study | FES NEW YORK Conceptualizing Protest and Conflict Report from an interdisciplinary conference exploring how governments and institutions of global governance can better respond to contentious politics Sara Burke(Ed.) July 2015 n In recent years the world has been shaken by protests demanding real democracy and justice for socioeconomic grievances: recent examples include 2014‘s pro­democracy movement in Hong Kong, and 2013‘s»Summer of Rights« and»Right to the City« movements in Brazil and Turkey. n For the purpose of conceptualizing protest and conflict, meeting participants dis­cussed the following questions:»Are protests expressions of aspirations, grievances and demands? Or are they conflicts to be subdued?« n From the point of view of institutions of government and governance, protests dis­rupt smooth governance, requiring management by experts in conflict resolution. From the point of view of protest movements and social justice campaigns, the per­formance of contentious acts must be done by people themselves –«non-experts» – acting directly on their own behalf and for the transformation of their economies and societies. n The current state of play is a»zero sum game«. To go beyond it, governments and institutions of governance need to listen to the grievances, demands and aspirations of protesters. Even riots should be seen first as expressions of injustice and demands for its reversal rather than as conflicts to be put down.