Excited to share that my project on polarization and nonviolent resistance was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant. So grateful to the many colleagues who supported the work along the way, and looking forward to the research ahead!
@tmitts.bsky.social, author of Safe Havens for Hate, speaks with Miranda Melcher about her new book for @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. Listen to the full interview:
Nice thread here! It’s incredibly important for thinking about violence and protest tactics. What counts as violence depends on who is protesting and who is observing those protests. So, one-size-fits-all judgments about whether specific tactics “work” would definitely benefit from more skepticism.
7. Bottom line: tactics matter but so do our own biases when observing and reacting to resistance. Worth approaching coverage with skepticism and holding media accountable.
www.latimes.com/california/s...
6. This bias is amplified by media accounts, with media (including liberal media!) evoking threat when covering protests by people of color @laginagause.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
5. Discussions of effectiveness should also be mindful of the fact that ethnic/racial minorities, as well as their grievances, are perceived as more violent by the public even when peaceful, since perceptions are biased, e.g. my work with @tmitts.bsky.social here:. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
4. For example, @laginagause.bsky.social 's work suggests that disruptive protests among racial and ethnic minorities can lead to greater legislative responsiveness www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
3 When asking what's effective, important to remember for what and for whom. As nicely summarized in the editorial, a lot of research finds that violence has a negative effect on public opinion. Research is less clear on its effectiveness for other outcomes, though.
2. Research on unarmed, disruptive violence, such as seen in Los Angeles and elsewhere, is more ambiguous, as summarized by @chenoweth.bsky.social here:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
1.@chenoweth.bsky.social & Stephan's data is often used to show nonviolence is more effective, but it compares armed to nonarmed violence, with nonarmed violence treated as nonviolent. The data also pertains to maximalist campaigns (e.g. revolutions), calling for caution in extrapolating results.
Excellent op-ed on nonviolent protest from @robbwiller.bsky.social and @owasow.bsky.social on the importance of nonviolence here www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/o.... Some additional points worth noting:
An important piece from the @apsrjournal.bsky.social (by @devorahmanekin.bsky.social and @tmitts.bsky.social) to make sense of ongoing events: it matters not only which tactics are adopted by protesters but also who they are.
Even a Mexican flag is being perceived/framed as violent.
bsky.app/profile/adam...
And we learned a lot from yours! They do matter, but our work suggests that peaceful tactics, by some groups, can be perceived as violent/threatening (others have found this re media framing). So I'd just note that tactics are not only a matter of activist choice but also of racialized perceptions.
Agreed, and as your work shows, there are other factors that matter here such as how the state responds.
Yes, but tactics are perceived and covered through racialized lenses that frame them as threatening regardless of facts on the ground.
Jumping in with a favorite article, by Devorah Manekin and Tamara Mitts, which asks how ethnicity affects both the success of non-violent protests and the likelihood of observers judging a given protest as violent/non-violent. Spoilers: racialized folks can’t win. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Big thanks to @devorahmanekin.bsky.social for an engaging talk on how affective polarization may shape nonviolent resistance!
Join @stevelevitsky.bsky.social & me on April 3 at 4pm ET. We’ll catch up on the current state of backsliding and resistance in the US. Register below.
Large, sustained anti-government and anti-war protests taking place in both Israel and in Gaza.
There are scores of anti Trump/DOGE/Musk protests planned for April 5 handsoff2025.com
@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, and I draw on our research through the Crowd Counting Consortium to show that there is far more protest happening in the US than is commonly understood, and that the shift to economic noncooperation shows powerful potential for future collective action.
bsky.app/profile/reil... this is bonkers and deeply disturbing. Private security, DOJ, DOGE, and the DC police together worked to take control over a private building the government *does not own* and dismiss the staff *whom the president does not employ,* removing them, it seems, with armed force
I cannot overemphasize how important it is for you to contact your local papers and offer to give an interview about the protest you participated in.
We got three articles and counting in local papers this week because of cold calls and unsolicited letters to the editor.
Msafer yatta in the Oscar’s, and brilliant speeches by Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham!!! A million congratulations, and may their vision lead our way.
ברכות חמות ליובל אברה והצוות על הזכייה. נאומים מדהימים של באסל ויובל. הלוואי שנלך בדרך שהם מראים לנו.
More Republicans now believe that women should return to their traditional roles in society As of November 2024, almost half of Republican men agree, up from 28 percent in 2022. 50% agree 48% Republican men 37% Republican women 25% Democratic men 17% Democratic women 11% 2016 2018 2020 2022 Source: Views of the Electorate Research Survey 2024 ALT
Approaching majority opposition to basic 20th century second wave feminism among Republican men
If you sum it up, 49% of young German men voted for a right-leaning party, but only 28% of young women. Conversely, 59% of young women voted for a left-leaning party, but only 38% of young men. (BSW left out.)
