Where Protest takes place - Towards a regional comparative perspective on local protest dynamics
 

PhD project of Philipp Srama, Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Haunss und Prof. Dr. Sophia Hunger

Protest is an expression of political and societal conflict. Although it is vital for democratic negotiation processes, we know little about how protest dynamics unfold comparatively in different local contexts. Existing research primarily focuses on national dynamics, singular protest waves and movements, or transnational contexts. One reason is that suitable data has long been unavailable at local and regional levels. However, recent methodological advances, particularly in computational social science, now enable fine-grained regional analyses of protest and media data over longer periods of time. Against this backdrop, my dissertation aims to analyze local protest dynamics in Germany from a comparative regional perspective, answering the question: How do protest dynamics unfold differently across local contexts as the political conditions constantly change?

My dissertation project starts from the premise that political conflict is increasingly shaped by geospatial contexts, most prominently along the urban–rural divide. My aim is to identify patterns of protest across regions and over time, and to examine how protest is articulated, interpreted, mediated, and responded to in different local contexts. Building on recent research, the local context is understood as the sum of social, economic, infrastructural, and political conditions and as a constitutive element of mobilization processes. To capture local protest dynamics through a geospatial lens, I analyze multiple dimensions of the protest arena, including mobilization patterns, issue-specific waves, and political as well as discursive responses.

Methodologically, I primarily rely on quantitative approaches from computational social science and draw on large-scale text data based on German local newspapers. More precisely, I combine automated protest event data with different forms of text analysis, including the study of claims, discourses, and thematic structures. At the same time, I approach data and measurements critically, addressing biases and limitations to ensure context-sensitive interpretations.