Morality as a cultural tactic: Choosing nonviolence in South Korean presidential impeachment protests.

Scholars of social movements have studied why a (non)violent form of protest arises and how it affects the outcome of the protest. While structure-oriented approach and meaning-oriented approach have extensively explained the form of protests from various perspectives, most of them assume participations of homogenous groups. However, protests often involve various participants with different backgrounds and values, and undergo a process of contention regarding legitimacy and efficiency of the means. How are nonviolent means of protest adopted over the violent within a protest? Based on survey and interview data from the South Korean presidential impeachment protests in 2016-17, this paper articulates an explanation of legitimate and effective cultural tactic responding to the nature of event and discursive opportunity structure. The paper aims to explore how the protesters developed legitimate and effective tactics by analyzing apolitical narratives and non-violent demonstrations. First, I investigate the divisions of the protesters and their preference over the means of protest. Second, I move on to analyze the development of the peaceful tactics, despite the divisions among the protesters' orientations and values. Third, I look for the protesters' motivation out of moral shock that led them to engage in peaceful protest and their response to previous stigmatizations by the media and government. In doing so, the paper argues that the protesters developed a new tactics of resistance by following, not breaking, the rules to show a moral distinction between the unworthy protest target and the worthy protesters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]