New preprint (with @profjohndrury.bsky.social ) on prefigurative politics in Chile’s 2019 social explosion, based on interviews with participants in demonstrations and cabildos🧵:
Interested in the psychology of disruptive behaviour at music events? Well have a read of this. Highlights include me, @lewisdoyle.bsky.social & @sanjeedah.bsky.social throwing ourselves around in mosh pits for science (plus in-depth interviews & a big old survey). dx.doi.org/10.1111/asap...
Contemporary mobilisations increasingly confront existing power structures while experimenting with alternative social relations – a dynamic often discussed as prefigurative politics. Yet social psychological research on collective action has prioritised explaining why people participate, paying l...
This points to a broader shift for social psychology: collective action participation is not only something to be predicted from prior beliefs and states — it is a site where identities, empowerment, and social change are produced in practice.
In many contemporary uprisings, people don’t just confront power — they do so while also organising participatory assemblies, caring for each other, and making decisions horizontally.
Acting together made alternative social relations feel feasible, compelling, and widely shared, reshaping how participants engaged in the struggle — from opposing the existing order to enacting the kind of society they sought.