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Protest on the Fly: Toward a Theory of Spontaneity in the Dynamics of Protest and Social Movements David A. Snow and Dana M. Moss American Sociological Review 2014 79: 1122 originally published online 24 October 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0003122414554081

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American Sociological Review 2014, Vol. 79(6) 1122­–1143 Protest on the Fly: Toward a © American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0003122414554081 Theory of Spontaneity in http://asr.sagepub.com the Dynamics of Protest and Social Movements

David A. Snowa and Dana M. Mossa

Abstract This article reexamines spontaneity as an important, albeit neglected, mechanism in collective action dynamics, and elaborates on its operation and effects in protest events and social movements. We do not presume that spontaneity is routinely at play in all collective actions. Rather, based on our grounded analysis of historical and ethnographic data, we contend that spontaneity is triggered by certain conditions: nonhierarchical organization; uncertain/ ambiguous moments and events; behavioral/emotional priming; and certain ecological/ spatial factors. We conclude by elaborating why the activation of spontaneous actions matters in shaping the course and character of protest events and movements, and we suggest that spontaneity be resuscitated in the study of collective action and everyday life more generally.

Keywords collective action/behavior, grounded theory, protest/protest events, social movements, spontaneity

[W]hen I read the personal accounts which when we reach Tahrir, we’ll see. There was the student leaders [of the 1989 Beijing no plan. I mean, there was a plan . . . like, student movement] gave in my interviews you know, “we’re going to meet at some and in published memoirs, I found many of point . . .” but [the notion that] we’ll be at them in the form “I walked down the road Tahrir, we’ll have a plan, there will be, you and saw X (or, I woke up in the morning and know, security committees . . . —it’s all thought of Y), and then I decided to do Z.” crap. I mean, this is all spontaneous and it In other words, many of their activities rep- evolved . . . [over] time. (Hossam El- resented spontaneous and individualistic Hamalawy, quoted in Al Jazeera English responses to events rather than conscious 2012) decisions arrived at collectively by their organizations. (Zhao 2001:147) aUniversity of California-Irvine

In the meetings prior to January 25th [2011], Corresponding Author: some activists did pose the question . . . “So David A. Snow, 4295 Social Science Plaza, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697- when we reach Tahrir, what are we going to 5100 do?” And I think everybody was like, well, E-mail: [email protected]

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These statements are observations of two Spontaneity and its of the most widely observed collective action Misconceptualization events in the past 50 years. In the first state- and Mistheorization ment, sociologist Dingxin Zhao refers to spontaneity as a dynamic element in the Bei- Various synonyms for spontaneity include jing Spring student protests of 1989; in the adlibbing, improvisation, winging it, extem- second, activist Hossam El-Hamalawy poraneous, impromptu, off the cuff, off the emphasizes the role of spontaneity in the top of one’s head, and unplanned. Although 2011 Egyptian revolution. But aside from a most of these terms are associated with few close-to-the ground observations of col- speaking, debating, lecturing, and perform- lective protest such as these, spontaneity is ing, they all reference unplanned actions or rarely mentioned in recent literature on social events, in the sense that these actions or movements and protest. In this article, we events are not thought through in a delibera- reexamine the dynamic of spontaneity, argu- tive fashion in advance of their occurrence. ing that it is often an important mechanism in This is not to say that spontaneous actions or the dynamics of collective action. Our objec- events are random and unpredictable, but tive is to bring spontaneity back into the rather that they are not premeditated or part of analysis of protest dynamics and social a formalized system of action.1 Nor is it to say movements by elaborating a set of conditions that spontaneous actions, whether verbal or that specify when spontaneity is most likely nonverbal, do not have calls for specific lines to be activated in the course of these phe- of action embedded within them. To yell out nomena and by showing why its activation “run!” on the scent of smoke is a call to action matters. and may thus be construed as strategic in the We begin with a conceptualization of means/end sense. But such sudden and star- spontaneity rooted in the intersection of sym- tling actions are spontaneous inasmuch as bolic interactionism and cognitive psychol- they were not planned in advance of the ogy; we then turn to a critical examination of stimulus event. Thus, spontaneity may be best the literature on social movements and pro- understood as a cover term for events, hap- test to discern how spontaneity has been penings, and lines of action, both verbal and treated. After demonstrating the neglect and nonverbal, which were not planned, intended, misconceptualization of spontaneity in rela- prearranged, or organized in advance of their tion to protest, we argue for its resurrection, occurrence. contending that its inclusion in the concep- Drawing on symbolic interactionism and tual and theoretical arsenal of scholars of cognitive psychology, we contend that con- social movements and protest will contribute ceptualizing spontaneous actions in this way to a more thorough understanding of the does not imply a lack of cognition or rational- dynamics of these collective phenomena. We ity. Rather, if action is understood in terms of do not presume that spontaneity is routinely Mead’s (1938) conception of an act, which at play in the course of such events; rather, consists of four elements—impulse, percep- we contend that spontaneity is triggered by tion, manipulation, and culmination—we certain conditions. Based on a grounded contend that spontaneous action can be char- analysis of ethnographic and historical obser- acterized accordingly. The difference between vations, we specify a set of conditions that prior deliberation and the cognitive process make the occurrence of spontaneous actions associated with spontaneous action is that the more likely, and we conclude by elaborating latter is compressed in time. However, this how spontaneity matters in shaping the does not imply a cognitive “short-circuiting” course and character of protest events and of the kind Smelser (1962:82) conjectured in movements. his theory of collective behavior. Rather, the

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1124 American Sociological Review 79(6) process is more akin to Simon’s (1957) notion in the late-nineteenth century. One side of the of “bounded rationality,” with its emphasis on debate, rooted in the revolutionary prognosti- “satisficing” rather than “optimizing” in the cations of the Manifesto of the Communist face of limited information and time, and Kah- Party (Marx and Engels 1948), emphasized neman’s (2011) distinction between fast and the spontaneous emergence of class con- slow thinking, with spontaneous decision- sciousness. The other side, anchored in Len- making being a case of fast thinking.2 Finally, in’s (1969) championing of the revolutionary we want to emphasize that spontaneous Social-Democratic party, emphasized the actions may occur individually or collectively, external organizational base for the develop- and sometimes they may be interconnected, as ment of revolutionary class consciousness. when a spontaneous individual action stimu- However, the less organizationally focused lates a spontaneous collective action. In either “collective behavior perspective,” ranging case, we are interested primarily in spontane- from LeBon (1897) through Blumer ([1939] ous actions that alter the course and character 1972), embraced the concept of spontaneity of the encompassing collectivity in ways that as a fundamental mechanism in collective were not previously planned. action dynamics. According to Blumer Our orienting contention is that some col- ([1939] 1972:68), collective behavior in gen- lective actions occurring within the context of eral, and its elementary forms more specifi- protests and movements are spontaneous and cally, constituted behavior that “arises consequential for the larger collective actions spontaneously and is not due to pre- in which they are embedded, and sometimes established understandings or traditions.” For also for subsequent collective actions. If so, Blumer, behavioral coordination occurred understanding the relationship between spon- through contagion via the coordinating mech- taneity and protest events is fundamental to anism of “circular interaction” in contrast to understanding protest events’ character and “interpretive interaction.” Blumer’s thesis, as dynamics more generally. However, one will well as the contagion argument in general, find little on spontaneity that is analytically were subsequently criticized (McPhail 1991; instructive in the literature on protest and Turner and Killian 1987) and expunged from social movements since the mid-1970s. When the collective action/social movement con- there has been analytic reference to spontane- ceptual toolkit. ity, it is typically misplaced temporally in the Turner and Killian (1987:58), however, life course of protest events, or misconstrued viewed spontaneity as “an essential element . . . in the dynamics of those events and their in collective behavior” and made it a corner- sponsoring movements. Before turning to the stone dynamic of their emergent norm thesis. In evidentiary bases for incorporating spontane- the third edition of their text Collective Behav- ity into our analyses of protests and move- ior (1987), Turner and Killian refer to protests ments, we assess the analytic treatment of and other collective phenomena, such as public spontaneity and its general neglect in recent opinion, as spontaneous. The fate of Turner and theorization and research. Killian’s emergent norm thesis has not been quite as dire as LeBon’s and Blumer’s conta- gion thesis, but it has been similarly criticized Treatment of Spontaneity in (McPhail 1991) and has largely fallen out of Collective Behavior and Protest Event use. This is due, in part, to the changing context Analyses of contentious gatherings associated with The concept of spontaneity has had a pendulum- changes in protest policing. like career in the study of collective action Research on protest policing in western and social movements. Reference to the con- democracies reveals that practices have his- cept dates back to at least the Marxist debates torically clustered into two styles: “‘hard’ regarding the origins of class consciousness police styles, characterized by an escalated

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1125 use of force in order to implement law and as spontaneous or emergent, it is during this order (with low respect for demonstrators’ period.” rights) versus ‘soft’ police styles, where nego- This line of argumentation strikes us as tiations (and protest rights) prevail” (della conceptually and empirically misguided, in Porta and Fillieule 2004:219). The escalated that it misapprehends and erroneously concre- use of force to control and disperse protesters tizes the place and function of spontaneity, was particularly prominent during the 1960s treating it as a stage rather than as a dynamic and the first half of the 1970s. The “softer” element within the collective action process. approach, involving negotiations between But these issues have become largely irrele- police and protesters to establish ground rules vant to scholarship on social movements since in advance of demonstrations, began to pre- the ascendance of the resource mobilization vail in the 1980s.3 Since then, the general and political process/opportunity perspectives, trend in the United States and Europe has as spontaneity is rarely mentioned, a few been toward development of public order exceptions notwithstanding (Auyero 2003; management systems (POMS), in which pro- Fantasia 1988; Polletta 1998; Zhao 2001). test demonstrations become increasingly We contend that a central reason why standardized, thus reducing the likelihood of spontaneity has been ignored lies in the ten- newsworthy tactical innovations and sponta- dency for scholars to think analytically about neous actions.4 The diffusion of POMS, social movement dynamics in terms of binary wherein demonstrations are negotiated and oppositions. Binary juxtapositions are preva- scripted temporally, locationally, and behav- lent in movement theorizing and analysis, just iorally prior to their occurrence, may obviate as they are in much of sociological analysis the likelihood of emergent norms. However, (Zerubavel 1996). Some of the more common it does not preclude the possibility of sponta- oppositions include rationality versus irra- neous action under certain conditions, which tionality and emotion; solidarity versus break- we identify and illustrate. down; disorganization versus organization; The relevance of spontaneity to social and spontaneity versus organization. One movements more generally has also been dis- problem with such oppositions is that they puted. The debate has not been about whether often become cognitively encoded, such that spontaneity is sometimes at play in the opera- both our gaze—that is, what we look at and tion of social movements, but about its locus see—and how we think about what we see in a movement’s career. For example, Blumer become one-sided and inflexible. We find a ([1939] 1972) and Turner and Killian (1972) clear history of this encoded binary with argued that spontaneity is more likely early in respect to spontaneity versus organization a movement’s career than as movements that dates back to the Marxist debates, runs develop and become more organized. How- through much of the theorization associated ever, Turner and Killian (1987:294) later with the subsequent collective behavior per- moved beyond Blumer and the earlier collec- spective, and culminates most recently with tive behavior literature by noting the role of the dominance of the resource mobilization organization and calling attention to “the and political process/opportunity perspec- interplay between spontaneity and organiza- tives. In each period, spontaneity and organi- tion.” This suggested focus on the “interplay” zation were seen as essentially antithetical: was ignored in subsequent commentary, how- the organized, revolutionary party trumped ever, as Marx and McAdam (1994:73) spontaneity following Lenin (1969); sponta- restated Blumer’s initial claim even more neity trumped organization during the collec- strongly: “It is at the outset that social move- tive behavior era; and organizational and ments bear their closest relationship to other political contextual considerations relegated forms of collective behavior. To the extent spontaneity to the historical dustbin during that social movements can ever be described the current contentious politics era. The

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1126 American Sociological Review 79(6) neglect of spontaneity in recent compendiums elements of a theory of spontaneity in relation on social movements provides further evi- to protests and social movements, arguing that dence of this cycle.5 consequential spontaneity arises only under However, dominant perspectives skewed certain specifiable conditions. toward one end of a binary continuum often invite unsettling questions or alternative points of view. For example, writing from Data Sources and prison between 1929 and 1935, Gramsci Procedures (1971:198–99) asked a fundamental theoreti- The conditions we identify as associated with cal question: “can modern theory be in oppo- the occurrence of spontaneous collective sition to the ‘spontaneous’ feelings of the action in the context of protest events and masses?” By such feelings he meant those movements, as well as the consequences of that exist in the absence of “any systematic these spontaneous occurrences, are derived educational activity on the part of an already empirically from three types of qualitative conscious leading group.” He answered that sources. One source consists of our ethno- the difference between the two is a “differ- graphic observations of protest demonstra- ence of degree, not one of quality” and noted tions that we conducted independently at that “reality produces a wealth of the most different points in our respective research bizarre combinations,” arguing that “[i]t is up careers. A second data source includes on- to the theoretician to unravel these,” and that the-ground observations by participants in “[i]t is not reality which should be expected protest demonstrations. The third source con- to conform to the abstract schema” (Gramsci sists of previously published materials by 1971:159–200). Turner and Killian (1987:294) social scientists, historians, and government made a similar observation when they alluded commissions investigating instances of pro- to the “interplay between spontaneity and test events and demonstrations. The sources organization.” In the U.S. civil rights move- for all materials used to illustrate and ground ment, for example, McAdam (1982), Morris the underlying conditions are indicated when (1984), and others firmly established the cen- the materials are introduced. trality of preexisting organizational structures Our inquiry and analyses proceed induc- in facilitating mobilization. Yet Killian’s tively in a manner consistent with grounded (1984:772, 780) analysis of the 1956 Talla- theory methodology (Charmaz 2006; Strauss hassee boycott noted the interplay of sponta- and Corbin 1990). The essence of this meth- neity and organization: odology is that it facilitates the derivation of theoretical principles and hypotheses from The precipitating incident was the conse- the phenomena studied; hence the appellation quence of what was clearly a spontaneous inductively derived or grounded theory. Pro- action by two students with no record of ceeding in this fashion is especially appropri- activism and no organizational connections ate when there is little relevant theorization, outside Florida A & M University . . . [but] hypothesis generation, or hypothesis testing the importance of pre-existing structures— regarding the phenomenon of interest. Such is both organizations and networks—is ines- the case, as already noted, with respect to capably evident. spontaneity in relation to protest events and movements. Curiosity about the role of spon- We agree with the observation regarding taneity in relation to these phenomena grew the interplay between organization and spon- out of our own ethnographic observations taneity, arguing that spontaneity and organiza- rather than through analytic discourses on the tion are neither dichotomous nor oppositional, topic. It was after our independent observa- but are instead often highly interactive.6 tions of what we took to be spontaneous col- Drawing on these insights, we advance the lective actions, and our joint discussions of

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1127 them, that we began to consider the phenom- identified condition with the subsequent cases enon as a topic for analytic interrogation and investigated. In this way, we proceeded to to case the literature for empirical accounts of identify a set of conditions associated in a other instances of its occurrence in the con- precipitating fashion with the occurrence of text of collection action. spontaneous collective actions. This process of “casing” the literature In keeping with the strategy of theoretical involved several steps. First, we searched for sampling, one might proceed until no new rich, on-the-ground, descriptive accounts of category properties or conditions emerge, protest-related collective action events that which, in principle, could be indefinitely. But included reference to what we conceptualized eschewing methodological idealism for meth- as spontaneous actions. This generated a rela- odological pragmatism, we not only identi- tively small number of historical cases, not fied spontaneity as a sometimes important only because of the rarity of detailed ethno- element of collective action dynamics, but we graphic accounts of protest events, but also also identified and elaborated a set of associ- because of the previously mentioned neglect of ated triggering conditions. Moreover, we find spontaneity by the dominant collective action/ that Katz’s (2001:331) contention with respect social movement perspectives. Additionally, to the overlapping strategy of analytic induc- most protest event research over the past 25 tion also applies to the grounded theory years has not been well-suited for examining approach to which we adhered: “There is no on-the-ground dynamic elements such as spon- methodological value in piling up data of a taneity. This research has been based largely sort already determined to be consistent with” on interviews with protest participants to the revised or emerging theory. account for their participation or analysis of media accounts, principally newspapers, of protest events. Although protest event research Conditions Triggering has become a dominant method for studying Spontaneous Collective protests and movements and has advanced Action understanding of aspects of these phenomena (Soule 2013), it is limited in large part by the Our orienting proposition is that spontaneity character of the media data analyzed. sometimes figures prominently in the dynam- These limiting factors associated with pro- ics of social movement demonstrations and test event research notwithstanding, we looked protest events. We do not argue that spontane- to studies of now well-chronicled protests ity is routinely or randomly distributed across (e.g., Ireland’s Bloody Sunday, Kent State, collective action events. Rather, we contend and Tiananmen Square) compiled by ethno- that the occurrence of spontaneous collective graphic or qualitative/historical researchers actions is most likely under specifiable condi- and investigatory reports that provide detailed, tions. In identifying and elaborating these first-hand accounts of the events examined. conditions, we do not presume they are mutu- We identified a number of such studies and ally exclusive or exhaustive. As we argue and then examined them for conditions that illustrate, they may interact and combine. appeared to precipitate or be associated with Conditions other than those we identify may the occurrence of spontaneous actions. Con- also occasion the occurrence of spontaneous sistent with the constant comparative charac- collective actions. Accordingly, this analysis is ter of grounded theory methodology and its a first step, albeit a major one, in development associated principle of theoretical sampling, of an empirically grounded theory of spontane- which involves searching for and zeroing in ity within the context of social movements and on data that elaborate and refine the categories their associated collective action events. or conditions associated with the emergent With these caveats in mind, we turn to an theory, we coded and then compared each elaboration of four conditions we identified

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1128 American Sociological Review 79(6) as precipitants of spontaneous collective Los Angeles region, including one protest con- actions: the absence of hierarchical organiza- ducted jointly with activists in the Occupy tion; uncertain/ambiguous moments and L.A. movement, and participant accounts of events with a number of associated sub- Occupy D.C. After the onset of anti-regime conditions; behavioral/emotional priming and protests in Syria and corresponding regime framing; and ecological/spatial contexts and crackdowns in 2011, Syrian-American activ- constraints. ists protested at Russian and Chinese embas- sies, held demonstrations and fundraisers, and put on “flash mobs,” in which participants Condition 1: Nonhierarchical froze in scenes reenacting the regime’s vio- Movements lence. These events were characterized by their Much has been made in the past 30-plus years nonhierarchical structure, being initiated pri- about the organizational dimensions of social marily through informal calls to action on movements, including formal, professional, Facebook and by word of mouth, and partici- and hierarchical leadership (e.g., Andrews pants frequently initiated unrehearsed actions and Edwards 2004; Davis et al. 2005; McCar- over the course of the events. Although some thy and Zald 1977). Yet, social movements individuals did volunteer to take on greater are also populated by “varied and malleable responsibilities, thus making them de facto organizational forms” (Clemens and Minkoff leaders, impromptu coordination attempts by 2004:156), including movements character- these participants were often overridden by ized by anti-hierarchical, participatory, and other participants. For example, pleas for deliberative democratic styles (Doerr 2013; chants to be spoken in English were frequently Polletta 2002; Rothschild and Whitt 1986). overtaken by jubilant singing in Arabic; groups These collectivities are wary of formal lead- of protesters waved their shoes at pro-Assad ership and strive to treat participants as rela- counter-protesters despite the disapproval of tively equal contributors rather than as the de facto leaders; street-corner rallies trans- “rank and file.” We propose that nonhierar- formed into marches without any stated pur- chical movements are more likely to produce pose or preplanned timing; and chants were spontaneous collective actions, because their debated and modified throughout the demon- cultures valorize openness, innovation, and strations. At a protest at the L.A. Chinese Con- experimental forms of collective action (Pol- sulate, for example, a participant with a letta 2002). As we will discuss, this does not bullhorn yelled out, “down, down with China!” mean hierarchical movements do not exhibit He was then interrupted by a debate; after spontaneity, or that the rank and file do not negotiations, the collectivity modified the sometimes act spontaneously (Fantasia 1988). chant to “shame, shame on China’s politics!” This is also not to say that nonhierarchical Ethnographic observation of a joint movements are defined by spontaneity, as Occupy L.A. and Syrian-American protest they are also characterized by routinized pro- held at Los Angeles’ City Hall in December cedures and activities (Glass 2010). However, 2011 further illustrates the importance of because nonhierarchical movements value spontaneous, creative actions in shaping the and often rely on impromptu contributions by character of nonhierarchical protest events. participants, we propose that these move- First, after a series of improvised speeches ments are more likely to produce unplanned about Syria at the onset of the gathering, the actions and dynamics. group agreed on a demonstration route and Concrete illustration of how nonhierarchi- proceeded to march around City Hall. As the cal movements produce spontaneity during gathering paused at an intersection, a partici- protest events is provided by grounded obser- pant pointed to the L.A. Sister Cities monu- vations by the second author of Syrian-American ment and suggested we declare Homs, a demonstrations in 2011 and 2012 in the greater Syrian city facing regime bombardment, to be

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1129 a sister city. After this decision was voted on an incidental coalition opposed to Chinese and approved by the group, several protesters policy. Rather than perceived as digressions suggested that a makeshift sign be attached to from a preordained plan, such spontaneous the monument itself. After participants scat- detours were celebrated by the group as invig- tered to assemble the necessary supplies, a orating the spirit of the event. We suspect that discussion ensued about which other Syrian analyses of the 2011 Occupy movements, for cities should be commemorated. In response example, will likely find that the valorization to a chorus of replies, the sign’s author of creative, spontaneous initiatives between announced they would include Homs, Hama, equals—only loosely channeled by participant- and Dar‘aa; participants huddled at the base moderators and emergent subgroups— of the monument around the sign-writer and frequently produced unplanned collective agreed that the city names should be in Arabic actions that reinforced deliberative demo- on one side and English on other. Once the cratic processes and shaped participants’ daily sign was written, a young woman climbed the experiences. As a founding member of the signpost and secured the sign to the loud Occupy D.C. movement reported in an inter- applause and cheers of the group. At this view,7 the movement began with just a hand- point, participants initiated a series of impro- ful of individuals excited about the happenings vised speeches dedicating the monument in in New York’s Occupy Wall Street, without English and Arabic. The mood of the protest the planning or involvement of Washington’s was invigorated by the success of the sym- known leftist community, whose members bolic dedication and the emotional solidarity were “shocked” that the movement had it produced between Syrians and Occupiers, formed without their resources or expertise. some of whom cried and thanked each other. This founding member attested that partici- As the march continued, intermittently inter- pants volunteered in various capacities to rupted by additional improvised speeches, the distribute food, administer medical attention, protesters at the head of the march led the and other such activities because “you wanted group back to the City Hall steps, where another to do it. Nobody told you to do it.” Yet, the group of demonstrators were holding banners fact that spontaneous actions, when condoned describing the Chinese government’s human by group consensus, are regarded as a virtue rights abuses in Tibet. Upon approaching this within and across such movements has group, the Syrian–Occupy demonstrators spon- received only sparse analytic attention. In taneously erupted in exuberant chants of “Free light of these observations, we propose that Tibet!” and then, without instruction, moved to spontaneity is more likely to be found within stand beside the pro-Tibet protesters on the nonhierarchical movements, because it is an steps. One of the de facto leaders of the Syrian integral part of their culture and operation. group and several spokespersons for the Tibetan group initiated a series of unplanned speeches Condition 2: Ambiguous Moments emphasizing the common struggle facing both and Events groups against brutal dictatorships, adapting their messages on the fly to address the newly A central element in symbolic interactionist formed coalition. One of the pro-Tibet spokes- theorization about collective behavior/action persons announced that after marching to the is the concept of ambiguity. In his study of Chinese Consulate, their group would demand rumor, Shibutani (1966:23) asserted that the that the government stop supporting the Assad “basic unit of analysis” is “the ambiguous regime, which produced loud cheers from the situation, and the central problem is to ascer- Syrian–Occupy protesters. tain how working orientations toward it These unplanned actions produced numer- develop.” Drawing on Shibutani in their ous symbolic dedications, strengthened approach to collective behavior and social within-movement solidarities, and generated movements, Turner and Killian (1987:58)

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1130 American Sociological Review 79(6) contend that when “faced with ambiguity, the sets of actors that populate the event field, actors must engage in the construction of a which may include bystanders, counter- new definition of the situation,” which they protesters, and the media in addition to the main designate as the “emergent norm.” However, protesters and control agents. The presence of this is an overstatement, particularly from the these various actors can affect the flow and standpoint of continental philosophies such as character of a protest event in unforeseen phenomenology and existentialism, for which ways independent of the negotiated script. ambiguity is a frequent companion of every- Moreover, there is no guarantee that protest- day life at both the individual and collective ers and control agents will behave as scripted, levels but does not necessarily give rise to as evidenced in various studies of protest unpredictable, spontaneous actions. Smelser policing and “riots”8 (Stark 1972; Wadding- (1962:86–88) also noted that what he calls ton 1991; Walker 1969). Consequently, nego- “structured ambiguity” is a routine feature of tiated scripts are vulnerable to disruption or some aspects of social life. Yet, as Shibutani violation by various sets of actors. In some and Turner and Killian surmised, there is instances, the disruption or violation may be often a causal relationship between ambiguity intentional and thus covertly scripted by some and spontaneous collective action. The prob- actors, as in the case of agent provocateurs lem is that neither they nor others have (Marx 2013); in other instances, the disrup- clearly identified the conditions likely to link tion may be unplanned. In either case, we ambiguity and spontaneous collective actions. argue that script disruptions or breakdowns To this end, we identified three such causal are likely to produce spontaneous adjust- sub-conditions: script breakdown, script dis- ments and lines of action. solution, and non-scripted square-offs. To illustrate, we turn first to ethnographic observations conducted in 1983 in Austin, Script breakdown or disruption. As Texas.9 The event was a Ku Klux Klan march noted earlier, protest policing strategies have through downtown Austin to the state capitol evolved and congealed into public order man- grounds, around the capitol, and back to the agements systems (POMS) (McCarthy and Klan staging area. Several hundred Klan McPhail 1998). The general objective of marchers, festooned in their traditional garb, these new procedures is to reduce the pros- were protected on all sides by phalanxes of pect of disorder and violence by standardiz- city and capitol police who wore riot helmets ing policing practices in ways that control and and carried shields to protect themselves and manage protesters’ access to and behavior in the Klan from the stones and lunch bags of public spaces. POMS exhibit a number of dog feces being thrown their way. The march “important principles in their operations,” was organized beforehand in accordance with including “negotiation between affected par- the POMS in place. But, as suggested earlier, ties” (McCarthy and McPhail 1998:91), such events do not always proceed as scripted; as social control agents and representatives of rather, sudden, unanticipated adjustments are the movement organization sponsoring the likely to occur in response to script disrup- event. The outcome of these negotiations is tions. As the parade of marching Klansmen, the development of what we call a negotiated cordoned off by the police on each side and to script, which constitutes the ground rules the front and rear, approached the capitol regarding the timing, location, and behavioral grounds, spectators and counter-protesters repertories of the event. While there is no fell in behind the parading entourage, making question that these negotiated scripts have it increasingly difficult for the control agents standardized, and even conventionalized, to maintain separation among the different much protest, they are often fragile and tenu- and conflicting elements of the gathering. As ous. This is due in no small part to the fact the head of the Klansmen parade arrived at a that pre-event negotiations seldom include all Y in the road just before reaching the capital

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1131 building, a throng of counter-protesters and Rossville Streets, organizers intended for blocked the path marchers were scripted to participants to turn right on Rossville toward take. This script disruption produced confu- Free Derry Corner. However, both those who sion as to what to do next, even by the police. came to the event “intent” on confronting At that moment, some counter-protesters authorities at some unspecified point in the broke through the police line, the Klan started march and those who did not intend to engage running, and the police drew their clubs. Con- in disruptive conduct proceeded down Wil- fusion and pandemonium broke loose for liam Street in the direction of Guildhall (BSI several minutes until the police regained con- 2010, v. 2:89). Upon approaching Barrier 14, trol of the situation by surrounding the Klan, some participants threw stones at the security sealing them from the counter-protesters, and agents, after which several stewards attempted marching them back to the initial staging to get in front and prevent the unruly partici- area, which was a parking lot where the pants from confronting the soldiers. An Klansmen’s cars were parked. Not only did announcement was made from the lorry for this sudden, unscripted turn of events cut participants to continue to Free Derry Corner, short the Klan demonstration, but it also pre- but the street became “blocked” with people at cipitated a non-scripted square-off between a the intersection of William and Rossville group of counter-protesters and the fleeing Streets, which pushed the demonstrators up Klansmen upon their return to the staging against Barrier 14 (BSI 2010, v. 2:93): “There area. Additionally, it affected how the capitol was thus at this stage very considerable confu- and city police subsequently organized them- sion and a loss of control of the march.” The selves and scripted another Klan march the stewards could not contain the swell of par- following year. ticipants; soldiers used a water cannon and CS Northern Ireland’s infamous “Bloody Sun- gas (a type of tear gas), which scattered par- day” of January 30, 1972, further illustrates ticipants into nearby streets and produced script breakdown. During this event in Derry, subsequent spontaneous confrontations at 13 demonstrators were killed and about as other nearby barriers. As we discuss further in many injured by the British army during a Condition 4, the confusion caused by script march organized by the Northern Ireland Civil breakdown significantly contributed to the Rights Association (NICRA) and the Derry unplanned use of lethal force by military Civil Rights Association against internment forces against demonstrators. without charge.10 Authorities and organizers had negotiated a demonstration route before Script dissolution. We have noted how the day of the event. However, authorities changes in protest policing have altered changed the script, erecting Barrier 14 to pre- aspects of the dynamics of collective action vent protesters from reaching the previously events, such that preplanned, scripted events agreed on destination of Guildhall Square have rendered the idea of emergent norms as (Report of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry [BSI] generally irrelevant. Yet, certain moments in 2010, v. 1:49–50). In response, the organizers the career of a protest event or demonstration planned for the march to culminate at Free exhibit considerable ambiguity about what to Derry Corner, intending for participants to fol- do next. In some cases, this is the outcome of low a lorry in a “disciplined fashion” to the script disruption, as shown earlier; in other new end point (BSI 2010, v. 2:72). However, cases, it may be a consequence of script dis- only some of the stewards were informed solution. That is, the event has ended and about the change, no public announcement there is no additional script for subsequent about the switch was made, and some march- action. In such cases, we hypothesize there ers walked in front of, rather than behind, the will be increased probability of spontaneous lorry (BSI 2010, v. 2:81–83). When the march collective action, particularly in the case of reached the intersection of William contestation over emotionally charged issues.

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Illustrative evidence is provided by the participants to march to the administration first author’s participant observations of a building to shut it down. noon-time rally at the University of Akron in Ohio to protest and dialogue about the May One could argue there was a script for such 4, 1970, Kent State University campus shoot- action, as calls to shut down universities were ing, in which 13 students were shot, four occurring around the country. But both the fatally, by Ohio National Guardsmen. The keynote and the march from the free speech University of Akron is only a few miles from area to the administration building were Kent State University. As with students at emergent, spontaneous actions. most universities at that time, many students It is reasonable to wonder why such spon- at the University of Akron were angry about taneous actions do not occur at the end of all what had transpired at Kent State and were collective action events. We suspect the clamoring for the opportunity to discuss the answer is that most events have a negotiated shooting, as well as President Nixon’s earlier or planned ending to them, which lessens the announcement of the invasion of Cambodia, prospect of ambiguity. This was not the case which an estimated 500 Kent State students with the above incident, however, as the last were protesting when the shootings occurred. speaker gave no indication that the rally was At the University of Akron and elsewhere, a over and the gathering should disperse. More- “free speech area” was established to accom- over, the designated time-span for the rally modate student demands for dialogue about had not yet been exhausted. Thus, we contend the events. The following describes the first that spontaneous collective action is more author’s abbreviated observations of and likely when there is ambiguity about whether experience with script dissolution and the an event has officially ended and the temporal associated ambiguity at one of these window is still open. gatherings: Non-scripted square-offs. Spontaneous A few days after the Kent shootings, around collective actions may occur in the aftermath 150 students assembled at the free speech of a completed rally or demonstration, as in area at noon to listen to a couple of speak- the case of the previously described 1983 Ku ers. I attended that rally with several friends. Klux Klan march in Austin. By the time Following the last speech, there was a preg- police had escorted the marching Klansmen nant pause, as students seemed to be waiting back to the assembly area, a local activist and for another speaker or directions as to what several adherents had already congregated to do next. But no one stepped up. So I there. This small group of counter-protesters whispered to one of my friends, as we stood was not involved in the initial, pre-event at the back of the gathering, “watch this.” negotiations and caught the police and Klans- And then I blurted out at the top of my men by surprise. After a moment of ambigu- lungs: “Strike! Strike! Shut it down!” ity, during which counter-protesters heckled Within seconds that keynote to strike was the Klan and police, a violent confrontation repeated among other crowd members, and erupted spontaneously between the counter- then the entire gathering appeared to be protesters and half-a-dozen police officers. chanting the slogan in unison. Within a min- We conceptualize such confrontational ute or two most of the gathering was march- encounters as non-scripted square-offs ing to the campus’s main administration because they typically are not planned before- building to “shut it down.” These actions hand and thus arise spontaneously. It is were spontaneous by both me and the gath- important to note that while such square-offs ering as a whole. I had not planned to blurt are sometimes themselves spontaneous out the “Strike! Strike! Shut it down!” slo- actions, they may also generate subsequent gan; nor was there a prearranged plan by the spontaneity within protest events, either

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1133 altering an event’s character or extending it pivotal instance of resistance by anti-regime beyond its initial planned dissolution. We demonstrators. As Ibrahim reported, observed a number of such square-offs between two or more individuals or groups For a few moments . . . some tens of people occurring with script dissolution or the dis- at the front lines stopped—they kind of persion of gatherings at political rallies. Most looked at each other and they started . . . square-offs probably have little consequence attacking. Everybody started running at the beyond the participants involved, but some officers and the officers actually ran away. can have important effects, as did the non- This for me was just mind blowing . . . then scripted violent skirmish between the Klan [the protesters] started putting up barri- counter-demonstrators and the police trying cades, and this was the initial sites of Tahrir to protect the Klansmen. This event, coupled being born . . . with the larger march, was the basis for an investigation by Austin’s Human Relations Here, we can see that the role of spontaneity Committee and a report specifying recom- in the Egyptian revolution of 2011 is more mendations for managing future “controver- than a narrative device. The non-scripted sial parades.” square-off with security forces on the streets Ambiguous moments leading to non- of Cairo enabled anti-regime protesters to scripted square-offs can also provide protest- incite an unplanned confrontation with the ers with opportunities, as one Tahrir Square security apparatus and launch the occupation observer noted, “to discover that they’ve got of Tahrir Square, which contributed to the some power they didn’t think they had” (Sch- overthrow of then-president Hosni Mubarak. neider 2011). The first day marking the 2011 The three mechanisms elaborated in Con- Egyptian revolution, for example, began as dition 2 help specify the kinds of conditions another day of protest, rather than one of that link ambiguity to spontaneous collective revolution. As activist Hossam El-Hamalawy action within protest events. However, they reported to Al Jazeera English, “I thought Jan. do not clarify the form spontaneous actions [sic] 25 was going to be just another demon- may take. To better understand the issue of stration with a couple hundred people and a form, we turn to the condition of priming. couple thousand central security forces, and that was the end of that.”11 Another partici- Condition 3: Behavioral/Emotional pant, Mona Seif, observed that the numbers Priming and Framing of demonstrators heading toward Tahrir Square grew within “seconds” to number in In considering these instances of spontaneous the thousands. As participants approached the collective action, it is reasonable to wonder square, they confronted the widely feared why the actors took one line of action rather Central Security Forces. These agents linked than another. For example, in the case of the arms to block the protesters, but the demon- keynoter blurting out “strike, strike, shut it strators broke through; Seif remembered down,” why that particular keynote rather “raising our arms and saying ‘peaceful, than another? And why did the students peaceful,’ and there was no resistance because march directly to the administration building we really outnumbered them.” Dozens of upon hearing the call to strike, strike, shut it security forces then began charging toward down? A simple, straightforward answer is the protesters to dissuade the surge. “Usually mimicry. But that implies a kind of mindless what happens” in this circumstance, activist contagion explanation associated with early Gigi Ibrahim attested, “is the protesters . . . collective behavior theorizing that has been run away.” However, when protesters on the rejected empirically and theoretically (see front lines faced this challenge, a moment of McPhail 1991; Turner and Killian 1987). ambiguity produced a spontaneous and Moreover, to call such collective action

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1134 American Sociological Review 79(6) mimicry or contagion is to label it rather than protesters having observed or heard about to explain it. To answer such questions, we these activities on other campuses. The recur- draw on the social psychological concept of rent chant of “the people want the fall of the priming and its connection to framing. regime!” during the Arab Spring is another Priming refers to an increased sensitivity to example. Mimicry may be involved, but we certain stimuli due to prior experiences. It is a argue that the priming process makes the pre-sensitizing process that increases the prob- mimicry more likely. ability of activating a concept, frame, emo- Research on the “ghetto riots” of the 1960s tion, or line of action based on exposure to an and 1970s across U.S. cities further demon- earlier, similar stimulus or experience. This strates the relationship between priming and experiential priming effect was theorized spontaneous collective action. These studies some time ago by Mead in The Philosophy of found that the disorders were often triggered the Act (1938). Although Mead (1938:3) did by a precipitating incident or event involving not use the word priming, his discussion of the police action that was perceived as excessive impulse stage of the act foreshadowed its and brutal by black residents. As the National operation: “there accompanies this attitude Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders [by which he meant the reaction to a stimula- (1968:93) concluded in 1967, “almost invari- tion] of the response some imagery which is ably the incident that ignites disorder arises taken from past experiences in which the from police action.” But it is also likely that responses have been carried out.” Psycholo- during this period, excessive police actions in gists have recently affirmed this priming effect urban black communities far exceeded the by showing that words and mental con- occurrence of disorders. Although these civil structs—traits, stereotypes, and prejudices— disorders were generally spontaneous in the can elicit behavior without any awareness on sense that they were unplanned, it is clear the part of the individuals so affected (Bargh, they did not combust spontaneously solely in Chen, and Burrows 1996; Kahneman 2011; concurrence with excessive police actions. Steele and Aronson 1995). Such word-based Other factors were also necessary, as the riot priming effects, which are consistent with the literature makes clear.13 One such factor, we symbolic interactionist contention that sym- submit, was priming. As Feagin and Hahn bols have lines of action embedded within (1973:172) write: them, are explained in part through what cog- nitive psychologists call associative memory If the precipitating incident represents a and activation. But priming is associated not problem that has been a long-standing or only with concepts and words. Research also increasing source of discontent, local resi- shows that engaging in various actions can dents may be more likely to respond actively prime subsequent actions and emotions in to the rumor and affiliate themselves with ways not anticipated (Kahneman 2011).12 street crowds. Thus the recruitment of addi- Drawing on such observations, we argue tional riot participants on the basis of infor- that in the face of script breakdowns and dis- mation received about the precipitating solutions and the associated ambiguities that incident is greatly facilitated by pre-existing result, the spontaneous lines of action that sentiments and experiences. emerge are not random but are dictated, in part, by prior priming experiences or cues and Further illustration of the importance of their relative recency. The inclination to shout preexisting sentiments and experiences as out “strike, strike, shut it down,” and the asso- primers in relation to spontaneous collective ciated action of marching to the administra- action is provided by the Rosenstrasse and tion building, can thus be construed as primed Grosse Hamburger Strasse protests in Berlin by an evolving prognostic master frame in 1943. These events involved several hun- (Snow and Benford 1992) and by the dred gentile women whose Jewish husbands

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 Snow and Moss 1135 and children had been locked in detention is enacted is often unpredictable and centers by the Nazis. The women protested unplanned. Studies of wildcat strikes in labor against the likelihood of their loved ones protests describe this dynamic (Fantasia being deported by staging defiant demonstra- 1988; Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin 1996). While tions and chanting, “Give our husbands wildcat strikes have long been a part of work- back!” According to Stoltzfus’s (2001) his- ers’ repertoires of resistance, the initiation of torical analysis of the women’s biographies, wildcat strikes is not always preplanned or they neither knew each other beforehand nor subject to the control of union leadership. were connected via prior association. There Workers often employ wildcat strikes when was no publicized anti-Nazi protest to mimic, their moods sour over issues large and small. yet the women came together despite the A former member of the United Auto Work- absence of these standard organizational ers’ Ford Local No. 600 describes this situa- mechanisms or structures. As one participant tion in Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin (1996:123): said, “Of course there was an investigation to find out whether someone was instigating The very term wildcat means a spontaneous this. But nothing was found. . . . [The protest] struggle. A spontaneous struggle is some- wasn’t organized but spread by word of thing that takes place at the spur of the mouth. It was a spontaneous reaction” (Stoltz- moment, and [can] take place over the crazi- fus 2001:244). est issues that nobody could really anticipate. Stoltzfus’s explanation is that the women It will explode over anything. . . . I would had already been engaging in nearly a decade wake up one morning and find out that a of individual resistance—what Mansbridge bunch of guys went out on strike because (2013) calls “everyday activism”—ignoring there wasn’t toilet paper in the toilet. pressure from the Gestapo to divorce their husbands and harassment from neighbors. Workers may be primed to initiate a wildcat According to our reading of Stoltzfus, the strike by their resentment over poor working women’s ongoing individual-level resistance, conditions, anger at their union bosses, or coupled with their love and loyalty, primed stress created by surveillance and the threat of them to take spontaneous action during their violence (Stepan-Norris and Zeitlin 1996). family members’ incarceration. The initiation of a wildcat strike itself, how- Drawing on this case, Doherty (2013:1299) ever, may be spontaneous. And because contends the following: workers may have to convince their fellow workers to join unplanned strikes on the fly, It is useful to make an analytical distinction this can lead to a variety of other improvised between two elements of tactical choice: first tactics, such as shouting keynotes, giving the decision to choose particular forms of impromptu speeches, coaxing hesitant co- action, which involves planning and calcula- workers, and turning preexisting sentiments tion; and second, the relational moment when of solidarity into action (Fantasia 1988). the tactic is put to action and others react. In As a final illustration of the connection the Rosenstrasse case, there was no collec- between priming and spontaneous collective tive planning, as this action was as close to action, we return to the Kent State shooting. spontaneous as a protest can be, and is thus The shootings occurred around 12:45 p.m. on similar to other examples that remind us of Monday, May 4, 1970, when 28 National the importance of decisive but unplanned Guardsmen fired from the highest point on the actions taken in the heat of the moment. campus (Blanket Hill) in the midst of a stu- dent demonstration that had shifted its focus Hypothesizing further, we contend that a par- from protesting the invasion of Cambodia to ticular tactic may be present in a movement’s the presence of the National Guard on cam- repertoire, but the moment at which that tactic pus. While some reports claim the shootings

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1136 American Sociological Review 79(6) were the result of an organized conspiracy by and Leyens 1992). In the following section, some of the guardsmen, most investigations we describe how ecological and spatial condi- suggest a far more complex set of circum- tions may further prime social control agents stances involving a series of spontaneous to react with spontaneous aggression. adjustments by sets of demonstrators and National Guardsmen.14 Even the firing of guns Condition 4: Ecological/Spatial by 28 guardsmen can be described as rela- Contexts and Constraints tively spontaneous; little, if any, concrete evi- dence suggests the guardsmen received direct Ecological factors refer to spatial configura- orders to open fire. tions and arrangements, whether natural or Among the contested reasons observers built, that affect patterns of human settlement have given for the shootings, priming was and interaction. The importance of ecological unquestionably at work. First, tensions factors in shaping everyday life and extraordi- between student protesters and security agents nary events has been demonstrated in studies were high because of the recurrent presence of architecture, crowding, and human vulner- of the National Guardsmen on Ohio’s various ability to various spatially produced dangers campuses. As an Ohio congressman stated in (Freedman 1975; Goffman 1971; Newman an FBI report: 1973; Sommer 1974). Sewell (2001) and Tilly (2000) argue that spatial arrangements also [B]y the first week in May, 1970, violence affect contentious events, but the physical on Ohio’s state supported campuses was an environment’s effect on protest was generally old story. Few institutions had been spared. under-theorized until Zhao’s (1998, 2001) in- Governor Rhodes had already acquired a depth analysis of the 1989 Beijing student reputation for prompt and firm response; he movement and Tiananmen Square massacre.15 had called out the National Guard forty According to Zhao (2001:187), the ecol- times. In fact, Ohio’s expenditure for ogy of Beijing’s various universities signifi- National Guard duty is said to have exceeded cantly affected student mobilization. Among the total for all other forty-nine states during the most important ecological factors was the 1968–70. (Best 1978:7) proximity of most of Beijing’s 67 universities to each other, with most being less than 30 Locally, the tensions between Kent State stu- minutes apart by bicycle; separation of most dents and the community were already boil- universities from the outside world by large ing with in-town demonstrations and what walls; the dense campus living conditions, some called “rioting.” Further exacerbating with a half dozen or more students living in the tension was the order for National Guards- the same room; the “total institution” charac- men to move from Akron, where they were ter of campus life; and spatial layouts that monitoring a trucker’s strike, to Kent State’s channeled students’ routines and activities. campus on Saturday, May 2nd. With this Student dormitories also became temporary move, the protesters’ target shifted from the homes for thousands of students who war to the armed guards themselves, which descended upon Beijing from outside to primed both sides for a confrontation. Given observe and join the student movement. the confluence of these contextual and inter- Together, these spatial characteristics con- actional factors, the fact that some guardsmen stituted an ecology that affected mobilization opened fire spontaneously is not surprising, in a number of ways, including the generation especially in light of experimental research of numerous spontaneous individual and col- showing that the presence of guns can func- lective actions. Central locations on cam- tion as a potent cue that primes aggression, puses, such as Beijing University’s “Triangle,” particularly when participants are angry and became mobilizing locales for unplanned pro- fearful (Berkowitz and LePage 1967; Turner tests. Before the occupation of Tiananmen

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Square, students who were “milling around” unplanned repressive responses, leading to the Triangle heard a rumor that students from casualties. For example, in the Kent State a nearby university had initiated street pro- incident, the fatality closest to the firing tests outside of their campus (Zhao 2001:253). guardsmen was 20 yards away, whereas the Some students furthest was about 250 yards away, with the remaining two somewhere in the middle. The . . . became very excited and wanted to stage answer to this puzzling pattern resided “in the a demonstration at Tiananmen Square as topography of the area” (Best 1978:21–22). well. Only around two hundred students fol- As explained in one analysis: lowed them. These students marched inside the dormitory area first, however. As they The pagoda on Blanket Hill is the high point shouted and made noise, more and more of the area and shots fired over the heads of students were attracted and came out of people twenty yards away would carry in a their dormitories. The size of the formation downward trajectory and inflict mortal gradually swelled . . . to between five and wounds hundreds of yards away to people at six thousand, and eventually they marched whom the guardsmen weren’t aiming. Thus, out of the campus. (Zhao 2001:253) the guardsmen who thought they were safely aiming over the heads of people Zhao notes that many students spontaneously nearby may have inflicted wounds on others joined such demonstrations out of curiosity or quite some distance away. excitement. He argues that students would not have successfully infiltrated Tiananmen If this account is correct, ecological factors Square on April 27, 1989, if not for the accounted, in part, for the pattern of casual- “marching and shouting” that took place on ties at Kent State. campus, which amassed thousands of students The Bloody Sunday incident further illus- and “created an atmosphere of excitement and trates how ecological factors can exacerbate heightened the pitch of their anger” (Zhao the outcomes of spontaneous confrontations 2001:261). Because of this, the students col- with social control agents. After the break- lectively overcame their fears of repression down of the negotiated script described in enough to leave the confines of their respec- Condition 2, Brigadier MacLellan refrained tive universities. Zhao’s account makes clear from giving the go-ahead for soldiers to con- that ecological factors not only affected the duct a “running battle” to make arrests emergence and character of the student move- because of the inability of army personnel to ment, but also made possible an array of spon- distinguish between so-called rioters and taneous collective actions that later appeared peaceful marchers (BSI 2010, v. 2:267). to be preordained and coordinated. Because of However, in violation of the brigadier’s order, these ecological factors, “many of their activi- Colonel Wilford ordered his Support Com- ties represented spontaneous and individualis- pany to move into a designated “no go” area tic responses to events rather than conscious called the Bogside. Soldiers then chased civil- decisions arrived at collectively by their ians through the Bogside, shooting 20 civil- organizations” (Zhao 2001:147). ians who were either fleeing or trying to help Just as ecological factors may give rise to the injured. As described in the official spontaneous mobilization processes, they Inquiry, the ecological layout of the Bogside may also stimulate unplanned responses by contributed to the eventual use of lethal force: members of the security apparatus deployed to curb mobilization. In the cases of the Kent Soldiers of Support Company had been told State shootings and the Bloody Sunday pro- by officers and believed that this was a par- tests in Derry, the ecological layout of the ticularly dangerous area for the security protest scenes exacerbated the effects of forces, with any incursion running the risk

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of meeting attacks by paramilitaries using Researchers have either temporally misap- bombs and firearms. . . . When they disem- prehended and erroneously concretized the barked in the Bogside the soldiers were in place and function of spontaneity, treating it an open area where they had never previ- as a static stage rather than as a dynamic ele- ously been and which was overlooked by ment within the collective action process, or the large and high blocks of the Rossville ignored it entirely. Our argument is that spon- Flats, believed by them to be in a place from taneous collective actions can occur at vari- which republican paramilitaries operated. ous points in the career of protests and social (BSI 2010, v. 1:81) movements, because the precipitating condi- tions with which spontaneity is most likely to The order for soldiers to enter what was be associated are not clustered at any single believed to be open enemy territory prompted point in the career of these collective phe- them to cock “their weapons in order to fire nomena. Our illustrative cases demonstrate without delay” (BSI 2010, v. 1:81) in breach that spontaneous actions occurred at various of the military’s protocol for use of lethal points in these events, including after the dis- force. The Inquiry reports that the commander ruption of a negotiated script, with the disso- of the Support Company was surprised to lution of the script, with the occurrence of hear rifle fire and “had no idea what was actu- non-scripted square-offs in the beginning of ally going on” (BSI 2010, v. 1:97). In the an event, during the dispersion process, and Bogside, soldiers’ fear and tension was exac- as a sideshow to the main event. erbated by the area’s ecological arrangements, Importantly, we also observe that some which led to heightened perceptions of threat. spontaneous actions can be quite consequen- Additionally, the open space increased the tial for the ongoing dynamics of the collective protesters’ physically vulnerability to being actions in which they are embedded and for hit by gunfire. subsequent events. First, we find that sponta- Because the ecological environment neity is a defining feature of some kinds of shapes social interactions and the “nature and movements, such that it is woven into the possibility” of social protest (Sewell 2001:61), movement’s operational fabric and thus is spatial factors may operate in combination integral to its ongoing functioning. This with other conditions, such as heightened clearly is the case with nonhierarchical move- ambiguity and priming, to increase the likeli- ments that espouse deliberative democratic hood of spontaneous actions and confronta- participation, innovation, and creativity. tions. As we will discuss, these factors can Impromptu actions are understood by partici- exacerbate preexisting tensions between pants as necessary contributions to the move- groups on the scene and lead to violent out- ment’s routines and its broader mission. The comes in spite of the implementation of pub- same is also true for membership in some lic order management systems. religious movements, such as orthodox Quak- erism, where spontaneous sharing by “friends” is determined by their God-given Discussion “inner light” rather than by authoritative invi- In this article we have sought to bring sponta- tation or prior planning. For both religious neity back into the analysis of protest dynam- and self-help movements, such as Alcoholics ics and social movements by identifying a set Anonymous, for which testimonial sharing is of conditions under which spontaneity is most a salient organizational feature, the opportu- likely to be activated. We began by assessing nity to share is organizationally determined, the analytic treatment of spontaneity in the but who shares, when, and what they share is scholarly literature on protest and social often spontaneous. In this way, spontaneity is movements, concluding that its treatment is a defining and necessary feature of these conceptually and empirically misguided. movements’ organized functioning.

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Second, we submit that some kinds of Finally, spontaneous collective actions may spontaneous actions within the context of an also lead to the kinds of outcomes that gener- ongoing protest event increase the probability ally have been thought possible only through of the occurrence of collective violence. highly organized strategic action. Particularly Although research shows that interpersonal or illustrative are eyewitness accounts of pro- intergroup violence is only an occasional con- tester–police interactions in Cairo on January comitant of protest gatherings (McPhail and 25, 2011; the wildcat strikes described by Wohlestein 1983), and although much of that Fantasia (1988); and Stoltzfus’s (2001) research concludes that the violence that does accounts of the 1943 Rosenstrasse and Grosse occur is most likely due to interactions of Hamburger Strasse protest events in Berlin. police and protesters, little research inspects These outcomes of spontaneity are impor- that interaction. However, a number of our tant and consequential for the dynamics of the observations shed some light on this puzzle, collective action events in which they are as they suggest that the occurrence of sponta- embedded and for subsequent events. As neous actions associated with ambiguity- such, this study highlights the importance of induced script breakdown, script dissolution, recognizing spontaneous actions as salient and non-scripted square-offs increase the aspects of protest events and social move- probability of violence. ments. To dismiss or ignore their existence is Third, we find that spontaneous actions to miss important elements of collective often produced a subsequent, spontaneously action dynamics. altered script or plan of action, which occurred In light of these observations, we suggest in an episodic, contingent manner. By this, we scholars of protest and movements have held to mean that an adjustment by one set of actors an “overly-organized” conception of these phe- within the field of protest led to an unplanned nomena over the past several decades. Piven but primed adjustment by another set of and Cloward (1991:436) have argued similarly actors. This occurred, for example, when the that protest is often analyzed “as more organ- free speech gathering in the wake of the Kent ized than it is, as if conventional modes of for- State shootings marched spontaneously to the mal organization also typify the organizational Akron campus administration building with forms taken by protest.” Thus, to paraphrase the intent of “shutting it down” in response to Wrong’s (1961:191–92) erstwhile contention a keynote to “strike, strike, shut it down!” that humans are “social but not entirely social- Also illustrative of this dynamic are the ized,” we contend that protest events and their unplanned violent reactions to the actions of movement sponsors are organized but not protesters or counter-protesters, as occurred entirely organized. This is not to dismiss the on Bloody Sunday and during the 1968 Chi- organizational dimension of protests and social cago Democratic convention (Walker 1969).16 movements. Rather, it is to acknowledge and A fourth outcome of spontaneous confron- call for a more dialectical and interactionist tations is that they may affect planning and conception of the various factors at play in their negotiations for subsequent demonstrations, unfolding dynamics—a conception that focuses as we saw with the Klan rallies in Austin, on the interplay between spontaneity and Texas. Additionally, past collective actions, organization, rather than on their presumed whether planned or spontaneous, may func- antithetical opposition. tion as primers for future events. This occurred Our findings and conclusions are not only in the spontaneous “strike, strike, shut it consistent with the logic of grounded theory down” march and in the civil disorders of the on which they are based; they also are in 1960s, and it is likely the case with convivial keeping with the logic of qualitative compar- campus gatherings that may escalate into col- ative analysis (Ragin 2000), in as much as we lective violence (McCarthy, Martin, and identify a set of conditions under which spon- McPhail 2007). taneous collective actions are likely to occur

Downloaded from asr.sagepub.com at ASA - American Sociological Association on December 2, 2014 1140 American Sociological Review 79(6) and show that these conditions are not mutu- (McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001), The Blackwell ally exclusive but may interact and combine Companion to Social Movements (Snow, Soule, and Kriesi 2004), or The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia to increase the probability of the occurrence of Social & Political Movements (Snow et al. 2013). of such actions. Identifying precisely the Polletta’s (1998:137) analysis of black student sit- alternative pathways that can lead to different ins in the American south might be taken as an types of spontaneous collective actions exception to the neglect of spontaneity in movement remains to be done, but our analysis identifies studies, as she invokes spontaneity via the “meta- phors of wildfire, fever, and contagion.” However, empirically a set of precipitating conditions the question of whether there were moments of with which more refined empirical analyses spontaneity in the sit-ins is bypassed by attribut- might begin. Future analyses aside, our find- ing spontaneity to students’ accounting practices. ings call not only for reconsideration of the We do not take exception with Polletta’s empirical role of spontaneity in protests and move- observations, but we do think the analysis reflects the tendency for movement theorizing to be couched ments, but also for further recalibration of in binary terms: if there is evidence of planning and how it fits into theorizing about the dynamics organization, then reference to spontaneity is anti- of collective action more generally. Given our thetical other than as a narrating practice. conceptualization of spontaneity as rooted in 6. To accent the interactive interplay between organi- the intersection of symbolic interactionism zation and spontaneity is quite consistent with key organizing principles of symbolic interactionism and cognitive psychology, we believe our (see Snow 2001, especially pages 369–71). observations also apply to areas of inquiry 7. This interview was conducted as part of a separate beyond the study of collective action and thus project by the second author on the “Arab Spring call for empirical inquiry and theorization Abroad” (human subject approvals #2012-8887 and about the operation of spontaneity in the #2012-8918, University of California-Irvine). 8. We place riots in quotation marks because it is not course of everyday life. always clear that the collective actions to which the term is applied should be labeled as such. Even Acknowledgments though “most social scientists have an intuitive sense of what constitutes a riot,” Myers (2013:1124) Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2013 notes that “the edges of the definition are fuzzy,” meetings of the American Sociological Association in New often making it “difficult to determine whether or York, the UCLA Contentious Politics and Organizations not some events are actually ‘riots.’” Addition- Workshop, and the UCI Social Movements and Social ally, the term is sometimes used as a political label Justice Seminar. We are grateful for the helpful comments for contentious, unruly collective action engaged of the ASA session and seminar participants, as well as in by a challenging group or focuses attention on those from Jack Katz, John McCarthy, Clark McPhail, one segment of participants and implies something David Meyer, Charles Ragin, Edward Walker, Dingxin demeaning about them. Such concerns have been Zhao, and the ASR editors and anonymous reviewers. noted in relation to the “ghetto riots” of the 1960s in the United States (see Feagin and Hahn 1973: fn 4, vi–vii). Thus, we question the presumption that Notes riots constitute a pure or unambiguous form of col- 1. See Stinchcombe’s (2001) analysis of formality and lective action and contend that the term should be when it works or applies. used advisedly. 2. Kahneman (2011:13, 20) describes fast thinking as 9. The researchers included the first author and then- “spontaneous” and “intuitive” rather than delibera- graduate students Leon Anderson, Robert Benford, tive and operating “automatically and quickly, with and Steven Worden. little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.” 10. Also referred to as Londonderry (see also Conway As such, it happens in a “blink,” to use Gladwell’s 2010; Murray 2012; Pringle 2002). (2005) popularized metaphor. 11. This and the following quotes are from the Al 3. For concrete examples of these protest policing Jazeera English documentary Tweets from Tahrir styles, see McPhail, Schweingruber, and McCarthy (2012). (1998). 12. Gladwell (2005:114) provides an explicit example 4. See della Porta and Reiter (1998) and McCarthy in relation to basketball: “Basketball is an intricate, and McPhail (1998) for discussions of protest polic- high-speed game filled with split-second, spontane- ing in Europe and the United States. ous decisions. But that spontaneity is possible only 5. For example, spontaneity is neither discussed nor when everyone first engages in hours of highly listed in the index of the Dynamics of Contention repetitive and structured practice—perfecting their

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shooting, dribbling, and passing and running plays edited by D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, and H. Kriesi. over and over again—and agrees to play a carefully Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. defined role on the court.” Conway, Brian. 2010. Commemoration and Bloody Sunday: 13. See Lieberson and Silverman (1965) for analysis Pathways of Memory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. of precipitants of race riots from 1913 to 1963. For Davis, Gerald, Doug McAdam, W. Richard Scott, and additional summaries and assessment of research Mayer Zald. 2005. Social Movements and Organiza- on the ghetto riots of the 1960s, see Feagin and tion Theory. New York: Cambridge University Press. Hahn (1973) and McPhail (1994). Della Porta, Donatella and Olivier Fillieule. 2004. 14. Of the many sources on the shootings and the flow of “Policing Social Protest.” Pp. 217–41 in The Black- precipitating events, we draw from Scranton (1970) well Companion to Social Movements, edited by and Best (1978), which are primarily descriptive. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA: For more analytic accounts, see the third section of Blackwell Publishing. essays in Hensley and Lewis (1978). Della Porta, Donatella and Herbert Reiter, eds. 1998. 15. See also Feagin and Hahn (1973), Gould (1995), Policing Protest: The Control of Mass Demonstra- and Heirich (1971), although they do not accent tions in Western Democracies. Minneapolis: Univer- ecological factors as does Zhao. sity of Minnesota Press. 16. 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