Abstract
This chapter explores perspectives of ordinary people from Greece, Russia, Serbia, and Slovenia on the individual’s right to protest against war and in favor of peace, as well as different kinds of personal agency displayed in qualitative responses to a scenario in which police are described as beating peaceful protesters. Adopting Bronfenbrenner’s ecological approach, we first overview these countries’ recent history of conflict within and around their borders and their protests experiences as parts of the macrosystems in which views concerning the right to protest were shaped. Then, we examine patterns of responses to the right protest and to the police beating scenario using coding manuals informed by Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement and his notion of agency. We also investigate several contextual factors from the different ecological levels to see if they contributed to differences in perspectives. Greeks, Russians, Serbians, and Slovenians provided responses that their great majority supported the right to protest and expressed prosocial agency in the view of aggression. Implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashy, M. A., & Malley-Morrison, K. (2007). Attitudes towards war in the Middle East from an extremist moral perspective. International Psychology Bulletin, 11, 8–11.
Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration on inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209.
Bandura, A. (2002). Selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Moral Education, 31(2), 101–119.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brygalina, J., & Temkina, A. (2004). The development of the feminist organizations in St. Peterburg 1985–2003. In A. Castren, M. Lonkila, & M. Peltonen (Eds.), Between sociology and history. Essays on microhistory, collective action, and nation building (pp. 207–226). Helsinki: SKS.
Carassava, A. (2011, March 21). Protests spike in Greece as government weighs support of attack on Libya. AolNews. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/21/protests-spike-in-greece-as-government-weighs-support-of-attack/
Carlson, M., & Listhaug, O. (2007). Citizens’ perceptions of human rights practices: An analysis of 55 countries. Journal of Peace Research, 44(4), 465–483.
Christie, D. J., Tint, B. S., Wagner, R. V., & Winter, D. D. (2008). Peace psychology for a peaceful world. American Psychologist, 63(6), 540–552.
Cohrs, C. J., & Boehnke, K. (2008). Social psychology and peace. Social Psychology, 39(1), 4–11.
Daskalopoulos, M. D., & Tsatsaroni, C. A. (2009). Greece. In K. Malley-Morrison (Ed.), State violence and the right to peace: An international survey of the views of ordinary people (pp. 79–98). Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Deutsch, M. (1999). Hope with optimism: A commentary a Brewster Smith’s article. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 5, 17–21.
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocol No. 11 (1970). Article 11. Retrieved May 13, 2011, from http://www.unhcr.org/refwrld/docid/3ae6b3b04.html
Giles, C. (2007, March 18). Anti-war protests in Spain, Turkey, Greece. Mail & Guardian Online. Retrieved March 17, 2011, from http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=302298&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news_international_news/
Gilguan, J. F. (2005). Qualitative research and family psychology. Journal of Family Psychology, 19(1), 40–50.
Gilgun, J. F. (2004). Deductive qualitative analysis and family theory-building. In V. Bengston, P. Dillworth Anderson, K. Allen, A. Acock, & D. Klein (Eds.), Sourcebook of family theory and research (pp. 83–84). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Glaser, B. (1992). Basics of grounded theory analysis: Emergence vs. forcing. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory. Chicago: Aldine.
Greece. (2008, May 27). The constitution of Greece-Article11 (Rev. ed.). Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.hri.org/docs/syntagma/
Green, P.S. (2003, March 22). War is Seen Influencing Slovenia’s Vote on NATO. The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/22/world/war-is-seen-influencing-s-vote-on-nato.html
Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research. (2011). Conflict barometer 2006. Heidelberg, Germany: Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research. Retrieved June 1, 2011, from http://www.hiik.de/en/konfliktbarpmeter/pdf/ConflictBarometer_2006.pdf
Ingram, M. (1999, May 3). Greece: Antiwar protests intensify. World Socialist Website. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/grk-m03.shtml
Iraq War: Ljubljana Joins Anti-War Protests-500 to 1,000 Attend Rally (2003, March 20). STA. Retrieved June 1, 2011, from http://www.sta.si/en/vest.php?s=a&t=0&id=720609
Jayaratne, T. E., Flanagan, C., & Anderman, E. (1996). Predicting college student attitudes toward the Persian Gulf War: The role of gender and television exposure. Peace and Conflict; Journal of Peace Psychology, 2(2), 151–171.
Kornetis, K. (2010). No more heroes? Rejection and reverberation of the past in the 2008 events in Greece. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 28(2), 173–197.
Lakoff, G. (2002). Moral politics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
LaRossa, R. (2005). Grounded theory methods and qualitative family research. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 837–857.
Lonkila, M. (2008). The internet and anti-military activism in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 60(7), 1125–1149.
Malley-Morrison, K., Daskalopoulos, M., Gefter, J., Wenger, J., Hashim, K., Seichepine, D., et al. (2006). International perspectives on war and peace. Peace Psychology, 15(1), 6–7.
Malley-Morrison, K., Oh, D. Y., Wu, T., & Zaveri, T. (2009). Moral disengagement and engagement. Beliefs and Values, 1(2), 151–167.
McCarthy, S., Tochilnikova, E., & Medvedeva, A. (2009). Russia. In K. Malley-Morrison (Ed.), State violence and the right to peace: An international survey of the views of ordinary people (pp. 59–77). Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Miheljak, V., & Polic, M. (2009). Slovenia. In K. Malley-Morrison (Ed.), State violence and the right to peace: An international survey of the views of ordinary people (pp. 25–40). Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Molotsky, I. (1999, May 2). The World: War protesters keep their powder dry. New York Times. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/02/weekinreview/the-world-war-protesters-keep-their-powder-dry.html
Nikolayenko, O. (2007). The revolt of the post-Soviet generation: Youth movements in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine. Comparative Politics, 39(2), 169–188.
Petrovic, N., Pota, K., & Castanheira, H. (2009). Serbia. In K. Malley-Morrison (Ed.), State violence and the right to peace: An international survey of the views of ordinary people (pp. 41–58). Westport, CT: Praeger Security International.
Protests around the World and at Home Stay Mobilized against U.S./NATO in Yugoslavia: International Actions. (2000, March 24). International Action Center. Retrieved March 13, 2011, from http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/yugdemo2.htm
Salmenniemi, S. (2008). Democratization and gender in contemporary Russia. London/New York: Routledge.
Schwebel, M. (2005). Peace activism and courage. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 11(4), 397–408.
Serbia Libya Protest. (2011, February 28). Breitbart. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from http://photos.silive.com/advance/2011/03/serbia_libya_protest.html
Sorensen, M. J. (2008). Humor as a serious strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppression. Peace & Change, 33(2), 167–189.
The Republic of Serbia. (2006, September 30). The constitution of the Republic of Serbia- Article 54. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://www.srbija.gov.rs/cinjenice_o_srbiji/ustav_odredbe.php?id=218
The Republic of Slovenia. (1990, December 23). The constitution of the Republic of Slovenia-Article 42. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from http://www.dzrs.si/index.php?id=351&docid=25&showdoc=1
The Russian Federation. (1993, December 12). The constitution of the Russian Federation-Article 31. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-01.htm
The United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (1994, July 7). Article 21. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (1948, December 10). Article 20. Retrieved May 10, 2011, from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
World: Europe Anti-war Unrest Reported in Serbia. (1999, May 18). BBC News. Retrieved April 24, 2011, from http://cdnedge.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world.europe/346748.stm
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tsatsaroni, C. et al. (2013). Perspectives on Protest in Russia and the Balkan Peninsula. In: Malley-Morrison, K., Mercurio, A., Twose, G. (eds) International Handbook of Peace and Reconciliation. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 7. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5933-0_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5933-0_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5932-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5933-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)