Karen Ever After: The Career & Legal Consequences of being the Racist White Lady in an Internet Meme

With the coupled crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial protest movements in 2020, the “Karen” meme gained national attention as more incidents were posted online. These incidents have shown to be destructive to all parties involved as victims often experience negative health effects while “Karens” experience doxing. This study investigated the defaming career and legal consequences following the release of video content on social media in which a white woman dubbed as a “Karen” displays racist behaviors. Utilizing a directed qualitative content analysis, the sourcing of incident content came from a study by Been Verified that evaluated 150 incidents. A 2-part data-collection was implemented utilizing Advanced Google Search Engine and Chan McNamarah’s research on racialized police communication. Incidents were subsequently processing using a selection criterion to be considered for consequence assessment. Out of 56 qualified incidents, 27% had discovered career consequences and 27% had discovered legal consequences. This research contributes to a largely undiscussed field in academia by providing an in-depth assessment on defaming Internet trends. It has implications for HR specialists and policymakers in making appropriate decisions to ensure accountability is taken in online matters. It also holds significance for Internet-users in understanding how one’s digital footprint can be perceived online.

Professionalization of social work in Germany: a reflection on the history of professional space development

The professionalisation of social work is examined using Germany as an example. The main aspects of the process are explored: professional qualifications, content aspects of professional work, resources allocated and their control, as well as empirical and theoretical research in social work. The evolution of approaches to aid motivation from ecclesiastical and Christian traditions of love for one's neighbour to institutionalised aid within the functioning of welfare states is analysed. The dynamics of approaches to the definition of neediness in order to prevent the development of social parasitism is studied, the historical continuity of forms of work with socially deprived groups is shown. The professionalization of social work is considered in socio-historical context: its connection with protest movements of neo-Marxist persuasion in 1960s and changes in the system of academic training of social work professionals with the introduction of Bologna system is analyzed. The material in this article is the result of many years of research, including participant observation by the authors. This text is the latest and the last article by Professor Horst Bossong, one of Germany's leading specialists in social work, social policy and administration. The article summarizes the author's long-standing interest in the history and philosophy of social work, which reflects major milestones in the spiritual evolution and economic development of contemporary European societies.

Under the Weight of the Soviet Legacy and Political Repressions: The Radical Left in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

Mass protest movements of the early 2010s, particularly the Occupy movement, stimulated the rise of radical left organizations globally. In Southern Europe, radical left parties celebrated their first electoral successes. In Russia, radical left organizations were also influenced by this upsurge of social protest movements and participated in the Bolotnaya protests in 2011–2012 but were marginalized and disintegrated shortly after, resuming their activities only by 2019. This article explores the radical left movements and groups in Russia and offers projections for their future. The Russian radical left is divided into three sub-groups: fundamentalist communists who identify with Stalin and the Soviet Union, libertarian socialists and communists (subdivided into neo-anarchists, autonomists, and neo-Trotskyists), and hybrid organizations (e.g., the Left Front). These organizations face two major constraints unknown to their Western counterparts. First, Russia’s authoritarian regime blocks opportunities for independent, particularly electoral, politics. This reveals itself in targeted repressions against left radicals and anarchists. Second, the dominance of the CPRF blocks any potential of strong left opposition. Unless these restrictions are lifted, radical left organizations in Russia will not be able to overcome their current crisis.

Demonstrative protest crime: the limits of criminological analysis

Classical and network protest always assumes mass character. In this regard, the study of protest movements should assume: a) The analysis of many protest actions; b) the analysis of each individual protest action as a manifestation of the phenomenon of collective behavior. At the same time, the first level is important in the context of ensuring the representativeness of the second type of research. «Collective action» and «action of a team member» are fundamentally important. The regulatory system always deals with the assessment of the behavior of a particular person. In this regard, criminology and criminal law should not focus on the protest actions themselves, but on the behavior of individuals within the framework of these actions. In the theoretical analysis of the behavior of these individual participants of mass actions, it is necessary to distinguish: a) actions performed during a mass action, and actions that ensure the protest action itself, which can be performed both before and after it; b) actions of organizers, inspirers, leaders of protest actions, and actions of ordinary participants of the protest action; c) actions related to the organization and participation in mass actions coordinated by the official authorities, and in those not coordinated by the official authorities; d) lawful actions and illegal actions, and among the latter - criminally illegal and administratively illegal; e) intellectual, informational actions, and physical actions. To describe these actions, the article suggests using the term «demonstrative protest crimes». They are: a) associated with a well-defined sphere of public relations that arise in the process of interaction between a person, society and the authorities; b) they are imbued with the unity of motivational factors and the characteristics of the personality of the participants; c) they have a common determinative complex and a common mechanism for their commission; d) they have a distinct separation by the place and time of their commission; e) they assume a specific type and mechanism for the implementation of preventive measures. These signs allow us to consider demonstrative protest crimes as a separate, independent type of crime.

Shaheen Bagh: Making sense of (re)emerging “Subaltern” feminist political subjectivities in hashtag publics through critical, feminist interventions

In this article, we examine protest of India’s passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC) which spurred instances of physical and digital protest. We study the intersections of gender, political subjectivities, and digital activism among anti-CAA-NRC activists, specifically the “Women of Shaheen Bagh.” We discuss our data collection methods, description, and analysis of the protests in the context of larger questions, including how critical, feminist researchers may engage with data tools and how forms of gendered, transnational protest are mediated and represented via individual images, texts, and videos that make up social media data. We illuminate the formation of political subjectivities in the context of transnational, digital protest movements by re-appropriating computational and data tools. This article seeks to demonstrate an interdisciplinary engagement between critical, feminist approaches to knowledge and subject formation and data science approaches to social network analysis and data visualization techniques.

Kindergarten children’s perceptions of the social unrest in Hong Kong

Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the social unrest. Thematic analysis of children’s drawings demonstrates the extent of their awareness and understanding and suggests that children perceived both protestors and police as angry and demonstrating aggression. Many children were critical of police conduct and saw protestors as needing protection from the police. Children around the world have been exposed to protest movements in recent times. The implications for parents, teachers and schools are discussed.

The effects of state coercion on voting outcome in protest movements: a causal forest approach

In this research note, we examine how Hong Kong voters respond to police violence in the recent social movement. We use causal forests, a machine learning algorithm, to estimate the impact of tear gas usage specific to each constituency. Based on the 2019 District Council Election outcome, we find that there is heterogeneity in the effect of state coercion on the vote share of pro-democracy candidates, depending on many socioeconomic characteristics of the constituency. The results imply that economic concerns still matter in the struggle to obtain democracy: citizens who sense economic insecurity in social unrest show less disapproval of state violence.

Post-apartheid South Africa’s exacerbated inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic: intersectionality and the politics of power

Over the past fifteen years there has been an increase in the number of protest movements globally. In recent years and amid the global pandemic there have been hundreds of protests and demonstrations in South Africa. Consequently, in comparison to other parts of the globe, such protest action in South Africa is high. As a result, stable governance in the region has been impacted. Notably, during the resistance years in defiance of the apartheid regime, citizens in South Africa expressed their social discontent against exclusion and marginalisation through identities as radical and intersectional – this was also articulated in the recent protests that occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Johannesburg in July 2021. This highlights the relevance of intersectionality within this region. Intersectionality can be seen to refer to the inequalities that exist beyond femininities and masculinities. Intersectional theory explores aspects of discrimination, oppression, exploitation and inequality across identity, gender, race, ethnicity and class. This study uses a qualitative research approach to conceptually analyse intersectional theory. Thereafter the study discusses the relevance of intersectional theory in a post-apartheid context by illustrating intersectionality through the unrest and protests that occurred, following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma. The findings of the study suggest the need to unpack the legacies of African elitism and social relations, while implementing intersectional reform that promotes greater inclusivity of citizens in the state.