From Protest Event to Protest Wave: A Theoretical Appraisal on the World-Historical Perspective

For a long time social movement studies are strongly influenced by the geographical and historical points of reference. Empirically, most social movement theories have been generated from case studies of short-term mobilization activity in the global North. Methodologically, the study of social movements is overwhelmingly characterized by case-oriented studies. However, one of the most fundamental characteristics about social movement is the ‘connectedness,’ both temporally and spatially, of collective actions with each other. This leads us to draw on a theoretical approach that attempts to identify similar processes and dynamics that operate in diverse cases of contention. “Protest waves” as understood in this manner offer us the possibility of constructing a systemic analysis that could identify and then particularly explain contention processes in the global South as a whole. The strength and diversity of participating groups in a protest wave are apparently shaped by a country’s specific characteristics and its location in the world-economy structure. These kinds of linkages allow us to pinpoint shared political-economic attributes and structures that are conductive to the outbreak of popular contention by large numbers of people in the global South. Examining contentious protests within the world-historical perspective offers a path to understanding the continuation of struggles and how periods of contention may be just the one wave in a larger sea of long-term resistance. What is particularly crucial to determine is how diverse social movements affect each other and interact with the structures that they are decomposing and transforming. This heuristic characteristic of collective action has an elective affinity with the concept of protest wave, which points out the connectedness of each protest cross over time and space in the global South.