Deana A. Rohlinger, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. She authored an article in the American Behavioral Scientist titled, “Protest During a Pandemic: How Covid-19 Affected Social Movements in the United States.” The following summary was written by FSU student Zachary Winiecki (M.S. Media and Communication Studies ‘23).
Deana A. Rohlinger, Ph.D., authored the article, “Protest During a Pandemic: How Covid-19 Affected Social Movements in the United States,” to investigate how a global health crisis affects the causes and consequences of social movements.
Dr. Rohlinger looked at the different responses to the COVID-19 pandemic from movements on the right and left of the political spectrum. She found the pandemic sped up the pace of symbolic political change.
Her findings indicated that on the left specifically, protests briefly pushed cities and states to reimagine public safety and to address totems of racism in statehouses, on television, and in sports, while on the right, politicians, and Donald Trump in particular, blurred the lines between institutional politics and activism, challenging the legitimacy and authority of the state.
“This research is important because it systematically identifies how a pandemic changes the claims, tactics, and effectiveness of movements,” Dr. Rohlinger said.
According to the article, policy change is often slow and incremental, but social movements can occasionally speed up the pace of this change. Though this rarely occurs in conditions of their own making, such as a pandemic.
The paper also stated that typically activists try to take advantage of events, elections, and shifting alliances to push forward their goals. But in this case, COVID-19 disrupted the normal operations of political institutions, which created new opportunities for social movements. Events like protests during such a crisis can reframe national conversations and spur policy processes as well as symbolic change.
It concludes that while these consequences are not specific to a pandemic the speed at which change occurs may be. The capture and focus of public attention is unique.
Previous media coverage, press releases, emails, and other available primary data sources were important to establishing the framework for understanding the effect of a global health crisis on social movements.
Dr. Rohlinger believes the next phase of research in this area is to assess the longer-term effects of large-scale crises, such as pandemics, on social movements and democratic processes.