The constitution of protest as sign in contemporary Ireland

Peillon, Michel

doi:10.1080/07907180108406634

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…This conforms to recent trends, according to which a high proportion of the issues which trigger collective protests are locally focused and implicate local residents (Peillon, 1998). However, the category of local residents needs to be investigated, for there exist different kinds of local residence and also different kinds of residents in the locality.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Exclusionary protests in urban Ireland

Peillon¹

2002

City

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This article examines those collective protests in urban Ireland that aim at excluding some categories of people from the local area. Travellers, drug-users, asylum-seekers, undesirable services such as rehabilitation clinics or community for mentally ill patients represent the main targets of actions by local residents. The distinctive feature of exclusionary protests are analysed in terms of the issues raised, the targets of the action, the participants and the resources which protestors can mobilize. It is argued that this kind of collective activity is not adequately understood in terms of a culturalist reading of the city. Exclusionary protests emerge only in the context of the social relations which structure city life. A number of collective actions that aim at excluding people have been recorded in Ireland in the recent past. If we limit our investigation to collective actions that have taken place between the years 1995 and 2000, 33 such distinct exclusionary actions have been documented. Although this represents a relatively small proportion of recorded events, roughly 5% (33 cases out of over 700 for the years 1995-2000), it nonetheless constitutes a significant phenomenon. Although not very current, exclusionary protests have been mentioned in the literature on social movements. For instance, Snow et al. refer to the "efforts of neighbourhood organizers to mobilise citizens to oppose the relocation of the Salvation Army shelter" (Snow et al., 1986, p. 470). Many local protest actions endeavour to counter features which threaten the local quality of life in significant ways: "This tendency is just as evident today in the rash of neighbourhood movements protesting the siting of this homeless shelter, or that toxic waste dump, or any other of the myriad facilities that may arouse community concern. Commentators have dubbed these movements the NIMBY (not in my own backyard) phenomenon." (Marx and McAdam, 1994, p. 125)One should nonetheless make a clear distinction between the rejection of undesirable features (such as excessive housing development, proximate siting of a waste dump, heavy traffic, etc.) and the actual exclusion of a category of people.These exclusionary forms of action may be observed in many places, though a significant proportion of them take place in Dublin. This article endeavours to reach an understanding of social life in Dublin on the basis of this kind of collective action. A central idea guides the analysis which follows: namely, that exclusionary protest in Dublin is better understood in terms of the structure of social relations, according to which social life in the capital city is organized, rather than through a 'cultural reading' of the city.Exclusionary protests emerge around a limited range of issues and groups. They have been prompted by five main issues. First,

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Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Exclusionary protests in urban Ireland

Peillon¹

2002

City

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“…In the case of Ireland, scholars have taken note of the changing political culture and of the sharp increase in the number of protest events over the past number of years (Coakley 2010;Peillon 2001a). 10 Relatively recent protests in Ireland have thus been fuelled by public disquiet about the shape of social and economic affairs and by the state's gradual withdrawal from many of its social welfare commitments when it adopted neo-liberal privatisation practices in the mid-1990s.…”

Section: Contextual Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2011Indignés/Occupy Movements in France and Ireland: An Analysis of the Causes of Weak Mobilisations

Chabanet¹,

Royall²

2014

Modern & Contemporary France

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In 2011 Occupy movements were set up in France and in Ireland but aside from some initial displays of mobilisation, the movements enjoyed very limited success. Some commentators wondered why there was such a difference between the level of protest in these countries compared to what was taking place in others such as Greece and Spain. The authors argue that the reasons for the weak level of mobilisation in France and in Ireland are related to the cumulative effects of external and internal factors. In terms of external factors, the movements received very weak political support in both countries. In addition, the contrasting effect of the economic crisis and especially the fact that a significant proportion of the better-educated French youth were less unemployed or socially excluded than in most other European countries-notably Ireland-help to account for the movement's weakness, in France at least. Internal factors also played a key role. In France as in Ireland, the movements were profoundly varied and sociologically divided. Activists were unable to agree on clear and unambiguous policies and guidelines and they defended with vigour autonomous modes of action that quickly isolated them. In the end, the accumulation of these handicaps did not allow the mobilisations to develop.Si certaines mobilisations d'Indignés ou d'Occupy ont émergé en France et Irlande en 2011, elles n'ont rassemblé qu'un nombre limité de personnes, ce qui contraste avec le succès que le mouvement a pu connaître au même moment dans d'autres pays, notamment en Grèce ou en Espagne. Cette faiblesse relative s'explique par une pluralité de facteurs endogènes et exogènes à la protestation. Sur un plan externe, dans les deux pays, les appuis politiques ont manqué à ceux qui ont tenté d'organiser et de développer la mobilisation. Par ailleurs, en France, le système de protection sociale a considérablement amorti les effets de la crise économique, atténuant du coup les motifs de mécontentement,

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Organizing the Unemployed in Ireland

Royall¹

2012

The Mobilization of the Unemployed in Europe

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The constitution of protest as sign in contemporary Ireland

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Exclusionary protests in urban Ireland

Exclusionary protests in urban Ireland

The 2011Indignés/Occupy Movements in France and Ireland: An Analysis of the Causes of Weak Mobilisations

Organizing the Unemployed in Ireland

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