Drawing from an analysis of the Tunisian political crises of 2013, Gallopin explains group formation and contentious mobilization in reaction to violence. He begins with the observation that processes of contentious escalation engage the definition of what constitutes the relevant actors: individuals mobilizing together broaden their relevant frame for action to a group with whom they identify. This point problematizes general accounts of mobilization that take groups for granted and anchors a line of inquiry focused on shifts in group boundaries as a prelude to action. Gallopin dissects a particular class of mobilization events: those which occur after public, symbolic acts of intergroup violence. He argues that violence has two main effects: it reinforces group boundaries associated with the act’s symbolism while weakening those made irrelevant by the act and generates negative emotions, which can provide a motivational basis for mobilization as a defensive display of solidarity.
Symbolic Violence, Shifts in Group Boundaries, and Contentious Mobilization: Tunisia in 2013
When well-attended, defensive mobilization fosters a sense of confidence and a perception of opportunity among contenders, facilitating further action.
The argument locates the emergence of coalitions of contention in the co-evolution of patterns of symbolic events, interpretation and action. In doing so it theorizes the effects of public violence, mediated by anger. It has broad implications for the study of social movements, community conflict, polarization, and descent into civil war.
Jean-Baptiste Gallopin received a PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 2019. His dissertation on the Tunisian revolution investigates what drives rebellion among armed forces during revolutionary uprisings, how old elites and revolutionary opposition come to a deal in the aftermath of an authoritarian breakdown, and how political violence affects political cleavages and contentious mobilization. In doing so, the dissertation theorized endogenous processes of political change which cast doubt on the explanatory value of dominant structural accounts of revolutionary outcomes. More recently, Gallopin researched the political dynamics of the Sudanese revolution for the United States Institute of Peace.