From climate marches, Extinction Rebellion’s road blockades and the defacement of paintings to farmers’ protests and the ‘yellow vests’ movement, and from Black Lives Matter and Kick Out Zwarte Piet to the Nijmegen squatters’ group Jan10 and student protests in solidarity with Palestine: protest movements have been in the news with increasing frequency in recent years
At the same time, many of these movements, or their methods, are politically controversial: whilst judges are sometimes reluctant to impose overly harsh penalties on activists, there are calls, particularly from the political sphere, for stricter enforcement and heavier penalties for lawbreakers. At the same time, organisations such as Amnesty International and the National Ombudsman are increasingly concerned about the tendency of (local) authorities to curtail the right to demonstrate.
Partly as a result of this development, protest – in its many forms and expressions – is also increasingly the subject of social and academic debate. The aim of this valorisation project is to bring greater philosophical and historical depth to this debate. Why do people demonstrate? What different forms of protest are there? In what ways and under what conditions is protest permitted in the Netherlands? Why do people (not) take part in protest? How does it feel to be involved in (the preparation of) a protest action, and what strategic choices and moral dilemmas do you encounter in the process? What role does protest play in the local history of Nijmegen? What differences exist between protesting in different European countries? What potential impact does protest have in the longer term – at both local and transnational levels? And how, or on the basis of what criteria, do we ultimately assess the social significance or ‘success’ of protest movements?
This programme consists of a series of sessions using a variety of formats: lectures, debates and panel discussions, a city walk and an interactive role-play. The sessions are aimed at a non-academic but socially engaged audience who typically do not have much experience of activism or protest.
