The First Time is the Hardest? A Cross-National and Cross-Issue Comparison of First-Time Protest Participants

Abstract

The study aims to extend the existing knowledge about the dynamics of first-time participation in protest events. To tackle that puzzle we rely on extensive and innovative protest survey evidence covering 18 separate demonstrations in eight countries across nine different issues. On the individual level, age, motivation, and non-organizational mobilization appear to be consistent and robust predictors of first-timership. On the aggregate level, demonstrations staged just after or during a protest wave, large demonstrations, and demonstrations of old or new emotional movements are attended by a relatively larger share of first-timers. We conclude that it is thus the interplay of individual-and aggregate-level determinants that produces first-time participation.

Half a Loaf Is (Not) Better Than None: How Austerity-Related Grievances and Emotions Triggered Protests in Spain*

“…Newcomers to protest are more likely to be recruited via open channels, less likely to be embedded in networks that organize the events, and more likely to use protests to vent frustration (Rüdig and Karyotis 2013;Saunders, Grasso, Olcese, Rainsford, and Rootes 2012;Verhulst and Walgrave 2009). Hence, the usual triggers of participation in protest, such as resources, identities, and mobilization networks, are less important in times of crisis.…”

Who Protests in Greece? Mass Opposition to Austerity

“…We thus have a closer look at the factors explaining both past and present protest, 61 Converse and Pierce 1986, 422-3. 62 Verhulst and Walgrave 2009. and can compare models with and without the previous protest involvement variable in order to assess the relative effect of various possible predictors of protest.…”

Introduction: The Networked Communication of Contentious Politics

“…This is done in order to interrogate the possibility that in a context of low organisational affi liation, such as that of post-communist Romania, collective identities that are not principally associated with any activist organisations may emerge from networked communication (Verhulst and Walgrave 2009 ). Kindred books have singled out collective identity as a prime catalyst for mobilisation, instilling a twofold sense of unity and distinction that currently forms in a composite ecology of broadcast and interpersonal networked communication (Lievrouw 2010 , pp.…”