Abstract
In this chapter, we use a protest field approach to explore the main facets of the contentious dynamics triggered in three hotspots of the refugee crisis—Greece, Italy, and Spain. To this aim, we employ protest event analysis, a consolidated method to explore the relations between protest and the political environment. In comparison to traditional applications of this method, we make systematic use of Google News to retrieve news about protests on migration issues and to reconstruct the three protest fields. Results of our analysis suggest that the three countries did in fact provide different political opportunities for protest on migration issues to emerge side by side with solidarity initiatives and for different sets of actors to network and engage in these protests.
“In accordance with Italian academic conventions, we specify that Massimiliano Andretta wrote the first part of the section “Comparing Protest Fields in Greece, Spain, and Italy” as well as the “Discussion and Conclusions” section; whereas Elena Pavan wrote the sections “The background picture: Political contexts of the refugee crisis in Greece, Spain, and Italy” and “Online protest event analysis through Google News”. The two authors jointly wrote the sections “Introduction - Shifting the focus from solidarity initiatives to protest fields” and “Seizing different opportunities: features and contents of the pro- and anti-immigration protests in the three fields”.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
For Greece, we found three spikes (i.e. August and October 2015 and March 2016); for Spain, we found one (September 2015); in Italy, we found three (April, August, and September 2015). Notice that in June 2017, Google News substantially changed its interface (see https://www.blog.google/topics/journalism-news/redesigning-google-news-everyone/), limiting the ability to search news within specific time spans.
- 3.
To circumvent the problems derived from the shutting down of GN España (Google 2015), we searched for Spanish news starting from the Spanish homepage of the search engine and using the tab ‘Noticias’.
- 4.
The codebook is available upon request to the authors.
- 5.
We are grateful to Leonidas Oikonomakis and Martin Portos for their implementation of the research strategy in Greek and Spanish. We are also grateful to Paola Imperatore and Luca Scollo, who collected and codified part of the PEs for Italy. The whole process of the research strategy implementation was prepared by training sessions and followed by our constant supervision.
- 6.
Original article available at http://www.primadanoi.it/news/cronaca/558969/Profughi-a-Torino-di-Sangro-.html
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
Original article available at http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2015/09/02/ninos-turquia-refugiados_n_8077636.html
- 10.
See the Facebook page of the Plataforma at https://www.facebook.com/Plataforma-de-Inmigrantes-de-Madrid-143193942511267/
- 11.
Original article available at http://www.eldiario.es/desalambre/Centenares-personas-refugiados-Espana-ilegalidad_0_427308222.html
- 12.
See the Presidio Permanente No Borders – Ventimiglia Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/Presidio-Permanente-No-Borders-Ventimiglia782827925168723/about/?ref=page_internal
- 13.
Original article available at http://www.radiocittadelcapo.it/archives/bologna-no-borders-presidio-ventimiglia-164551/
- 14.
The regional level of administration is different in the three countries, although it always refers to an administrative level located between the town and the national level. In Greece, the term used to define this level can be translated as ‘province’, while in Spain and in Italy, it should be read as ‘region’.
- 15.
The Phi of the table crossing countries and level of protest action is .58 (significant at .001 level).
- 16.
The Phi of the table crossing level of protest and type of protest (pro and anti-immigration) is .19 (significant at .05 level). Spain is excluded, as no anti-immigration protest has been reported there.
- 17.
The Phi of the cross-tabulation between the absence/presence of an organisation and the type of protest (pro and anti-immigrant) is .29 (significant at .001 level).
- 18.
Original article available at http://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/udine/profughi_marcia_palmanova_protesta_prefetto_udine-1243700.html
- 19.
The Phi of the cross-tabulation between the absence/presence of institutions and parties in PE and the type of protest (pro or anti-minority) is −.38 (significant at .001 level).
- 20.
The Phi of the cross-tabulation between countries and absence/presence of institutions and parties is .22 (significant at .01 level).
- 21.
In Italy, the Phi of the cross-tabulation between type of protest (pro or anti-minority) and the absence/presence of institutions and parties in the migration protest field is −.47 (significant at .001 level).
- 22.
- 23.
Original article available at http://www.bresciatoday.it/cronaca/profughi-solidarieta-a-san-colombano-di-collio-tensione-anti-accoglienza-a-temu.html
- 24.
Original article available at http://www.imolaoggi.it/2015/04/27/hotel-house-occupato-da-quasi-2000-immigrati-salvini-questo-e-il-terzo-mondo/
- 25.
Original article available at http://www.avgi.gr/article/10842/5945069/antiphasistike-synkentrose-apopse-ste-lesbo-anepithymete-e-chryse-auge-sto-ne
- 26.
Original article available at http://www.902.gr/eidisi/ergatiki-taxi/77684/eidomeni-kilkis-maziki-apostoli-me-eidi-protis-anagkis-stoys-prosfyges
- 27.
Original article available at http://www.avgi.gr/article/10842/5945069/antiphasistike-synkentrose-apopse-ste-lesbo-anepithymete-e-chryse-auge-sto-ne
- 28.
Original article available at http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20150912/toda-europa-sale-calle-solidaridad-refugiados/1217341.shtml
- 29.
The Phi of the cross-tabulation between countries and the absence/presence of civil society organisations in the protest field is .30 (significant at .001 level).
- 30.
For more information, see http://www.observatoriodesigualdadandalucia.org/iniciativas/plataforma-somos-migrantes
- 31.
- 32.
- 33.
Violent actions included acts of vandalism, fire-setting, and clashes with the police. Those forms of action are included in what we qualify as disruptive: they account for 8 per cent of the total PEs, about 3 per cent in Greece, 10 per cent in Italy, and 13 per cent in Spain.
- 34.
This is the only statistically relevant difference found on the forms of action: the Phi is .17 (significant at .05 level).
- 35.
- 36.
- 37.
References
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
Cammaerts, Bart, Alice Mattoni, and Patrick McCurdy, eds. 2013. Mediation and Protest Movements. Chicago: Intellect.
Castells, Manuel. 2011. A Network Theory of Power. International Journal of Communication 5: 773–787.
della Porta, Donatella, and Mario Diani. 1996. Social Movements. An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing.
Diani, Mario. 2003. Networks and Social Movements: A Research Programme. In Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action, ed. Mario Diani and Doug McAdam, 299–319. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Diani, Mario, and Ann Mische. 2016. Network Approaches and Social Movements. In Oxford Handbook of Social Movements, ed. Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani, 306–325. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DMI – Digital Methods Initiatives. 2015. The Research Browser. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj65Xr9GkJM. Accessed August 2017.
Ferree, Myra Marx, William Anthony Gamson, Jürgen Gerhards, and Dieter Rucht. 2002. Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Fligstein, Neil, and Doug McAdam. 2012. A Theory of Fields. New York: Oxford University Press.
Franzosi, Roberto. 1987. The Press as a Source of Socio-Historical Data: Issues in the Methodology of Data Collection from Newspapers. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 20 (1): 5–16.
Hilgers, Mathieu, and Eric Mangez. 2014. Bourdieu’s Theory of Social Fields: Concepts and Applications. London: Routledge.
Hutter, Swen. 2014. Protest Event Analysis and Its Offspring. In Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research, ed. Donatella della Porta, 335–367. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jasper, James M. 2015. Introduction. Playing the Game. In Players and Arenas. The Interactive Dynamics of Protest, ed. James M. Jasper and Jan W. Duyvendak, 9–33. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Koopmans, Ruud. 2004. Movements and Media: Selection Processes and Evolutionary Dynamics in the Public Sphere. Theory and Society 33: 367–391.
Koopmans, Ruud, and Dieter Rucht. 2002. Protest Event Analysis. In Methods of Social Movement Research, ed. Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg, 231–259. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
Kriesi, Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Duyvendak, and Marco Giugni. 1995. The Politics of New Social Movements in Western Europe. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
Kriesi, Hanspeter, Edgar Grande, et al. 2012. Political Conflict in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maney, Gregory M., and Pamela E. Oliver. 2001. Finding Collective Events. Sources, Searches, Timing. Sociological Methods & Research 30 (2): 131–169.
McAdam, Doug. 1982. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McCarthy, John D., Clark McPhail, and Jackie Smith. 1996. Images of Protest: Dimensions of Selection Bias in Media Coverage of Washington Demonstrations, 1982 and 1991. American Sociological Review 61 (3): 478–499.
Meyer, David S. 2003. Political Opportunity and Nested Institutions. Social Movement Studies 2 (1): 17–35.
Rogers, Richard. 2013. Digital Methods. Boston: MIT Press.
Rucht, Dieter, and Friedrich Neidhardt. 1998. Methodological Issues in Collecting Protest Event Data: Units of Analysis, Sources and Sampling, Coding Problems. In Acts of Dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest, ed. Dieter Rucht, Ruud Koopmans, and Friedrich Neidhardt, 65–89. Berlin: Edition Sigma.
Shorter, Edward, and Charles Tilly. 1974. Strikes in France, 1830–1968. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1989. Democracy and Disorder: Protest and Politics in Italy 1965–1974. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tilly, Charles, Louise Tilly, and Richard Tilly. 1975. The Rebellious Century, 1830–1930. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Andretta, M., Pavan, E. (2018). Mapping Protest on the Refugee Crisis: Insights from Online Protest Event Analysis. In: della Porta, D. (eds) Solidarity Mobilizations in the ‘Refugee Crisis’. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71752-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71752-4_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71751-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71752-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)