The impetus for this project came from the idea that protest-state interactions are more accurately represented as a spatial-temporal process. Here, at the beginning of the cycle, social movements and repressive activity are concentrated in a particular geographic area (the "epicenter" where the core membership and problems exist); at the peak, contention is more diffused throughout the territorial jurisdiction in question (in response to other issues that emerge, other targets, other members who want to go other places, and to avoid sanctions); and at the end, it is once more concentrated in the "epicenter". This view challenges existing conceptions of contentious politics as the territorial units that we normally investigate are probed for information that is generally ignored about who protests/represses, where, when, and why. The basic concept is that all places within a city (or state) are not going to be subject to the same levels of aggression/passivity (as cities vary in characteristics/ meaning). The dissagregation might therefore provide greater insight into what is taking place.

For this project, I compiled data from arrest, surveillance, and informant reports regarding the Republic of New Africa - a black, nationalist, and secessionist movement based in Detroit, Michigan, from 1968-1973 (by the day and, generally, the hour). This case proves particularly interesting for it takes place within a political opportunity structure that most would deem "closed" (with increased repressive applications and the development of particular police agencies), with limited mobilizing structures (after the decline of civil rights organizations), and with a historically neglected cultural frame (U.S. nationalism). The data also allows us to explore the importance of everyday group dynamics as all the group meetings provide information about who was there, what was said, when the meeting started/ended, and occasionally how individuals responded to each other in non-verbal fashion. The activity that precedes and follows protest behavior is thus documented, allowing us to investigate what cultural framing activity, what aspects of mobilizing structures, and what political opportunities are relevant to different stages in the social movement process as well as what influence repression really has on the internal workings of dissident organizations.