We're tackling these complex questions around social movement impacts and success factors using a cluster-thinking approach, where we try approach our research question from many different angles. See our various projects below.
Our Work
What makes a protest movement successful?
January 2023
Social Change Lab undertook six months of research looking into what makes a protest movement successful. We examine factors such as numbers, nonviolence, diversity, external factors, the radical flank effect, and more. We conducted this research using a range of methods: literature review, public opinion polling, expert interviews and a case study.
You can also read a Google Docs version of the full report, as well as a summary blog post
December 2022
We conducted two longitudinal and nationally representative surveys (N=1415), using YouGov, to understand whether a Just Stop Oil campaign had any impact on support for or identification with more moderate climate organisations. This was for the November 2022 Just Stop Oil campaign targeting the M25 motorway. In this polling, we detected a positive radical flank effect, whereby increased awareness of Just Stop Oil resulted in increased support for and identification with Friends of the Earth.
October 2022
A literature review of existing sociological and political science literature on success factors for protest movements. We examine work primarily looking at nonviolence, numbers, the radical flank effect, and external contextual factors.
November 2022
A case study looking at the successes, potential shortcomings and lessons from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an animal rights campaign in the 2000s. We identify some key reasons why they achieved significant successes, as well as potential reasons that led to their later decline.
October 2022
We conducted 2 x 1,500 person longitudinal and nationally representative public opinion polls before and after a major animal advocacy campaign in the UK, organised by Animal Rebellion.
October 2022
This report presents results from an informal survey of 16 individuals across 13 grassroots social movement organisations, (SMOs) focusing on climate and animal advocacy. We discuss the key limiting factors of these SMOs, as well as recommendations for how funders or external actors can support them.
Protest Movements: How effective are they?
July 2022
Social Change Lab undertook six months of research looking into the outcomes of protests and protest movements. In this report, we synthesise our research, which we conducted using various research methods, such as literature reviews, public opinion polling, expert interviews, policymaker interviews and a cost-effectiveness analysis. We focus specifically on examining the impact of protest movements on public opinion, policy change, public discourse and media coverage, voting behaviour, and corporate behaviour.
You can also read a Google Docs version here.
July 2022
We interviewed 3 UK Civil Servants to understand the impact of protest movements on UK policymaking. We wanted to elicit questions such as
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What role do protest movements play in policymakers' perceptions of public opinion?
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Why do some social movements seem to be more successful in influencing policy?
See an analysis of our interviews here and our full summary notes of our conversations here.
May 2022
We conducted 3x 2,000 person nationally representative public opinion polls before, during and after a major protest campaign in the UK, Just Stop Oil. Despite disruptive protests, there was no loss of support for climate policies, providing some evidence against the notion that disruptive protests tend to cause a negative public reaction. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the protests had increased respondents’ self-perceived likelihood of participating in environmental activism (p=0.09)
July 2022
We've interviewed 12 academics and movement experts to elicit answers to questions that we believe are not yet answered in existing literature. Examples include:
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How important are external factors relative to a movement's own strategy and tactics?
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To what degree does existing literature generalise to other countries, issues or time periods?
See full summary notes from our conversations here.
A literature review of existing sociological and political science literature on movement outcomes. We examined outcomes ranging from policy change, public opinion shifts, voting behaviour, public discourse, and corporate behaviour.
April 2022