Patterns of adaptation and recontextualisation: The transnational diffusion of Black Lives Matter to Italy and Germany

ABSTRACT

Following the killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, a wave of ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) protests swept the globe, including most European countries. In this article, we provide a detailed comparative empirical account of the transnational diffusion of BLM protests from the USA to Italy and Germany. Shedding light on BLM mobilisations outside the USA, we complement theoretical reflections on protest diffusion by inquiring how the interplay of previously existing structural and contingent conditions influence such processes. The main theoretical contribution is hence singling out how some specific characteristics in the receiving context affect the diffusion process. Drawing from quantitative and qualitative data on the protest wave in the two countries, this research points at how, during episodes of cross-national diffusion of contentious politics, the triggering event reshaped existing social movement families in similar directions in different contexts. At the same time, however, it also points at differences in the ways in which existing actors adapt ideas coming from outside, through a mechanism of recontextualisation and adaptation. While the construction of similarities is crucial in distant contexts and cases of thin diffusion, specific national characteristics continue to play a prominent role in shaping diffusion processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Social movements
• protest
• diffusion
• racism
• Black Lives Matter
• Germany
• Italy

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Thin diffusion is characterised by a lower level of organisational transnationalisation and a greater role of digital platforms in networking decentralised activists without close personal or organisational ties (della Porta & Mattoni, 2014, p. 285 f.).

2 We refer to ‘symbolic actions’ for elements of protest activities, which did not constitute the main form of action, yet were used additionally, such as kneeling, wearing black, or raising one fist.

3 As any newspaper based content analysis, our protest mapping is subject to reporting biases or missing values for specific features of protest (Earl et al., 2004). Yet protest event analysis remains to date the most reliable method to conduct comparative analyses on protest patterns. Furthermore, since we have applied the protest mapping procedure in both countries consistently, we expect the potential bias to be consistent across the two cases. With a view to missing value biases related to differences in reporting, we have limited our analysis to features of protest, which are particularly likely to be reported in the news, for example, number of participants, organizer, and claims. More specific features (such as wearing black or kneeling are less likely to be reported in short articles and are therefore not included in the quantitative analysis).

4 For this kind of action, they needed the consent of local governments, that in some cases (at least initially) was denied (for instance in Milan and Rome).

5 Indro Montanelli was a famous Italian journalist, conservative if not reactionary but in the last stage of his career anti-Berlusconi. He had been a volunteer in the fascist war of aggression against Ethiopia, negated the use of poisonous gas by Italian troops, and according to his own autobiographical writings during his stay in Ethiopia bought an Ethiopian girl (a minor) as a sex slave CNN (2020). In their pamphlets, activists referred in particular to the latter episode. Representatives of the association of Italian partisans (ANPI) also underlined the allegedly systematic denigration of Italian partisans by Montanelli.

6 A special situation existed in areas of Italy inhabited by ‘historical’ minorities, in particular Sardegna and Alto Adige/Südtirol. Here Black Lives Matter protests were connected with claims against Italian colonialism and fascism and for cultural selfdetermination. In Cagliari, activists targeted the statue of Carlo Felice, whose authoritarian and rigid rule as Vice King of Sardinia had led to him being known as ‘Carlo Feroce (ferocious)’. One of the BLM-events in Sassari was organised under the motto ‘Black lives matter – Sardinian lives matter;’ a banner on the left side of the stage carried the inscription ‘Black lives matter – no justice no peace,’ a second banner on the right side of the stage said ‘Savoia assassini di Sardi – Sardinian lives matter.’ In the parliament of the autonomous province of Bolzano/Bozen, the motion of a German speaking party, denouncing monuments celebrating Italian victories in the Ethiopian war and other fascist relics, led to a controversial debate and was approved only partially.

7 With Black People and People of Colour (BPoC), we refer to groups that are racialised and marginalised based on their (ascribed) ethnic, religious and/or cultural origins (Hamann & Lemberg, 2010).

8 See https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b59cc.html.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by German Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend: [Grant Number 3921405RAM].