Total Mobilization from Below : Hong Kong's Freedom Summer

This article examines the origins and dynamics of an extraordinary wave of protests in Hong Kong in 2019-2020. Despite lacking visible political opportunities and organizational resources, the protest movement drew resilient, mass participation unparalleled in the city's history and much of the world. Drawing from original on-site surveys and online datasets, we conceptualize the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement as a form of "total mobilization from below."The totality of the mobilization depended on a set of interactive mechanisms: abeyant civil society networks concealed after the 2014 Umbrella Movement were activated by threats over extradition and institutional decay, whereas affective ties developed through conflicts and mutual assistance were amplified by digital communication. The movement's characteristics in terms of protest scale, mobilizing structure, use of alternative spaces, and group solidarity are examined. The spasmodic moments of mobilization are explained by a nexus of network building that took place in an unreceptive environment and at a critical juncture. The roles of threats and emotions in mass mobilizations are also analysed.

本文探討了 2019–2020 年香港抗議浪潮的起源和動態。儘管缺乏明顯的政治機會和組織資源，是次社會運動卻昭示大規模的群眾參與，不單在香港歷史上罕見，世界許多地區也無法比擬。我們根據示威現場和線上的原始數據，將香港的反修例運動概念化為一種由下而上的全面動員形式。這種動員的全面性，取決於一系列互動機制：雨傘運動後休整的公民社會網絡，受引渡到威權體系的恐懼所擊發；情感紐帶經歷衝突和互助確立，並通過數碼傳播發酵。本文檢視了全面動員在抗議規模、動員結構、另類空間和群體團結四方面的特徵，指出在不利環境和關鍵時刻建立的網絡聯繫，如何解釋間歇性動員的出現。本文亦分析威脅和情緒在群眾動員中的作用。