ABSTRACT
On 5 June 1832, in France, Parisian students rose in rebellion against the king. The revolt, which was described by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables, was an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the monarchy. In the years between 1960 and 1970, waves of protest swept across Europe and the USA, leading to important historical and political changes. More recently, in 2010, over 130,000 British students took part in protests against Parliament’s decision to increase university fees. A few weeks later, a series of insurgencies spread through the Middle Eastern countries, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. During 2013, other major political actions have taken place in Brazil and Turkey, whereby thousands of people took to the streets demonstrating against their governments. As this very limited list suggests, protest, riots and social movements are ubiquitous across history and locations and their occurrence is becoming increasingly frequent (Snow, Soule, & Kriesi, 2004).
