The strategic and instrumental use of verbal violence by protesters: political swearing in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement

Matthew Ming-tak CHEW*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This is the first dedicated study on how verbal violence is strategically and instrumentally used in social movements. Its primary objective is to contribute to the emerging debate on protest violence. Its secondary objective is to enrich the interdisciplinary field of swearing research by identifying ‘political swearing.’ Based on data on Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Movement, I identify four major instrumental uses of political swearing: attacking enemies of the movement, mobilization and politicization, identity-building, and ‘personal political emotion work.’ I find that political swearing can directly hurt people and indirectly do so by initiating violent enchainment processes. I also find that political verbal violence yields instrumental utility for social movements. This study’s data include in-depth interviews with 30 informants, documentary and video data, and participant observation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)77-94
Number of pages18
JournalSocial Movement Studies
Volume24
Issue number1
Early online date29 Jan 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

This work was partly supported by the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (Special Round) offered by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the Government of Hong Kong under Grant (SR2020.A2.005). No potential competing interest was reported by the author.

Keywords

  • Anti-Extradition Movement
  • infrapolitics
  • nonviolence
  • Sociology of violence
  • swearing research
  • verbal violence

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