The illegality of the demonstration in Amsterdam in January 2022 perfectly illustrates protest dynamics in an unusual context. This analysis found no indication that the analytical aspects of the Amsterdam protest differed from past lawful protests overseas, but the micro-level risks of violent outbursts potentially vary; this could be a worry for future academic studies on protest dynamics. Using a variety of theoretical frameworks, I could show how the Amsterdam protest may be analyzed in terms of both visual data and a psycho-social study of the participants. Access to raw video data, such as CCTV footage and police video recordings, which may be provided to the city of Amsterdam, is essential to our investigation's ongoing development of analytical expertise. Despite its limits, this research attempted to explore the situational features of the anti-covid-19 restriction protest in Amsterdam on January 2, 2022, without any financing or governmental backing.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Method and data
Amsterdam, January 2022
Discussion
conclusion
Declaration
References
Introduction
Visual data analysis in micro-sociology of violence:
As a junior researcher in social and emotional sciences, like many others, I have been triggered by topics that evolve the violent dynamics, a challenge to understand violence as a concept and situate it on the physical and metaphysical designs. In Winter 2021, during a workshop in sociological methodologies at John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin, I got the opportunity of cramming visual data analysis as a methodological tool in micro-sociology. At that time, the covid restrictions were pressing the social life around the world, and for me, living in Europe observing the protests against the strict measurements of Covid-19 was an opportunity to reflect on the confrontation of the law enforcement and civilians not only in peaceful marches but violent clashes. (Martin 2021; Reuters 2022; Ruptly 2022a)
Vis-à-vis, the controversiality of the political conceptualization of violence, Randall Collins, in his prominent work on violence, demonstrates how the micro-sociology of violence is a vast situational confrontation. To further comprehend the theory, it is necessary to realize it situates an understanding of complex inter-Intrapersonal and organizational dynamics in micro-levels. He systematically categorized different types and stages of violent confrontations from full escalations in wars down to street protests, gang conflicts, and staged violence. In his theory, he argues that violence is usually a corridor of confrontational tension and fear despite the uncontrollable waves of anger and blusters. According to him, aggression does not lead to violence in most confrontational spaces due to the dominance of fear. If violence bursts out, it's usually very short in time, concerning the four-step timeline of the confrontational space. (Collins 2008) After scholars such as James's jasper image of protest violence laid on emotional affection and reactivity as two ends of the spectrum, Collins's pathway of confrontational tension and fear well explained "The attention space" and how violence is theorized as the domination of emotions. (Collins 2008; Collins 2016; Jasper 1998)
Following that, Anne Nassauer, in an extensive study on protest violence in the United States and Germany, argued the situational breakdown of violence in protests using visual data analysis. In her theory, three main corridors are defined as the main path to violence in protests to map the violent confrontation. (Nassauer 2019) The most common route focuses on the police management issues to show how it is an integral part of violent confrontation. Before police mismanagements, this theory recognizes the Incursion of the space as the main ground in all types of protest confrontation (Nassauer 2019; Nassauer 2021). Finding this view in the direct understanding of the anti-lockdown protests resulted in a limited analytical investigation presented in this visual research.
As mentioned, in 2020 and 2021, several protests against covid-19 restrictions and mandatory vaccination chanced in Europe and elsewhere; many ended up undergoing violent outbursts. (Reuters 2022) The method that examines and minimizes the primary intra-personal biases to research protests violence was to select a region where I, as the individual researcher, had no prior knowledge of the visual data or its linguistic analysis. The early step for case selection on anti-covid measurement protests was online data gathering as the purpose of content scholarship can be any source of recorded communication. (Mayring 2000) After the workshop on visual data analysis at JFKi, I began surfing a wide range of online visual material from different platforms. Acknowledging that there are different tiers of footage to be found online, I aimed only to surf the open-source materials gaining academic knowledge about the video material available to the public, free of charge, employing a computer and internet access to surf the worldwide web. (Video Data Analysis 2019b; Video Data Analysis 2019a)
Method and data
I used Google as one of the leading data platforms, and all the visual material for this research is selected from uploaded videos on YouTube. (Nassauer and Legewie 2021) Based on searchable video materials available online, the visual data on the subject was submitted through a step-by-step selection process for further analytical discussion. The video material used in this case study has the optimal capture required to validate them. Since the interest of the research is the situational dynamics of the protestors to spot spatial positions of the people during riots, wide frame shots with solid spatial reference points where required, and no close-up face footages were necessary for this research. After Including facial expressions, the right camera angle and resolution allows further analytical approaches in the micro-situational study of group dynamics during the protest. Still, no individual profiling is enlisted in this research. (Legewie and Nassauer 2018; Nassauer and Legewie 2022)
To develop an argument and make a reliable data pool for this case study, my reliance on freely available YouTube videos seemed to be a limitation. Since most material uploaded on YouTube is edited videos from organizations and news outlets with specific interests, small-N sampling with a costumed-made case selection yield better results to compile the primary pool of visual data. I will argue on emotional entrainments of police and protestors by using techniques of micro-sociology in violent confrontations to further break down the dynamics of conflict in this case study. The generalizability of the VDA sample is yet another concern to this research and its findings. This study conducts on a non-random sampling of video data and costume-made ready data on a specific case study and is not representative of a larger population; to remain as an experimental and limited sample study on protest dynamics. (Nassauer and Legewie 2022)
As mentioned above, optimal capturing is applied to test the validity of the data. The natural behavior of the people involved in the video material is only applicable to group dynamics, and individual acts are exempted due to both technical and ethical considerations as the participants are on an illegal protest scene and the material used is from the live event camera record. (Legewie and Nassauer 2018) Another limitation of this data gathering method is the systematic and inherent bias implemented in the video data gathered for the research. Most of these videos uploaded on YouTube reporting the anti-covid measurement protests in Europe are made and owned by news outlets. These videos are usually edited shorts aiming at a specific narrative and may not provide the video material suitable for this research analysis. (Nassauer and Legewie 2022) Based on the Google search I did in December 2021, the foremost circle of publicly available videos on YouTube seems to be agencies such as the BBC, VOA, The Telegraph, RT, RUPTLY, The guardian, sky news, etc. They uploaded countless video materials, mainly short videos, as a side product of their cable Tv productions.
Although discussing the issue of bias in the recorded material used in this research goes beyond the scope of this research, the reference video material studied in this research is selected from live video records on YouTube to avoid redundant edited narratives. (Nassauer and Legewie 2022) In this regard, the validity of the data is not thoroughly tested employing triangulation due to the limitations of material access. The extensive media coverage on violent incidents of the protest (Nassauer 2019) and the insignificant YouTube live streaming coverage of the entire demonstration is the principal to study the dynamics of violence breaking out on the day of protest in Amsterdam in January 2022. After collecting available material on google, I submit to collect ready-made data. (Nassauer and Legewie 2022) Like other researchers in this field, my primary reference source was YouTube. I designed a step-by-step data selection strategy, compiling a small pool of videos of anti-covid measurement protests. The used keywords are “anti-restriction,” “anti lockdown,” “anti-vax,” “the Netherlands,” “Protest,” “riot,” “police,” “violence.” The Online research was placed shortly after the protest day tween 5th to 10th of January, and the search filter for the date was January 2nd, 2022. The assumption was a guarantee of online access to the selected material on the platform, which in this case study, YouTube Deutschland turned down the protest videos from its platform. I will elaborate on this matter shortly. Yet, the cost-efficient modality of ready-made video data allowed me to study and observe materials of this research that could not happen otherwise.
A selective step-by-step search of online material with keywords related to riot and protest terminologies and the specific location of the study, which is the city of Amsterdam, was performed through web crawling and web scraping techniques to conduct sample data for this visual investigation. (Video Data Analysis 2019a) As mentioned, the material I used for this visual analysis was taken down from the YouTube platform in Deutschland when I was writing the final draft of this paper. It suggests possible limitations of the ready-made data sampling and unreliable availability of the research material on online platforms. In this research, this YouTube filtering causes address drift of YouTube videos. To address future studies, I cite the online material consisting of three selected videos of protests in Amsterdam launched by the media company RupTLY in references. (Ruptly 2022a; Ruptly 2022b; Ruptly 2022c)
Amsterdam, January 2022
It's morning, January 2nd. Amsterdam has been in lockdown under covid restrictions, and not more than two people can gather in public. A call was announced for a public demonstration in the center of Amsterdam city near "Van Gogh Museum" square. But the officials have strictly banned any gatherings in public spaces only a few days before Christmas. Amsterdam has already experienced demonstrations a year before protesting the strict corona measurements. People are now again appearing in the spaces around the Van Gogh Museum and the neighboring areas.
It looks like a typical day in January. Different groups of people join the rally near the city center in "Museumplein" and "Scenic Park" in Amsterdam. Even though people have been left with no choice but to spend their Christmas and new year holidays under strict Covid-19 measurements enforced by the Dutch authorities, they seem just happy to be out there meeting other people and having a picnic time. Some hold yellow umbrellas and flags, some play music and walk around. Very soon, the people go outnumbered, and more and more join from all directions. The day is not sunny, but it began calmly, and now a couple of thousand are gathered around the Van Gogh Square and the Museumplein. A group of about 30 activists covered in white with white face masks is walking around the Museumplein, showing their protest slogans printed on white papers.
On the other side of the square, on Vanbaerle street, in front of building number 52, the antiriot guards are positioned and have closed the direction from "Q-Park Museumplein" to "Paulus Potter" street. There is a small square space on the cross line between Van Baerle Street and Paulus Potter Street, and some police vans are parked there to close down the area. Even though the situation looks like a regular peaceful demonstration, everyone knows that any public gathering with more than two people is illegal. The police are in their strict arrangement and seem to be in charge. There is some side tension on the police Order-line in front of building number 52. A few young activists are shouting and trying to provoke the guards, but overall, the police seem confident and unwilling to respond. The situation goes tense minute by minute by getting close to signs of standoffs. Even though the police line of the shield seems to be under control, the front-line protestors continue pushing the officers and shouting at them from extremely close angles.
As one of the leading identity markers of the day, the white maskers are walking around the Scenic Park, slowly marching toward the police line of position on Van Baerle Street. Meanwhile, the situation in front of building number 52 is getting out of hand, and some ultra-activists of the front cluster manage to break the police line of shields; this is an apparent attack on the police line of order. The police tend to keep the order and begin clubbing some people. After some minutes of aggressive standoffs between police and protestors, the violence breaks out. In a matter of seconds, the police lose control of the shield line in front of building 52, and more protesters begin running to the other side of the police line of order.
In the moment of the attack between police and protesters, police excessive violence by using batons and dogs caused injuries to several protesters, and some 30 people got arrested; mentioning that reporting the accurate numbers and timing is not in the scope of this study. Now there is a crowd on the other side of the police shield line, and more people try joining them. The police line is surrendered and has lost its order. Here it is time to retreat, and visuals show the white maskers as Identity markers marching from the Scenic Park and Q-Park Museum to pass the broken police shield. A few minutes later, the white maskers and the identity markers are on the other side of the police position line, in front of building 50, and it's considered a complete victory. The crowd is clapping and cheering while the line of police has almost dissolved among the protestors.
The mapping of the anti-covid-19 restriction protest on January 2nd in Amsterdam was re-staged in four layers; standoffs, attacks, retreats, and victories, based on mapping the concept of emotional dominance by Randall Collins. The study focuses on the period from the beginning of the protest until the violence breaks outs, and most of this mapping happened toward the rally's start. After the victory stage, protestors continued marching to the ending line. Most of January 2nd was a day for the peaceful demonstration out of frustration from anti-covid-19 restrictions and mandatory vaccine regulations. As explained, only a few minutes after the rally, the violence broke out. The engagement map shows how the crowd densified, and the markers estimate the footprints of the white maskers as the leading identity markers.
[The map was removed by the editors for copyright reasons.]
Map of engagement.
January 2nd, 2022. The red Paykan's show the moving direction of white maskers during the last stages of protest until their victory demo in front of building number 50.
Discussion
By Checking the video data selected for the study, the situational space is the main controversy in its best example. On January 2nd, people are gathered in the city's center without face masks reacting against the covid-19 regulations. From the very beginning, the frustration of the strict rules is recognizable in the demo. Even though it's not identifiable like anger, the assumption is that many are on the verge of an aggressive, emotional threshold. The reason is the strict covid mandates for the public during the Christmas and new year holidays forcing them to a lockdown for about two weeks until the day of the protest. (Zaken 2021) At the beginning of January, protesters hassle the police and demonstrate their rights to live in the city and be present in that space. Anne Nassauer spots the similar phrasing in a recent article, "who's street? Our street"; where she discusses the space as a situation and how the negotiation on space formulizes the possibility of violent confrontation between negotiators. (Nassauer 2021)
The Amsterdam anti-covid-19 restriction protest on January 2nd is a unique example as the prior permission to be present on the protest location itself is one of the main demands; in other words, just the protest itself for the sake of protesting is what is banned from protesters. (Martin 2021) As the illegalization of peaceful gatherings and demonstrations is rare in countries with more democratic governments such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United States, etc., the anti-covid-19 restriction protests bring a unique understanding of protest confrontation and its dynamics in countries such as the Netherlands. One key point here is that any analytical data on a rally similar to the Amsterdam protest seems problematic in its form as the spatial negotiations between protesters and police and its possible conductions of protest violence may appear essentially irrelevant; if a demonstration is illegal, then it should not be organized; otherwise, it’s an unlawful act that needs to be stopped. This argument suggests that regardless of the circumstances, any form of spatial Incursion in such incidents is highly probable if not guaranteed. (Nassauer 2019)
To examine this, I combine prominent arguments by Mark Levine and his colleagues on psychological causes of violence, explaining the translation of aggression to violence and the theory of breaking down the protest's situational stressors by Anne Nassauer. First, according to Mark Levine in his work on collective action in the micro regulation of violence and the role of group size and third-party behavior in conflict resolution, aggressive incidents are situational in translating aggression to violence. He discusses that when the group size grows more extensive, the de-escalatory effects are more likely than escalatory outcomes even though the ability of the group to regulate aggression is not undermined; this growth solidifies the group's ability to demonstrate controlled aggression. (Levine, Taylor, and Best 2011) This argument confirms the Collins theory of violence, noting that anger, as an evolutionary emotion, is widespread, but human is not naturally keen on violence. In the case of confrontations, psychological stresses lead to incompetent violence. (Collins 2009)
Second, Anne Nassauer, in her work on situational space, argues that spatial negotiations during protests need to fit in the conceptual structure of spatial Incursion to cause Spatial Incursion. (Nassauer 2021) In the Amsterdam protest, any possible situation was already within the frame of spatial Incursion because protesters entered the no-protest zone, the city of Amsterdam, the indicator of the Spatial Incursion in the primary level. On the secondary level, protestors advanced into police space which could be anywhere in the city, indicating that any type of demonstration and move in groups of more than two people is illegal on that day. Lastly, according to authorities, organizing any rally is unlawful; all protestors turn to possible perpetrators. As mentioned, even though the protesters are already in the no-protest zone, there is no visible sign of police aggression or violence in the visual data until the police positions a shield line in front of building number 52. According to the graphic material, the tension rises only after police actively block the protestors' space. The police block shield is an escalatory strategy with a transitory effect to translate aggression to violence by blocking protesters marching direction. According to Mark Levine, in natural conflict resolution, understanding violence in the context of social psychology and group's identity happens through leaders, as they transmit the norms and values to the group; During the Amsterdam protest, protesters organically outnumbered the police quickly. During the standoffs of the rally, the active protester's escalatory behavior heads the protest toward escalation resulting in the situational breakdown of violence at some minutes of the protest. After minutes of aggressive standoffs led by different groups of activists in front of building 52, the violence breaks out while the protest is in a state of forwarding panic. (Nassauer 2019; Collins 2008)
Based on the arguments by Nassauer, forward panic is the unique two-staged phase where the moment of trigger occurs and results in turning the power balances between the opposing sides. (Nassauer 2019) In the Amsterdam protest, police kept the order until the moment of forward-panic, and at this moment, it lost its charge and reacted violently in an already aggressive standoff. But even though the protester's group size was outnumbered compared to the police, the violence outbreak remained minimal on the protestors’ side. It turned conciliatory to bring aggression under control. (Levine, Taylor, and Best 2011) The video data shows that this conciliatory behavior increased only after brutal moments of the clash between police and protesters, recognizable by the public and media as the day's pictures. In transitory moments of escalated conflict between police and protesters, police excessive violence using batons and dogs becomes the main feed for the news outlets. (Nassauer 2019)
In the visual data available from the Amsterdam protest, the identity markers of the rally in the first hours of the demonstration could be categorized into three main groups: the white maskers, a group of marines appearing in their uniform's coats, and casually dressed activists who later hold the standoffs. These three groups have situational influences (Krause et al. 2021) on each other, and other protesters staged in four parts of confrontation. The white maskers appear from the early hours while holding slogans in their hands, presenting their message to the public eye. Even though the police forces were ready in the Museum square from the early hours of the day, only later and by strict positioning of a police shield line in front of building number 52, the casually dressed activists gathered in a standoff line before the police order line right in front of the building number 52.
During the standoff, a few active protesters show signs of aggression. The surrounding protesters are emotionally involved in this confrontation. Shortly after that, the riot turns to a full attack from both sides, the protesters and police. In these brief moments, the casually dressed activists show violent behavior, which leads the surrounding protestors to emotional entrainment. Many began running and breaking the police shield line. The police order collapsed, and the response was the police violence, attacking people with batons and dogs. Right after that, the retreatment time was when police attempted to find its order but failed as the protesters were already outnumbered.
At this time, other identity markers; the marines, appeared in the first line of confrontation and, by making a human corridor, helped to deescalate the tension and lead the white maskers to pass the police broken shield of building number 52 to the other side of the street in front of building number 50. It is the victory stage. Different groups of activists gather in front of building number 50, and the white maskers stand in the center of the crowd to show their victory. Soon after this, the police broken shield line fully dissolved, and thousands of protestors passed building number 52 in a peaceful march toward the ending direction.
Conclusion
The Amsterdam protest in January 2022 brings a typical example of protest dynamics to an atypical situation due to its illegality. This study did not find a shred of evidence that the analytical qualities of the Amsterdam protest differ from other legal demonstrations elsewhere, although the micro-level chances of violent outbursts might differ; to be a concern of future scholarly works on protest dynamics.
I have demonstrated the map of engagement in the Amsterdam protest, applying different theories indicating how these theories plot a solid understanding of the Amsterdam protest, accompanying each other in visual data and psycho-social analysis of the event. To further develop the analytical knowledge of this investigation, access to the raw video data such as CCTV footage and police video records of the protest, which may be available to the municipality of Amsterdam, is crucial. This study did not receive any funding or governmental support and, within its limitations, tried to understand the situational aspects of the Amsterdam anti-covid-19 restriction demonstration on January 2nd, 2022.
Declaration
The author declared no potential conflict of interest concerning this article's authorship or future publications.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the main topic of this document?
The document focuses on visual data analysis in the micro-sociology of violence, using a case study of anti-COVID-19 restriction protests in Amsterdam in January 2022.
What is the research methodology used?
The research utilizes visual data analysis (VDA) of online video materials, primarily from YouTube, to examine the situational dynamics of violence during the protest. The data gathering focuses on open-source material freely available to the public. The selection of the material uses the optimal capture in order to validate them.
What are the limitations of the study?
The study acknowledges limitations such as reliance on freely available YouTube videos (which may be edited and biased), the non-random sampling of video data, the address drift of YouTube videos, the systematic and inherent bias implemented in the video data gathered for the research, the ethical considerations around individual acts and technical considerations around participants on an illegal protest scene. The validity of the data is not thoroughly tested employing triangulation due to the limitations of material access.
What keywords are used to find videos of the anti-covid demonstration in Amsterdam?
The keywords used for online research included: “anti-restriction,” “anti lockdown,” “anti-vax,” “the Netherlands,” “Protest,” “riot,” “police,” “violence.”
What are the key events that lead to the breaking out of violence during the anti-Covid demonstration?
The study maps the protest in four stages: standoffs, attacks, retreats, and victories. The tension rises after police actively block the protestors' space. After minutes of aggressive standoffs led by different groups of activists in front of building 52, the violence breaks out. Forward panic, spatial Incursion, and police action contribute to escalating the situation.
What is the map of engagement?
The map of engagement is a visual representation of the protesters' movements and interactions during the anti-covid demonstration. It tracks the areas of conflict and the directions of the police shield line. It shows how the crowd densified, and estimates the footprints of the white maskers as the leading identity markers.
What are the different groups of protesters?
The different groups of protesters are categorised into three main groups: the white maskers, a group of marines appearing in their uniform's coats, and casually dressed activists who later hold the standoffs.
What theories does the paper discuss?
The document applies micro-sociological theories of violence by Randall Collins, combined with protest violence theory by Anne Nassauer and psychological group dynamics by Mark Levine.
What is the main conclusion of the study?
The study concludes that the Amsterdam protest in January 2022, despite its illegality, exhibits typical protest dynamics. The study suggests that the Amsterdam protest does not differ from other legal demonstrations. To further develop the analytical knowledge of this investigation, access to the raw video data such as CCTV footage and police video records of the protest is crucial.
- Quote paper
- Navid Ghadimi (Author), 2022, Emotional Entrainment and Protest Violence. A visual case study of Anti-covid protest in Europe, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1267076
