The 2010s: A Decade of Riot and Protest

Abstract

The onset of the global economic crisis in 2008 has ushered in a new era of riot and protest. A timeline of significant episodes of what has been variously described as social contention (Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious politics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), insurgency, uprising, social movements, anti-capitalism, occupation (Badiou 2012; Chomsky, Occupy! London: Penguin, 2012) and even indignation (Hessel Indignez vous! Montpelier: Indigène editions, 2011) shows their scale reaching a peak in 2011, before dropping away but continuing in subsequent years on a higher plateau than the previous decade. This chapter presents a summary of the significant features of some of these events, and examines the contours of the UK 2011 riots and the US series of protests against police killings which began in August 2014 and continues at the time of writing.