Does class matter in protests? Social class, attitudes towards inequality, and political trust in European demonstrations in a time of economic crisis

In this paper, survey data from 60 demonstrations in 8 European countries is analyzed, to explore whether social class matters in political protest. Do different types of demonstrations mobilize different groups of employees/workers? And do social class matter for demonstrators’ attitudes about social inequality, welfare privatization and political trust—or do national context and/or the issue of the demonstration primarily shape these attitudes? This paper describes and analyzes the class composition of a wide range of demonstrations. Furthermore, the paper explores different conceptualizations of social class in the analysis, in order to evaluate their different merits and applicability when analyzing political protests.