Self-immolation protests succeed or fail depending on social structure and place

Evidence

There was no way he could afford a new one. This led to a fight, and she struck him. In response, he escalated the situation, as high as anyone could go. This tactic, self-immolation, was not unknown in the Tunisian repertoire. A few months earlier in the breezy seaside town of Monastir, another street food vendor had set himself on fire. But there, nothing happened. His death had occurred in a different place within the very specific structure of this society. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 187

Categorization

• QUESTION: What exactly in the ‘specific structure’ made Sidi Bouzid’s location potent while Monastir’s was inert? The book presumably answers through the chapters that follow.
• XREF: connects to: Social movements show symbolic but not causal coherence distinct from general contention — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1152; Immediacy theory replaces collective critique and shared slogans with atomized individual action — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 244; Hierarchical organization correlates with protest movement success — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 847 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Hierarchical organization correlates with protest movement success #corroborates (0.78) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 847
• Easy individual mobility weakens subordinate-group solidarity and collective action #corroborates (0.76) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2747
• Individual-level theories cannot explain synchronized mass scapegoating movements #corroborates (0.75)
• Immediacy theory replaces collective critique and shared slogans with atomized individual action #complicates (0.74) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 244
• Social movements show symbolic but not causal coherence distinct from general contention #qualifies (0.72) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1152
• Collective identity and shared grievances reinforce each other bidirectionally #qualifies (0.72) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4428
• Social media fracturing produces fragmented collective time held together by affective endorsement #qualifies (0.71)