Reading the Riots – London 2011: Local Revolt and Global Protest

Abstract

The riots in UK cities in 2011 can be understood from a Group Analytic perspective as communications in a complex social context. This context includes a long history of deprivation, oppression, colonialism and racism globally and locally, the post 1989 global domination by the neo‐liberal economic doctrine imposed locally through ‘austerity’, the violence of the global dominance of the ‘West’ manifested in the ‘war on terror’, and the spirit of protest manifested in the ‘Arab Spring’ and in the Occupy movement.