Tackling the Complexity of Large Protest Events. From Formative Contexts to Situational Dynamics

As most phenomena in contentious politics, protest events are “moving targets” (Tarrow 1991). Large protests such as those on occasion of international summits spanning several days are certainly among the most complex events. In the analysis of such events specific conceptual and methodological challenges arise. Addressees, police forces, journalists and protest participants are international. They interact based on distinct habitus, practices and ideas about protest in a specific (local) environment, which is often shaped by previous conflicts. We suggest examining such events in an interactionist and multi-layered perspective. We propose a heuristic scheme that puts the micro-analysis of contentious interactions in a larger setting. Micro events allow us to understand how assumptions about one’s counterpart play out in direct interactions. More or less instantly, these interactions become part of sense-making processes on all sides. Thus, particularly contentious interactions may become turning points that change the atmosphere in subsequent events. In this line of thought, the paper aims at linking the micro, meso and macro level in large protest events. It is based on the research design of the collaborative research project “Mapping #NoG20. Documentation and Analysis of Violent Escalations in the Context of Anti-G20 Protests in Hamburg 2017”.