The relational meaning-making of riots: Narrative logic and network performance of the London "riots"

There was an almost unanimous reaction by politicians, the media and even social scientists in using the label “riot” for what happened in early August 2011 in several cities in the UK.

The most surprising fact is that virtually no one questioned the use of the term riot and its narrative. This chapter asserts that the use of the label riot, by social scientists in particular, channeled their explanation and focus in a specific direction, thus providing a limited conceptual comprehension of what happened. Therefore, this chapter will begin by questioning the use of the term riot and subsequently raise a different theoretical and analytical vocabulary, which will highlight Harrison C. White’s conception of network s as narrative or communicative entities. These theoretical considerations are embedded in empirical material, for instance, statistics, media coverage, secondary analysis of interviews and social media. The chapter will make a strong assertion that such “events” cannot be studied as if they occur outside of social reality, exist somehow apart from it or are even unsocial, but will stress their relational construction, the normality of how such forms of social reality unfold, and their particular relational structure and meaning-making.