Dr Graeme Hayes
Reader in Sociology and Policy Aston University
- Birmingham
Dr Hayes focuses on the criminalisation of protest movements, direct action, civil disobedience & the trials of activists.
Spotlight
Media
Social
Biography
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
Accomplishments
Walter Bagehot prize for best dissertation in Government and Public Administration
2001
Political Studies Association, University of Manchester
Education
University of Manchester
PhD
Political Opportunity Structures and Environmental Protest in the French Fifth Republic
2001
Loughborough University of Technology
BA
Modern European Studies
1989
Affiliations
- Environmental Politics : Joint Editor
- Social Movement Studies : Consulting Editor
Links
Media Appearances
Non-violent protesters should not have to disavow motives at trial, study says
The Guardian online
2025-03-19
Dr Graeme Hayes, a reader in sociology at Aston University and one of the three authors of the paper published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, said: “The way courts currently handle protest trials forces activists into an impossible position – either abandon their political stance or face harsher punishment.
Let juries judge disruptive protesters like Just Stop Oil on their integrity – expert view
The Conversation online
2025-03-15
The UK Court of Appeal recently ruled on an appeal brought by 16 environmental activists serving prison sentences for planning or participating in a series of disruptive non-violent protests.
Just Stop Oil’s harsh sentences are the logical outcome of Britain’s authoritarian turn against protest
The Conversation online
2024-07-19
Lengthy prison sentences have been imposed on five Just Stop Oil activists for coordinating direct action on the M25, the main ring road around London. For a non-violent protest, there is no equivalent in modern times.
Holding a placard outside court isn’t illegal, judge rules – is that the best British democracy has to offer?
The Conversation online
2024-05-02
The UK High Court recently dismissed the case against environmental activist Trudi Warner, who was referred for contempt of court in March 2023. Civil liberties campaigners hailed the decision as a “huge win for democracy”, but is it?
Why the courts are rarely a place where activists can speak truth to power
Netpol tv
2023-04-18
Nixon’s conviction is not a case of a repressive decision taken by one reactionary, out-of-touch judge… Judge Reid’s ruling that defendants may not explain their motivations to the jury closely follows the logic set by the Court of Appeal itself; backed by the charging decisions brought by the Crown Prosecution Service
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.
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.
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.
Articles
Defending the Integrity Principle: Necessity, Remorse and Moral Consistency in the Protest Trial
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies2025
The protest trial has distinctive features and should be governed by what we term the ‘integrity principle’: it should respect the moral consistency of the defendant; justifications, not excuses, should be privileged; and the ‘remorse principle’ should not apply. As such, the trial should enable effective communication where the defendant is held to account in meaningful terms. We apply this argument to three high-profile protest trials: the Frack Free Three; the Stansted 15; and the Colston 4.
Extinction Rebellion’s disobedient environmental citizenism
Environmental Politics2025
We examine the public protest of Extinction Rebellion (XR) in the UK as a specific political practice. We do so through our observation of the plea hearings of activists charged with public order offences during the April 2019 London ‘Rebellion’, focusing on those pleading guilty at the first opportunity. We show how these narratives establish the values and beliefs of these activists, including their relationships to existing state agencies and institutions, the extent and nature of their public duties and the corresponding rights they encode, and the definition of the political community they represent.
Untangling the differential drivers of protest participation: survey evidence from Extinction Rebellion’s arrestable and lawful actions (2019 and 2023)
Journal of European Public Policy2024
Broad-based climate movements are important shapers and signallers of public demand for efficacious policies to tackle climate change and, through demonstrative and disruptive action, creating windows for policy change. Here, we use a unique protest survey dataset to develop a comparative framework for understanding the drivers of protest participation in two tactically different major climate protests in London staged by the same organisation.
Disciplinary Power and Impression Management in the Trials of the Stansted 15
Sociology2020
We bring Foucauldian and Goffmanian frameworks into dialogue to show how repressive and disciplinary power operate in the criminal trials of social movement activists. We do so through an ethnographic account of the trials on terrorism-related charges of a group of anti-deportation direct action protesters known as the Stansted 15, complemented by interviews with defendants.
Anti-Abortion Clinic Activism, Civil Inattention and the Problem of Gendered Harassment
Sociology2018
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.
Regimes of austerity
Social Movement Studies2016
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.
Negotiating Proximity: Expert Testimony and Collective Memory in the Trials of Environmental Activists in France and the United Kingdom
Law & Policy2013
This article analyzes the role of expert witness testimony in the trials of social movement actors, discussing the trial of the “Kingsnorth Six” in Britain and the trials of activists currently mobilising against airport construction at Notre Dame des Landes in western France. Though the study of expert testimony has so far overwhelmingly concentrated on fact‐finding and admissibility, the cases here reveal the importance of expert testimony not simply in terms of legal argument, but in “moral” or political terms, as it reflects and constitutes movement cognitive praxis.
Having Your Day in Court: Judicial Opportunity and Tactical Choice in Anti-GMO Campaigns in France and the United Kingdom
Comparative Political Studies2012
Investigating the recent direct action campaigns against genetically modified crops in France and the United Kingdom, the authors set out to understand how contrasting judicial systems and cultures affect the way that activists choose to commit ostensibly illegal actions and how they negotiate the trade-offs between effectiveness and public accountability.
Social Movement Studies, Social Movement Studies, and the Challenges of Parochialism: A Rejoinder to Poulson, Caswell and Gray
Social Movement Studies2014
In this short rejoinder, I briefly contextualise and discuss the implications of Poulson, Caswell and Gray's article for Social Movement Studies.
