myResearchSpace

In August, protesters in Denver faced pepper spray, tear-gas, rubber-bullets, concussion bombs, and mass arrests.I blogged earlier about protests against the Republican National Convention, so it seems only fair to mention the protests against the 2008 Democratic National Convention.These protests seem to have received less attention in the ...

This picture, from sgrah's flickr stream, was taken at the 2005 anti-WTO protest in Hong Kong. It's interesting for me because one of the things that I'm researching at the moment is the cross-over between more 'traditional' left-wing social movements (now incarnated as the Global Justice Movement) and movements emerging around 'information ...

With the Olympics fast approaching, attention continues to be focused on China's human rights record. I've been particularly struck by reports that protests will be allowed, but only within designated spaces and after applying for approval five days in advance. I've just started reading Luis Fernandez's Policing Dissent, in which he looks at ...

I'm just back from a couple of political science and international relations conferences, OCIS and APSA, wading through my inbox and keen to get on with my thesis. Looming deadlines mean that I don't feel I can do justice to the papers I went to, although I will mention a couple of my favourites. Ever since I read Freakonomics, I've been bothered ...

Non-state actors (NSAs) are increasingly coming under consideration within the field ofinternational relations, and transnational social movements, particularly the global justicemovement (GJM), are seen as having a role in pushing for progressive change. The emergence ofthe GJM has relied in large part on the growth and accessibility of various ...

* There are a plenty of definitions, descriptions, and categorisations of social movements out there, many of which are very useful. One of my favourites is Paul Byrne's description of them as unpredictable, irrational, unreasonable, and disorganised, in that they don't always arise where there is the greatest need for them, don't seem to fit ...