Austerity and Protest ─ Popular Contention in Times of Economic Crisis

What is the relationship between economic crises and protest behaviour? Does the experience of austerity, or economic hardship more broadly defined, create a greater potential for protest? With protest movements and events such as the Indignados and the Occupy Movement receiving a great deal of attention in the media and in the popular imaginary in recent times, this path-breaking book offers a rigorously-researched, evidence-based set of chapters on the relationship between austerity and protest. In so doing, it provides a thorough overview of different theories, mechanisms, patterns and trends which will contextualize more recent developments, and provide a pivotal point of reference on the relationship between these two variables. More specifically, this book will speak to three crucial, long-standing debates in scholarship in political sociology, social movement studies, and related fields: The effects of economic hardship on protest and social movements. The role of grievances and opportunities in social movement theory. The distinction between a€?olda€? and a€?newa€? movements. The chapters in this book engage with these three key debates and challenge commonly held views of political sociologists and social movement scholars on all three counts, thus allowing us to advance study in the field.

Marco Giugni is Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of the Institute of Social and Political Research at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests focus on social movements and protest, but he has also published widely on social exclusion and the participation of disadvantaged and discriminated groups such as the unemployed and immigrants. He is the editor of The Politics of Unemployment in Europe, and co-editor of How Social Movements Matter, From Contention to Democracy and Political Altruism? Dr Maria Grasso is a Lecturer in Politics and Quantitative Methods at the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield. Her main research interests are in political sociology, social change, political participation, and social movements. She was a Research Fellow on the Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualising Contestation (CCC) project's UK team. She is a work-package Principal Investigator on two collaborative EU projects on social resilience in times of crisis (LIVEWHAT) and trans-national solidarity (TransSOL). She is Deputy Editor for Western Europe of Mobilization: An International Quarterly. Her work has been published in Electoral Studies, Work, Employment and Society and other journals.