Flipping the “New Penology” Script: Police Misconduct Insurance, Grassroots Activism, and Risk Management–Based Reform

Through a multi-method qualitative case study, I examine the failed 2016 ballot campaign of the Committee for Professional Policing (CfPP), a police accountability group in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In attempting to make Minneapolis the first city nationwide to require police to carry professional liability insurance, the CfPP turned the logic of Malcolm M. Feeley and Jonathan Simon’s “new penology” paradigm onto police. Their thesis argues that a contemporary penal shift occurred away from rehabilitation toward managing aggregates of dangerous criminal categories through risk management approaches. I extend their thesis in a new direction by examining how—in the emerging age of “algorithmic risk governance”—social movement organizations, like the CfPP, are starting to invert the new penology onto criminal justice personnel. In flipping the script, the CfPP called for a new private insurance market using mandatory police misconduct insurance to manage aggregates of dangerous police officers. After highlighting how the CfPP developed new penological objectives, discourses, and technologies, I discuss the implications of grassroots groups adopting and redefining traditional penal logics and propose future research avenues.

Solidarity in diversity: online petitions and collective identity in Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Bill Movement

Collective identity is a key catalyst of protest mobilization. How does collective identity come into existence among strangers with diverse backgrounds, especially in movements without a centralized leadership? Although collective identity is often seen as something constructed by movement organizations or out of established networks, we describe a more bottom-up and decentralized process in which movement collective identity is created through the horizontal mobilization of intermediate identities, which leverage pre-existing social identifications to induce commitment among individuals. Focusing on Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Bill Movement of 2019, we argue that online petitions against the controversial bill created intermediate group identities among myriad social groups, such as alumni, professions, hobby groups, and residential communities. These intermediate identities provided rich discursive resources for previously disconnected individuals to collectively perceive the threat of the bill and see the obligation to act, which, in turn, shaped a strong collective identity early on in the protests. Our findings may help contribute to a more nuanced understanding of collective identity formation in contemporary leaderless movements.

Frenemies: Overcoming Audiences’ Ideological Opposition to Firm–Activist Collaborations

Collaborations between organizations from different sectors, such as those between firms and nonprofits or governments, can offer effective solutions to complex societal problems like climate change. But complications arise because organizations operating in different sectors rely on the approval of different audiences, who may not view these relationships positively, for resources and survival. I show how concerns about audience approval impede cross-sector collaborations forming between firms and social movement organizations (SMOs) despite their potential societal benefits. Firms wanting to signal their efforts in support of a movement’s cause may be eager to form collaborations with SMOs. But when SMOs’ supporters and/or peers define their identity in opposition to firms—when they are oppositional audiences—collaborations do not form. I argue and find that SMOs who cooperate, and don’t compete, with oppositional peers can better navigate the constraint of oppositional audiences. Firms, in contrast, aggravate the constraint of oppositional audiences. Firms’ inclination to seek collaborations to repair their reputations with their own audiences after being contentiously targeted by a movement compounds the challenge to SMOs of partnering with the enemies of their friends. My arguments on countervailing audience effects stifling collaborations are corroborated in 25 years of data on interactions between SMOs in multiple environmental movements and Fortune 500 firms.

Emotion, Efficacy, and Protest Intentions: Testing a Multilevel Dual Pathway Model of Collective Action

What are the causes of anger and efficacy, and their consequences for protest intentions? Here we propose a multilevel dual pathway model of collective action where anger and efficacy operate at multiple levels of analysis. To test our model, we administer a factorial survey experiment of student protest to a disproportionate stratified random sample of undergraduate students (N = 880). We find that the indirect effect of anger on protest intentions follows two routes—one dispositional and one situational—while the indirect effect of efficacy flows through a situational channel. We also find that the dual pathways of anger and efficacy are triggered by a broad set of situational conditions (incidental grievances, selective rewards and punishments, collective action frames, and size of the protest), while anger is also a function of a narrow set of dispositional factors (protest norms and attitudes). Our results imply that understanding the multilevel nature of anger and efficacy can help social movement organizations better coordinate collective action.

Activists Against Autocrats: TSMO Networks and Democratic Diffusion

Do transnational social movement organizations (TSMOs) promote the international diffusion of democracy? If so, how? Scholars of democratization have studied a plethora of international factors in the spread of democracy, including geographic or regional proximity, colonial history, trade and alliance networks, and joint inter-governmental organization (IGO) memberships. Few have studied the role of TSMO networks in democratic diffusion. We theorize that TSMOs empower and connect civil societies and thus promote democracy from the “bottom up.” Leveraging a new TSMO Dataset and data on the dimensions of democracy from the Varieties of Democracy project over the 1953–2013 period, we find that TSMOs promote democratic diffusion. TSMOs are strongest at diffusing participatory democracy. TSMOs also contribute to the diffusion of electoral democracy but do so by promoting the diffusion of freedom of association and freedom of expression rather than elections.

Rumah Bulat Sebagai Markas Perjuangan Pemuda Bakumpai Marabahan Borneo Bagian Selatan (1929-1946)

The stage of Indonesian history, especially southern Borneo (Kalimantan), in the first decade of the 20th century was marked by the growth and development of nationalism. The main actors are the youngsters. From 1929-1942, there were many movement organizations with various characteristics. The organization is generally based in one headquarters. Among them are Bakumpai’s youth organizations such as the Marabahan Youth Association (PPM), the Marabahan Branch of Sarekat Islam up to the Taman Siswa School which is headquartered in Round House, Marabahan. Historical studies of the existence of round houses are still not enough. Spatial aspects (place of events) still get a small portion in local historiography. This study aims to describe the existence of Round House as the headquarters for the Marabahan Youngsters (Bakumpai) in Marabahan, Southern Borneo, in 1929 -1946. This research used a historical method with heuristics, criticism, interpretation and historiography stages. The results of the research showed that Round House is a symbolic name for the determination of the Bakumpai youngsters to fight through the organization. Originally named the Joglo Cap Crown House, as a symbol of the glory of the Bakumpai Merchant. The Cap Crown house later changed its name to Round House after becoming the headquarters of the Marabahan Youth Association and the Marabahan Branch of Islamic Sarekat in 1929. This house was also the location of the Sarekat Borneo (Kalimantan) Congress in 1930. Round House also became the school area for PHIS-Taman Siswa Branch in 1931. Due to its important position, Round House became the Headquarters of Indonesian People's Rebellion Front (BPRI) before the return of NICA to southern Borneo in 1945. This building has the status of a cultural heritage building in 2011. However, unfortunately, it is still minimally functioning as a learning resource, place or learning facility for students.

Working for Justice in Food Systems on Stolen Land? Interrogating Food Movements Confronting Settler Colonialism

The evolving practice and scholarship surrounding food movements aim to address social, political, economic and ecological crises in food systems. However, limited interrogation of settler colonialism remains a crucial gap. Settler colonialism is the ongoing process of invasion that works to systematically erase and replace Indigenous Peoples with settler populations and identities. While many progressive and well-intentioned food movements engage directly with issues of land, water, identity, and power, critics argue they have also reified capitalism, white supremacy, agro-centrism and private property that are central to the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous Peoples. Scholars and advocates have called for greater accountability to the contradictions inherent in working towards social and ecological justice on stolen land. We write this paper as three settler activist-scholars to interrogate ways that social movements are responding to this call. A community-engaged methodology was used to conduct semi-structured interviews with individuals working in settler-led food movement organizations in Northwestern Ontario, Canada and in Southern Australia. We present our findings through three intersecting categories: 1) Expressions of settler inaction; 2) Mere inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and ideas; and, 3) Productive engagements and visions to confront settler colonialism. To explore the possibility of deeper engagements that confront settler colonialism, we suggest a continuum that moves from situating our(settler)selves within the framework of settler colonialism to (re)negotiating relationships with Indigenous Peoples to actualizing productive positions of solidarity with Indigenous struggles. We argue that this work is essential for food movements that aim to transform relationships with the land, each other, and ultimately forge more sustainable and equitable food futures.

Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism

Social movement organizations (SMOs) increasingly rely on Twitter to create new and viral communication spaces alongside newsworthy protest events and communicate their grievance directly to the public. When the COVID-19 pandemic impeded street protests in spring 2020, SMOs had to adapt their strategies to online-only formats. We analyze the German-language Twitter communication of the climate movement Fridays for Future (FFF) before and during the lockdown to explain how SMOs adapted their strategy under online-only conditions. We collected (re-)tweets containing the hashtag #fridaysforfuture ( N = 46,881 tweets, N = 225,562 retweets) and analyzed Twitter activity, use of hashtags, and predominant topics. Results show that although the number of tweets was already steadily declining before, it sharply dropped during the lockdown. Moreover, the use of hashtags changed substantially and tweets focused increasingly on thematic discourses and debates around the legitimacy of FFF, while tweets about protests and calls for mobilization decreased.