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The current organization of academic institutions creates a tension between knowledge and social change. Many scholars put inequality at the center of their research agenda. But they may also be subject to logics of exploitation linked to the commodification and marketization of knowledge and the precarization of the workplace. Such a struggle may appear especially salient now in British universities, where a long series of strike actions are taking place over pay equality and pay levels, casualization, and workload.

Since its inception, Contention has aimed to illuminate our understanding of activism and political behavior across a full variety of contexts and settings. By examining political behavior across multiple geographical and social sites, we can explore unique opportunities to expand the horizon of our theoretical frameworks, test the generalizability and applicability of our claims, and gain a stronger grasp of how different structural arrangements and historical trajectories might shape political action.

This issue of Contention is definitvely international, featuring data and cases from dozens of countries including Rwanda and China. We are proud to be a journal sought out by scholars working on diverse non-Western cases as well as by those conducting ambitious international analyses. As editors, we firmly believe that an interdisciplinary journal is best served by also being international, and as the journal continues to grow, we are looking to turn our attention toward building editorial teams featuring excellent scholars from around the world. We hope that the variety of international cases in our pages will one day be mirrored by a similarly international community of authors, reviewers, and editors.

In this first issue of 2021, we find ourselves still in this strange space of a viral pandemic that first emerged in 2019. Yet contentious politics persists in public places, and the present issue reflects Contention's continued efforts to publish interdisciplinary research-based articles from around the world.

Abstract

This special issue explores the complex and multifaceted relationship between crime and protest. Crime may in some circumstances be considered a legitimate form of resistance against oppressive authorities. It may also be seen as an unacceptable form of violence or a symptom of social disorganization. Similarly, while protest is a tool for promoting social justice, it may be criminalized and treated as a threat to public order. The articles in this issue draw on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to examine various aspects of the relationship between crime and protest. They explore strategies used by governments to suppress dissent, the relationship between moderate and radical protest actions, and the ways in which marginalized groups challenge the designations of illegality by immigration regimes. The articles demonstrate how crime and protest are deeply intertwined, and they provide new insights into the complexities of social activism and the challenges faced by those who engage in it.