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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @06:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the on-the-periphery dept.

The massive Arab Spring protests that began in late December 2010 and spread from North Africa to the Middle East generated huge crowds and had quick and profound effects—including the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who had held a firm grip on the country for decades.

Was this the work of people at the core of networks trying for years to create such a movement? Not according to research by Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld, assistant professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

In a paper published in American Political Science Review, Steinert-Threlkeld argues that individuals not central to a social network may be more responsible for generating collective action and driving protest than those at the center. Steinert-Threlkeld calls his theory of the periphery's ability to mobilize "spontaneous collective action."

"Protests occur as a result of decentralized coordination of individuals, and this coordination helps explain fluctuating levels of protest," Steinert-Threlkeld wrote.

[...] "Having someone tell you, 'Hey, I'm going to protest tomorrow' is much less impactful than having multiple people tell you they are protesting tomorrow," he said. Large groups of people, as opposed to a few central individuals, are able to discuss "where to go, how to get there, when to go," as well as what is going on once there, Steinert-Threlkeld added. In addition, individuals debating whether or not to protest must receive a credible signal that large numbers of people are protesting.

The Mubarak regime initially arrested the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood because it assumed they were the only ones able to organize such large protests.


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  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:21PM

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Wednesday May 03 2017, @02:21PM (#503641)

    https://archive.is/upjir#selection-365.1-365.155 [archive.is]
    http://archive.is/yDcdc [archive.is]

    http://www.appliedmemeticsllc.com/content/about [appliedmemeticsllc.com]

    This is one of several companies associated with CIA SIGINT, and was started by an agent of theirs in 2011 to do work in the middle east. Cross referencing employees, addresses, and phone numbers of that business from years back associates them with several other defense contractors. Note the highlighted portion of text in the first link. Yes indeed, it would seem that "individuals not central to a social network" may be responsible for what occurred there.

    This is just another MSM-fed good goy with a piece of paper that says he's enlightened trying (and apparently succeeding) to convince the populace that Obama/Killary were great, the CIA wasn't really involved in the area, and that this administration is responsible for the instablity the world is experiencing, not the globalists.

    Try again.

    Can't wait for people to call me a conspiracy theorist, when I'm the one who can provide business records, names, phone numbers, email addresses, and other evidence Wikileaks notwithstanding, and yet the "Reality" is the MSM story that Clinton and Obama are innocent just "because."

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