Section: Current Research
Current and Recent Research
This page describes ongoing research by Hugo Gorringe and Michael Rosie into the policing of 'crowd events', and in particular the inter-relation between political protest and protest policing. The research builds on our 2005 G8 Protest Research Project which led to five academic publications. Since the conclusion of that project we have been investigating innovation and reform in protest policing - in particular in the wake of the controversies over the policing of London's G20 protests in 2009. We are also interested in how police plan for 'crowd events' more generally.
RECENT ACTIVITY
A paper on Scottish perspectives on England's 2011 riots will be published in Scottish Affairs:
Michael Rosie & Hugo Gorringe (2011) 'It's Grim Down South: A Scottish Take On The "English Riots"', Scottish Affairs, 77
As the worst urban disorder in a generation played itself out across English cities, one issue preoccupied politicians, journalists and academics north of the Border: why had there been no riots in Scotland? The First Minister Alex Salmond was quick to make the point that Scotland was unaffected by the riots and continued to be ‘open for business’. Salmond and others pointed towards socio-cultural differences between the nations of the United Kingdom as partly explaining the differential spread of the disorder. Scotland also has distinct institutions with particular ways of doing things. Our Police respondents were quick to note that they ‘do things differently’ in Scotland. This paper takes these claims as its point of departure and offers an analysis of the ‘English riots’, the Scottish police and the extent to which Scotland is immune to the disorder south of the border.
Our paper on the policing of the 2009 NATO Parliamentary Assembly was published by Policing & Society in August 2011:
Hugo Gorringe, Michael Rosie, David Waddington & Margarita Kominou (2011) 'Facilitating Ineffective Protest? The Policing of the 2009 Edinburgh NATO protests', Policing & Society, 21 (4).
This paper reports on innovations in public order policing during the protests surrounding the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Parliamentary
Assembly in Edinburgh, November 2009. When masked anarchist protesters determined to ‘smash NATO’ gathered on the streets on the first morning of the Assembly, they were initially confronted by three plainclothes police negotiators rather than a line of riot police. In this paper, we draw on empirical data to offer an analysis of these developments and gauge the extent to which they meet the stated intentions of the police to ‘facilitate lawful protest’. Whilst welcoming the shift in attitudes and approach towards political protest, we argue that the accent on facilitation in this operation ultimately appeared neither innovative nor effective in practice and frequently reverted to styles of policing designed to contain protest.
The riots in some English cities in August 2011 saw an outpouring of comment. Our contributions can be found in the British Sociological Association's blog (Copping the Blame) and on the Australian academic forum The Conversation (Police anger after they cop the blame for English riots). We also contributed to reportage in The Guardian (08 August), Revista 22 (09 August), The Times (11 August), The Hindu (11 August), and O Estado de S.Paulo (14 August). Hugo Gorringe contributed to a live debate on the riots on BBC Newsnight Scotland on 10 August.
In March 2011 we observed South Yorkshire Police's liaison operation which facilitated peaceful protests around the Lib Dem Spring Conference in Sheffield. Later that month we observed a massive (and entirely good natured) TUC march and rally in London, as well as various 'actions' by peacful protestors - and some violent ones - which took place the same day in central London.
Our work on protest policing was featured in an interview in the Greek daily newspaper I Avgi (The Dawn) in November 2010.
We invited Dr Clifford Stott (University of Liverpool) to present at the Edinburgh Sociology seminar (details here) on 10 November 2010 - the day in which radical student activists occupied Millbank Tower in London.
We observed Strathclyde Police's preparations, planning for, and on-the-day policing of, Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Bellahouston Park in September 2010 (more information here)
We researched the Camp for Climate Action in Edinburgh, August 2010, and in particular the inter-play between direct action activism and 'liaison' police approaches.
Public Order Policing in Comparative Perspective - In May 2010 we organised and hosted a knowledge-exchange workshop co-sponsored by The Scottish Institute for Policing Research and The Public Policy Network. The workshop discussed current trends in public order policing and lessons from existing research and policing experience.
Along with Dave Waddington we observed the four days of protests surrounding the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Edinburgh in November 2009 (more information here). These protests were met by experimental efforts at 'protest facilitation' on the part of Lothian & Borders Police. Our study of this policing approach has led to two submitted journal articles.
In the wake of the G20 protests in London, 2009 we published a critique of the media's framing of a major protest event before and after the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson:
Michael Rosie and Hugo Gorringe (2009), 'What a Difference a Death Makes: Protest, Policing and the Press at the G20', Sociological Research Online, 14 (5), November
Abstract: The casual observer of the controversy over policing at April 2009's G20 summit in London might have been forgiven for imagining that Britain's media serves as a bulwark against the abuse of power, fearlessly illuminating and condemning injustice. The publication of video footage and eye-witness accounts to heavy-handed protest policing has certainly raised the profile of this issue and led, concretely, to formal investigation of both individual police officers and to policing strategies more broadly. In this paper we examine the policing of protest, and in particular 'anti-systemic' protest, but also examine the role of the newspaper media in the interplay between police and protest. We argue that the media has often fomented and ignored the very 'abuses' they are now so eager to condemn. The key difference between coverage of the 2009 G20 summit and past such events, we contend, is the tragic death of an innocent bystander which has shifted the way in which the media has framed events.
Keywords:G20, Policing, Protest, Media
This page was published on 13 October 2011