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On the role of a social identity analysis in articulating structure and collective action: the 2011 riots in Tottenham and Hackney

Stott

On the role of a social identity analysis in articulating structure and collective action: the 2011 riots in Tottenham and Hackney Thumbnail


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Abstract

Theoretical perspectives that give primacy to ideological or structural determinism have dominated criminological analysis of the 2011 English ‘riots’. This paper provides an alternative social psychological perspective through detailed empirical analysis of two of these riots. We utilize novel forms of data to build triangulated accounts of the nature of the events and explore the perspectives of participants. We assert these riots cannot be adequately understood merely in terms pre-existing social understandings and political realities and that identity-based interactional crowd dynamics were critically important. The paper demonstrates the value of the social identity approach in providing criminological theory with a richer and deeper perspective on these complex social phenomena.

Acceptance Date Mar 14, 2016
Publication Date Apr 8, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal The British Journal of Criminology: an international review of crime and society
Print ISSN 0007-0955
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 965-981
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azw036
Keywords 2011 riots, social identity, crowds, social structure, ideology
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azw036

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