The causes, content and consequences of repression: A framework for analyzing protest control in the counter-extremism era

ABSTRACT

Since the early 2000s, governments in many Western democracies have introduced policies and practices to prevent radicalization and violent extremism (PRVE). This has led to the formation of a new policy arena in which an increased number of actors are tasked with PRVE work. The diverse set of actors and methods involved affect social movements in new and complex ways, but also challenges the established knowledge and analytical focus of research on the repression of social movements. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework that attends to the causes, content and consequences of protest control. We use it to examine interaction between actors in the PRVE arena and to highlight issues that are underexplored in repression research. To elucidate these issues, we use empirical examples from our own research on measures to counter extremist milieus in the Nordic countries and the UK.

KEYWORDS:

• Repression
• Protest control
• Policing
• Social movements
• Radicalization
• Extremism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FORTE [2016-00925]; and the Norwegian Research Council [259541].

Notes on contributors

Rune Ellefsen

Rune Ellefsen is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department for Criminology and Sociology of Law at Oslo University in Norway. His research focuses on social movements, protest, the policing of protest and radicalization, as well as the phenomena of politically motivated crime and violence.

Jan Jämte

Jan Jämte is a political scientist and senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences at Örebro University in Sweden. His research focuses on social movements and the relationship between movements and institutionalized politics, as well as processes to counteract racism and segregation.