Journal Article
2026
Felipe G. Santos, Mathias Hoffmann, and Dan Mercea
Party Politics
This article examines the relationship between individual protest participation and how that participation shapes evaluations of political parties that endorse street politics. Using survey data from five European countries, we show that protesters do not simply evaluate parties that validate their actions more positively — the relationship is conditional on ideological alignment, party credibility, and the type of protest involved. The findings challenge simple accounts of movement-party linkages.
Why it matters: Reveals that the bridge between street movements and electoral politics is more complex — and more fragile — than political observers assume.
Journal Article
2025
Felipe G. Santos, Mathias Hoffmann, and Dan Mercea
International Journal of Sociology
This article conceptualises the protest field as a relational space structured by brokerage — the capacity of specific individuals and organisations to connect otherwise disconnected protest networks. Drawing on network analysis of protest participation data, we identify the structural positions of brokers within and across contentious episodes and examine the social and biographical characteristics of those who occupy them.
Why it matters: Introduces a network perspective to explain why some activists become hubs of mobilization — a key mechanism in understanding how protests scale up or die out.
Journal Article
2024
Felipe G. Santos, Mathias Hoffmann, and Dan Mercea
Journal of European Public Policy
Who protests online, who protests in person, and who pivots between both? This article analyses the individual characteristics and structural barriers that shape protest style — distinguishing between in-person-only, online-only, and hybrid (pivoting) protesters. Using survey data from post-pandemic Europe, we find that digital protest is not simply a substitute for in-person mobilisation but a distinct and complementary form of political action with different social bases.
Why it matters: Shows that online protest has its own social logic — it is not just a fallback for those who cannot attend in person — with major implications for understanding political inequality in participation.
Journal Article
2024
Felipe G. Santos, Dan Mercea, and Mathias Hoffmann
Political Studies
Existing research on protest participation treats non-participants as a uniform category. This article disaggregates non-participation into 'potential participants' — those who would protest under the right conditions — and genuine non-participants. Using latent class analysis of large-scale survey data, we show that this distinction has major consequences for understanding political inequality, the limits of mobilisation, and the conditions under which protest can expand.
Why it matters: Reveals a large, previously invisible population of latent protesters — people who could be mobilised but haven't been — with significant implications for social movement strategy.
Journal Article
2024
Felipe G. Santos, Dan Mercea, and Michael Saker
Social Movement Studies
Using a novel geo-indexing methodology applied to Facebook data, this article maps the spatial and temporal spread of anti-lockdown mobilisation in the UK. It identifies the geographic clusters, organisational networks, and framing strategies of groups opposing Covid-19 restrictions, and analyses how a diffuse, online-first movement translated — or failed to translate — into physical protest.
Why it matters: Develops a replicable digital-methods toolkit for tracking online social movements — applicable well beyond the Covid context.
Journal Article
2023
Felipe G. Santos and Gomer Betancor
Revista Española de Sociología
A bibliometric and thematic analysis of the field of social movement studies in Spain from 1980 to 2020. The article maps the intellectual evolution of the field, identifying its key paradigms, dominant objects of study, institutional centres, and scholars — and documenting the field's increasing dialogue with international social movement theory.
Why it matters: The first comprehensive map of social movement scholarship in Spain — an essential reference for scholars working in or on the Iberian context.
Journal Article
2022
Felipe G. Santos, Matthias Hoffmann, Christina Neumayer, and Dan Mercea
Communication Methods and Measures
Big data news repositories are increasingly used to analyse protest events, but their methodological implications are rarely made transparent. This article provides a systematic documentation of a protest event analysis using a major commercial news repository, critically examines the biases, gaps, and limitations it introduces, and proposes best practices for researchers using similar data sources.
Why it matters: A methodological contribution with wide applicability — essential reading for any researcher using news data to study collective action.
Book Chapter
2024
Methodological Pluralism in the Study of Political Participation
Santos, F. G.
In: Bruter, M. & Harrison, S. (eds.), Handbook of Political Participation. Routledge.
Argues for methodological pluralism in the study of political participation, drawing on the complementarity of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches to capture the full range of participatory acts.
Why it matters: Addresses the methodological fragmentation in participation research and proposes an integrative framework.