Practicing the Art of Dissent: Toward a Typology of Protest Activity in the United States

Document Type : translation

Authors

1 University of Tehran

2 Kamalolmolk Nowshahr University of Art and Achitecture

Abstract

Protest events present portraits of social problems—people, through collective
action, send a message to society through their performance of opposition. The
purpose of this study is to examine the distribution and diversity of specific activities
taking place at protest events in the United States from 2006 to 2009. We empirically
examine these activities by drawing on preliminary data from a sample of nearly 2,500
protest events reported in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. To more clearly
understand our contentious repertoire, we build upon coding protocol developed by
the Dynamics of Collective Action Project and examine over 60 specific activities
utilized by activists. What we show—in addition to the fact that protester actions,
while sometimes confrontational, are overwhelmingly nonviolent—is that the
majority of all protester activity at protest events during the period under study
involves literally symbolic, aesthetic, and sensory qualities. In this article, we present a
typology of six broad activity categories and propose directions for future research.