Associated research project
The project will explore the emergence, flourishing, and decline of a non-violent revolutionary frame that grew to dominate global discourse about change for several decades. Beginning with the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, through democratic change in Latin America, Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Eastern Europe, this era came to an abrupt end with the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine, along with the violent repression of the Arab Spring in Egypt and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong.
During those forty years, non-violence was more than just a tactic employed by protesters, as had been the case throughout the twentieth century. In fact, non-violence became an accepted frame for regimes as well, as authoritarians responded and even acceded to non-violence. Since 2014, protests against authoritarian regimes have not subsided, but no longer does non-violence have the persuasive force it enjoyed in the previous era. To understand how this era emerged, how it was experienced, and why it ended, I focus on the street-level experience of revolutions and consider how repertoires of protest changed over this era.
