@article{ref1,
title="Reclaiming the everyday: the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots",
journal="Social movement studies",
year="2018",
author="Tiratelli, Matteo",
volume="17",
number="1",
pages="64-84",
abstract="This paper examines the situational dynamics of the 2011 London Riots. The empirical contribution is to challenge the dominant explanation of the riots as an outbreak of 'criminal opportunism'. I use the Metropolitan Police record of all riot-related crimes in London to test several hypotheses and show that this 'criminal opportunism' theory cannot account for the riots' spatial patterning. This opens space for alternative explanatory mechanisms. I then use video footage and testimonies of events on the ground to examine the interactions which made up the London Riots. These suggest that the riots were, in part, a way for people to stake a claim to the public spaces in which they lived, to reclaim the everyday. Theoretically, this builds on Randall Collins's 'micro-situational' approach to violence but extends it by embedding historical and structural factors into that micro-perspective. Specifically, the emotional dynamics of these riot interactions cannot be understood without acknowledging participants' pre-existing expectations of the police and of the everyday places of the riot.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1474-2837",
doi="10.1080/14742837.2017.1348942",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2017.1348942"
}