Militant Mobilisation and the State

Abstract

The state plays a prominent role in processes of mobilization. Not only is the violent escalation of protest shaped and driven by interactions with police, experiences of stigmatisation and persecution, and the direct and indirect effects of repression. But activists also model their revolutionary strategies based on particular conceptions of the state and state power, and visions of an alternative political and social order. This panel examines this complex relationship by looking at, inter alia, the impact of state policies and strategies of control, relational dynamics of radicalisation and escalation, and images of the state at the heart of militant movements.