Dr Graeme Hayes

Reader in Sociology and Policy Aston University

  • Birmingham

Dr Hayes focuses on environmental protest movements, climate change, direct action, civil disobedience & criminal trials of activists.

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Biography

Having taught at the University of Wolverhampton (1992-2001) and Nottingham Trent University (2001-7), Dr Graeme Hayes joined Aston in 2007, becoming Head of Sociology and Policy in 2018. He is Visiting Professor at the Political Science Institute in Lille, where he teaches a class on environmental mobilisations, and an associate member of the Arenes research laboratory.

Graeme's research focuses primarily on social movements, with an emphasis on protest strategies, and developing ideas of activist traditions, and collective memory. He is especially interested in the criminal trials of social movement activists. He is joint Editor of Environmental Politics, and Consulting Editor for Social Movement Studies, for which he was editor in chief from 2010-15.

Areas of Expertise

Social Transformation
Disobedience
Climate Change
Contemporary Social Movements
Direct Action

Accomplishments

Walter Bagehot prize for best dissertation in Government and Public Administration

2001

Political Studies Association, University of Manchester

Education

Loughborough University of Technology

BA

Modern European Studies

1989

University of Manchester

PhD

Political Opportunity Structures and Environmental Protest in the French Fifth Republic

2001

Affiliations

  • Environmental Politics : Joint Editor
  • Social Movement Studies : Consulting Editor

Media Appearances

Extinction Rebellion were not veteran protesters, new analysis shows

NewScientist  online

2020-07-15

Now, Graeme Hayes at Aston University in Birmingham, UK, and his colleagues have found that Extinction Rebellion seems to have succeeded in mobilising new people.

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Extinction Rebellion's activists more likely to be new to protesting, study shows

EurekAlert!  online

2020-07-15

Dr Graeme Hayes, from Aston University, said: "Protestors said they did not believe in reliance on companies and the market, governments, or lifestyle changes by individuals to solve the climate crisis. Almost all said they were protesting to raise awareness of the climate emergency, and to pressure politicians to act.

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Greta Thunberg: Why I began the climate protests that are going global

NewScientist  online

2020-03-13

Graeme Hayes of Aston University, UK, says that although the country’s children have protested before, such as over the Iraq war, the current wave of climate strikes involves younger children, not just older teenagers.

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Articles

Anti-Abortion Clinic Activism, Civil Inattention and the Problem of Gendered Harassment

Sociology

In the UK, there is evidence of a recent increase in anti-abortion activism outside clinics. In response, abortion service providers have called for the introduction of ‘buffer’ zones to protect women from ‘harassment’ while accessing abortion services. Drawing on two datasets – extensive ethnographic fieldwork, and a content analysis of clinic client comment forms – we deploy Goffman’s concept of ‘civil inattention’ to further our understanding of the material practice of anti-abortion clinic activism.

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Regimes of austerity

Social Movement Studies

This article discusses the European wave of contention catalysed by the financial market crash of 2008/9 and the subsequent imposition of austerity measures by governments across the continent. It develops two central arguments. First, it argues that we need a clearer and more sharply differentiated understanding of the operation of austerity as a social and political phenomenon than can be accounted for by reading the crisis of austerity as a solely material set of grievances.

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Social Movement Studies, Social Movement Studies, and the Challenges of Parochialism: A Rejoinder to Poulson, Caswell and Gray

Social Movement Studies

In this short rejoinder, I briefly contextualise and discuss the implications of Poulson, Caswell and Gray's article for Social Movement Studies.

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