Diffusion processes and unfavourable opportunity structures – the case of Black Lives Matter mobilisations in Poland

ABSTRACT

In Poland, as in many other countries, BLM protests were organised in mid-2020. Even though the BLM mobilisation in Poland was small compared to many Western European societies, it is remarkable that it took place in spite of the unfavourable opportunity structures, including the regressive mainstream under the current right-wing government. The most important success of the mobilisation was the new initiation of a debate on racial discrimination against Black people in Poland. The article studies the question of how the protest diffused as well as the commonalities and differences amongst activists. Our analysis pays particular attention to the two major obstacles to mobilisation: (1) a relatively small minority of People of Color (PoC) and their lack of visibility, resulting in low public sensitivity to racial discrimination; (2) the traditional closed culture for debate on issues of racism. Consequently, the Polish BLM organisers adapted core problem definitions by de-racializing experiences of discrimination.

KEYWORDS:

• Black Lives Matter
• Poland
• diffusion
• protest
• social movements
• racism

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under Grant 01UL1816X; and Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth under Grant 1100011_4.