Constructing collective identity in the interaction of protests and counter-protests in online environments
Valeria Koncha and Andrei Akhremenko spoke about their research
In contemporary realities, counter-protests have become a common response to protest movements around the world. The key to understanding how opposing sides behave in this protest-counterprotest interaction lies in how the collective identities of the participants are constructed.
Collective identities are constructed in relation to the identity of the out-group. Before the emergence of counter-protests, the image of the "other" was attributed exclusively to the authorities. However, it remains unclear how collective identities change when a protest encounters a counter-protest movement.
The pilot study and the development of quantitative tools to measure collective identities along several dimensions were presented at the seminar of the lab by Valeria Koncha and Andrei Akhremenko.