Contestation and Constitution: Civil Disobedience in the 2012-2014 Refugee Protests in Germany

Abstract

Abstract

In early 2012 in the Bavarian city of Würzburg, a group of refugees started first dramatic protest actions as a reaction to the suffering from the living conditions in refugee camps. They went on a march to the German capital Berlin. With these protests in the following months, a nationwide movement emerged. The research question of this article asks what the normative dimension of the use of civil disobedience in the refugee protests in Germany between 2012 and 2014 was. The article (1.) introduces the movement and the background of its emergence. (2.) Thereby, the particular importance of civil disobedience will be analyzed in its connectedness to the special legal status of the protesting refugees. At the center of this paper is the proposal of a radical democratic understanding of civil disobedience worked out by Etienne Balibar and Robin Celikates. This notion allows for an insight (3.) how the protests could contribute to a democratization of democracy.

Keywords: refugees, Germany, protest, civil disobedience, radical democracy, citizenship

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Bibliography: Diesing, Johannes: Contestation and Constitution: Civil Disobedience in the 2012-2014 Refugee Protests in Germany, PCS, 1-2-2016, pp. 28-41. https://doi.org/10.3224/pcs.v7i1-2.02