Authors: Professor Paula Jarzabkowski, Dr Corinne Unger, Dr Katie Meissner
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Against a backdrop of disruptive and sometimes violent protests on a range of causes globally, this thought leadership paper examines whether the social legitimacy of disruptive protests in Australia is in flux. Protesting is a widely accepted practice giving voice to those who may lack other forms of power, in democratic societies, including Australia. However, society criticises protests that become disruptive and spill over into violence. Hence we ask, how do different stakeholders perceive the social legitimacy of disruptive protests in Australia?
We apply a framework that explains how social movements can be legitimised, attracting widespread approval, or stigmatised, attracting profound disapproval. The dataset is comprised of the ten most disruptive protests in Australia from December 2019 to November 2022. These were COVID-19 and climate change related. 31 participants were interviewed during this research. They represent different stakeholders involved in, or impacted by, these protests. This data source is accompanied by media articles and parliamentary inquiries to extensively analyse the changing perceptions of disruptive protest. To track these perceptions, we build a dominant narrative from the data, that indicates what is widely considered to be a legitimate approach to protest and a counter-narrative that provides a rationale for disruption.
