What Social Identities Can Tell Us about Violence in Social Movements, and Vice Versa

A Social-Psychological Response to “Violence, Social Movements, and Black Freedom Struggles: Ten Theses Toward a Research Agenda for Scholars of Contention Today”

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Andrew G. Livingstone University of Exeter, UK

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AK Thompson's “Ten Theses” is a timely and compelling piece. It challenges collective action scholars to address the nature, bases, and consequences of violence and physical force in a manner that does not position these as anomalous or outside the bounds of “normal” or “normative” action (a tendency that sees violence and physical force more regularly addressed on the other side of soft academic borders, such as that separating social movement and protest scholars from scholars of “terrorism”). I want to address this challenge here by reflecting on what my “home” discipline of social psychology can offer in terms of insights, and (more importantly) what blind spots and limitations remain. For convenience, I adopt a rather conventional and narrow working definition of “violence” as involving physical force, rather than a broader (but equally valid) definition that encompasses any act (including speech) that can cause hurt or harm.

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The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest

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