusion in contemporary societies, explaining how mobilisations travel from one country to another and, also, from past to present times. Bridging different fields of the social sciences, and covering a broad range of empirical cases, this book develops new theoretical perspectives.

In these brief and accessible case studies, Costa Rican millennial leaders draw from global solutions to address local problems, inviting students of these emerging social movements to apply similar strategies to their communities at home.

While political scientists and political theorists have long been interested in social and political performance, and theatre and performance researchers have often focused on the political dimensions of the live arts, the interdisciplinary nature of this labor has typically been assumed rather than rigorously explored. This volume brings together leading scholars in the fields of Politics and Performance--drawing on experts across the fields of literature, law,anthropology, sociology, psychology, and media and communiction, as well as politics and theatre and performance--to map out and deepen the evolving interdisciplinary engagement. Organized into seven thematic sections, the volume investigates the relationship between politics and performance to show thatcertain features of political transactions shared by performances are fundamental to both disciplines--and that to a large extent they also share a common communicational base and language.

This book examines the nature of protest and the way in which the police and state respond to the activities associated with this term. Protest is explored within the context of the perceived decline in public engagement with recent general election contests. It is often thought that protest is regarded as an alternative to, or as a replacement for, formal political engagement with electoral politics, and this book provides a thoughtful assessment of the place of protest in the contemporary conduct of political affairs. Analysing key forms of protest such as: demonstrations, direct action, protest conducted within the workplace, riots and terrorism, this study also illustrates each of these activities with a wide range of examples of events that have taken place within the UK since 1945. It will be of keen interest to students of criminology, criminal justice studies, police studies and politics.

Explores protest groups, their aims and protest tactics, and investigates the affect their decisions have on press coverage and political debate.