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published_or_final_version / SPACE / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / SPACE / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study addresses violent urban disturbances which occurred in England in the early 1980s with particular reference to the Bristol ‘riots’ of April 1980 and the numerous disorders which followed in July 1981. Revisiting two concepts traditionally utilised to explain the spread of collective violence, namely ‘diffusion’ and ‘contagion,’ it argues that the latter offers a more useful model for understanding the above-mentioned events. Diffusion used in this context implies that such disturbances are independent of each other and occur randomly. It is associated with the concept of ‘copycat riots’, which were commonly invoked by the national media as a way of explaining the spread of urban disturbances in July 1981. Contagion by contrast holds that urban disturbances are related to one another and involve a variety of communication processes and rational collective decision-making. This implies that such events can only be fully understood if they are studied in terms of their local dynamics. Providing the first comprehensive macro-historical analysis of the disturbances of July 1981, this thesis utilises a range of quantitative techniques to argue that the temporal and spatial spread of the unrest exhibited patterns of contagion. These mini-waves of disorder located in several conurbations were precipitated by major disturbances in inner-city multi-ethnic areas. This contradicts more conventional explanations which credit the national media as the sole driver of riotous behaviour. The thesis then proceeds to offer a micro analysis of disturbances in Bristol in April 1980, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Exploiting previously unexplored primary sources and recently collected oral histories from participants, it establishes detailed narratives of three related disturbances in the city. The anatomy of the individual incidents and local contagious effects are examined using spatial mapping, social network and ethnographic analyses. The results suggest that previously ignored educational, sub-cultural and ethnographic intra- and inter-community linkages were important factors in the spread of the disorders in Bristol. The case studies of the Bristol disorders are then used to illuminate our understanding of the processes at work during the July 1981 disturbances. It is argued that the latter events were essentially characterised by anti-police and anti-racist collective violence, which marked a momentary recomposition of working-class youth across ethnic divides.

The 19th century is seen by many as a crucial turning point in the history of protest in Britain and across the global north. In Charles Tilly's famous history of the period, the first few decades of the 19th century mark the transition from the violent, direct action of the premodern era to our modern, respectable, social movements (Tilly 1995, 2004). A study of rioting in Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow from 1800 to 1939, therefore, allows for a unique window onto that momentous period of upheaval. But it also has a sociological aim. The last decade has seen a resurgence of rioting in Europe and the USA, prompting many to suggest that riots will be the dominant mode of protest in the coming years (e.g. Badiou 2012, Mayer et al 2016, Clover 2016). But, as I will show, our existing sociological theories of riots tend to be overly narrow, to focus exclusively on one or two master variables without paying due attention to the variety of forms and behaviours that make up rioting. These are the two challenges I take up in this thesis. My main empirical contribution is a catalogue of four hundred riots across the three cities. This was produced by searching through national and local newspaper archives, Home Office documents, local police reports and secondary literature. The catalogue is presented in the Appendix. Using the rich, narrative accounts provided by these sources, I try to analyse the riots on their own terms, as a set of interactions and behaviours, as well as to embed them in the local history of each city. This reveals that riots are not the chaotic, unpredictable moments of madness that we so often think of them as. Riots are rather patterned by people's everyday use of time and space - they expand to fill the growing urban landscape of each city and their timing follows gradual changes to the working week. Riots are also embedded in culture and society more broadly. In fact, as those roots in local society were eroded in the last few decades of the 19th century, this led to a decline in the number of riots in Manchester, Liverpool and most of the rest of the country. Meanwhile, the actual way in which people riot also evolves over time. Riots changed from an autonomous form of protest, to one that was subordinated to the strike and the demonstration. Rioters also move away from targeting specific (often powerful) individuals to targeting people because of their identity as, for example, scabs, Irish Catholics or fascists. This history undermines the orthodox account of protest presented by Charles Tilly. Violent direct action continued to be a key part of urban life until far later than his account suggests. And those later riots are not accidental hangovers from a previous era, but in fact adapted to changing conditions. My catalogue also suggests that existing theories of riots can be synthesised and broadened by concentrating on the way that individual riots unfold over hours, weeks or months, on what I think of as their career through time. This sets up a flexible framework for analysing riots which I hope can be applied to other riots around the world. Finally, and more abstractly, this study suggests that riots have a particular relationship with time, that they are of the present but face the past, drawing on its traditions as well as their own history. This has implications for our vision of history itself, suggesting that time is not punctuated by spontaneous, era-defining events, but rather evolves gradually over the longue duree.

Student Number: 0216613T Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / This research examined the notion of liberal journalism in South Africa during apartheid as practiced at the RDM. It considered whether the paper, facing government scrutiny and restrictive laws, adhered to the principals of liberal journalism and how successfully it did so. The 1976 Soweto Uprising was used to assess the newspaper’s performance and the merits of arguments for and against the notion of it being a successful example of a liberal newspaper. Content analysis and interviews with RDM staff members, was used to assess the paper’s conduct. These primary sources were examined in conjunction with available literature and criticisms against the English press and RDM presented in testimonies at the TRCMH to assess the paper’s reportage and how valid criticisms against it were. The researcher concluded that, due to serious shortcomings, which included its reporting of the uprising, the RDM was not a successful liberal newspaper.

The study explores collective action in Sweden between 1980 to 1995 using time-series data from the European Protest and Coercion Database. In spite of severe hardship during the crisis of the early 1990s, Swedish strike-rates declined. However, contention merely shifted from workplaces into the streets; there was indeed a protest movement against austerity, as shown by a series of large demonstrations, and some riots, between 1989 and 1993. Further analysis indicates this movement faded as it was increasingly chanelled into the electoral campaign of the labor pary; having won the 1994 election, the organised labor movement no longer had an interest in sustaining the protest movement against austerity.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This study aims to examine young peoples’ attitudes towards crimes related to riots. It also examines if there’s a difference in attitudes to different crimes and if there is a connection between these attitudes and friends experience of crime, gender, socioeconomic position or residential area. There is a lack of research in this area, most of the studies on riots focus on the reasons and driving forces leading to riots. The method used is quantitative. We collected surveys in upper secondary schools, both in riot affected areas and others. The result shows that there is a marginal more positive attitude to crimes related to riots than crimes in general. Boys have committed more crimes than girls, and also have a more accepting attitude to crime. It’s more accepted to use violence against the police than rescue personnel and other people. It’s also more accepted to use violence against polices than to vandalize. Young people living in areas affected by riots have the most accepting attitude to violence against polices. There is a clear correlation between young people who commit crime and their friends also committing crimes. Young people who often socialize in groups have a greater tendency to commit crimes.