Community-Based Organizing Under Control. Informal Control Strategies and Their Limitations on Political Action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v19n2p419-437Keywords:
Informal control and repression, community organizations, Quebec, effects of informal control, marginalized individualsAbstract
This article focuses on informal control strategies and their effects on community-based organizations in Quebec (Canada). These organizations, highly institutionalized and rarely considered as radical actors, have a long tradition of political action in Quebec, intervening as interest groups to present grievances to the government, as well as social actors protesting in the streets. Many control strategies hinder this essential part of associations' mandate. Interviews conducted in 2021 with 14 groups show that, despite these associations' relatively uncontroversial repertoire of action, more than twenty forms of control can be exercised over them. Implemented by multiple actors, these strategies affect individuals, groups, and their missions. These data shed light on what informal control strategies do to the political action of community-based organizations, while informing about control strategies by actors other than the police. Drawing on a sociology of social movements and repression, this article demonstrates the informality integrated into multiple repressive tactics, highlighting the importance of taking it into account when thinking about repression and control practices and their effects, especially on marginalized individuals and groups.
References
Alalouf-Hall, D., C. Bergeron and J.-M. Fontan (eds.) (2002), État des lieux sur la philanthropie subventionnaire Québécoise, PUQ.
Almeida, P.D. (2008), Waves of Protest: Popular Struggle in El Salvador, 1925–2005. Mineapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bellot C., C. Jetté and M. Bresson (2013a), Le travail social et la nouvelle gestion publique. Collection problèmes sociaux et interventions sociales. Montreal : Presses de l'Université du Québec.
Bellot, C., M.-È. Sylvestre and B. St-Jacques (2013b), “Construire un problème social. Et pourquoi pas? Le cas de la judiciarisation de l’itinérance”, in Otero M. and S. Roy, Qu’est-ce qu’un problème social aujourd’hui ? Repenser la non conformité. Montréal: PUQ, pp. 207-228.
Bergeron-Gaudin, J.-V. (2017), “Les luttes relatives au logement au Québec : un portrait historique”, in Brady, J.-P. and S. Paquin (eds.), Groupes d'Intérêt Et Mouvement Sociaux. Québec : Presses De l'Université Laval, pp. 219-240.
Bherer, L., P. Dufour, and F. Montambeault (2023), What Is Informal Participation?: Introduction to the Special Issue: Quietly Standing Out: Understanding Informal Forms of Political Engagement. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 36(1): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-022-09440-z
Boudreau, J.-A. (2017), Global urban politics: Informalization of the state. Polity Press.
Boudreau, J.-A., F. Lesemann, and C. Martin (2016), Présentation: L’État en processus d’informalisaton. Lien social et Politiques, 76, 3-23. https://doi.org/10.7202/1037076ar
Bourque, D., Y. Comeau, L. Favreau and F. Fréchette (2008), L’organisation communautaire. Fondements, approches et champs de pratique, Québec: PUQ.
Boykoff, J. (2006), The Suppression of Dissent : How the State and Mass Media Squelch US American Social Movements. Routledge.
Brockett, CD. (2005), Political Movements and Violence in Central America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carrier-Plante, C. (2018), Lutter dans l'arène judiciaire : réponses organisationnelles à la judiciarisation des mobilisations anti-autoritaires et étudiantes à Montréal (2011-2015), Montréal (Québec, Canada), Master thesis, sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal.
Chicoine-MacKenzie, L., N. Filion, V. Fortin, L. Khelil, L. Lemonde, A. D. Morin and J. Poisson (2015), Manifestations et répressions : Points saillants du bilan sur le droit de manifester au Québec. Ligue des Droits et Libertés. http://liguedesdroits.ca/wp-content/fichiers/rapport_manifestations_repressions_ldl.pdf
Codaccioni, V. (2019), Répression. L’État face aux contestations politiques. Éditions Textuels.
Combes, H., and O. Fillieule (2011), De la répression considérée dans ses rapports à l’activité protestataire, On repression of protest activities. Revue française de science politique, 61(6) : 1047-1072.
CPRP (Éd.) (2016), Étouffer la dissidence : Vingt-cinq ans de répression politique au Québec. Lux éditeur.
Davenport, C. (2007), “State repression and political order”, Annual Review Political Sociology, 10: 1-23.
Davenport, C., H. Johnston, and C. M. Mueller (Eds.), (2005), Repression and mobilization, University of Minnesota Press.
Davenport, C. and M. Inman (2012), “The state of state repression research since the 1990s”, Terrorism and Political Violence, 24(4): 619-634.
della Porta, D. and O. Fillieule (2006), Police et manifestants. Maintien de l’ordre et gestion des conflits, Paris : Presses de Sciences Po.
Deng, Y., and K. J. O’Brien, (2013), Relational Repression in China: Using Social Ties to Demobilize Protesters. The China Quarterly, 215: 533-552. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741013000714
Di Ronco, A. (2025), “The Effects of Criminalisation on Activists: The Case of the NoTAP Environmental Movement”, Critical Criminology, 33: 139-154 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09806-z
Dufour, P. (2019), Qui sommes-nous pour être découragées ? Conversation militante avec Lorraine Guay. Montréal : Écosociété.
Dupuis-Déri F. (2006), “Broyer du noir. Manifestations et répression policière au québec”, Les Ateliers De L'éthique, 1(1): 58-80. https://doi.org/10.7202/1044699ar
Dupuis-Déri, F. (ed.) (2013), À qui la rue? : Répression policière et mouvements sociaux. Montreal : Les Éditions Écosociété.
Dussault, J. (2025). Nos Burn-Out sont politiques. Syndicat industriel des travailleurs et travailleuses, section Montréal.
Earl, J., (2003), “Tanks, tear gas, and taxes : Toward a theory of movement repression”, Sociological theory, 21(1): 44-68.
Earl, J. (2011), “Political Repression: Iron Fists, Velvet Gloves, and Diffuse Control”, Annual Review of Sociology, 37: 261-284.
Earl, J. and S. A. Soule (2010), “The Impacts of Repression: The Effect of Police Presence and Action on Subsequent Protest Rates”, in Coy, P.G. (ed.) Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change (pp. 75-113)., UK: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Ellefsen, R. (2021), “Why not talk about repression ? Radical Activism and its Responses to Repression”, Partecipazione e Conflitto. 14(1): 480-496, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v14i1p480
Ellefsen, R., and J. Jämte (2023), The causes, content and consequences of repression: A framework for analyzing protest control in the counter-extremism era, Social Movement Studies, 22(4): 567-582. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2022.2067140
Fallon, K. M., Aunio, A.-L., and J. Kim (2018), Decoupling International Agreements from Domestic Policy: The State and Soft Repression, Human Rights Quarterly, 40(4): 932-961. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2018.0050
Ferree M.M. (2004), “Soft repression: Ridicule, stigma, and silencing in gender-based movements”, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 25: 85-101.
García, O. J. M. (2014), Soft Repression and the Current Wave of Social Mobilisations in Spain, Social Movement Studies, 13(2): 303-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2013.863147
Giugni, M. (2008), “Welfare States, Political Opportunities, and the Mobilization of the Unemployed : A Cross-National Analysis”, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 13(3): 297‑310.
Gouvernement du Québec (2001), Politique de financement et de reconnaissance de l'action communautaire autonome, Québec.
Hart, K. (1973), Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 11(1): 61-89. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00008089
Honari, A. (2018), “From ‘the effect of repression’ toward ‘the response to repression’”, Current Sociology, 66(6): 950-973. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392118787585
Jämte J. and R. Ellefsen (2020), “The consequences of soft repression”, Mobilization an international Quaterly, 25(3): 383-404. https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-25-3-383.
Jetté. C. (2017), “Action Communautaire, militantisme et lutte pour la reconnaissance: une réalité historique, politique et sociologique”, Reflets, 23(1) : 28-56. DOI https://doi.org/10.7202/1040748ar
Jenkins, J. C., and C. M. Eckert (1986), Channeling Black Insurgency: Elite Patronage and Professional Social Movement Organizations in the Development of the Black Movement, American Sociological Review, 51(6): 812-829.
Johnston, H. (2012), States and Social Movements. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Khawaja, M. (1993), Repression and popular collective action: Evidence from the West Bank, Sociological Forum, 8(1): 47-71.
Kurtz, L. R. and L. A. Smithey (eds.), (2018), The paradox of repression and nonviolent movements (First edition), Syracuse University Press.
Lamoureux, H. (2010), La pratique de l’action Communautaire autonome. Origine, continuité, reconnaissance et ruptures, Québec : Presse de l’Université du Québec.
Leboucher, M. (2023), Les coûts de la protection contre les violences de genre : autonomie et dépendance dans les groupes des tiers secteurs au Québec et en France, Doctoral thesis, Political Science, University of Montreal.
McAdam, D. (1990), Freedom Summer, New York: Oxford University Press.
McAdam, D. and G. Wiltfang (1991), “The Costs and Risks of Social Activism: A Study of Sanctuary Movement Activism”, Social Forces, 69(4): 987-1010.
McAdam, D., S. Tarrow and C. Tilly (2001), Dynamics of Contention, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mercier, C. and D. Bourque (2021), Intervention collective et développement des communautés: Éthique et pratiques d'accompagnement en action collective, Montreal : Presses universitaires du Québec.
Meyer, D. S. (2004), “Protest and Political Opportunities”, Annual Review of Sociology”, 30(1): 125‑145. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.30.012703.110545
Nowell, L., J. Norris, D. White and N. Moules (2017), “Thematic Analysis: Striving to Meet the Trustworthiness Criteria”, International Journal of Qualitative, 16(1): 1-13. 10.1177/1609406917733847
Oberschall, A. (1973), Social Conflict and Social Movements, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
O’Brien, K. J. and Y. Deng (2015), “Repression backfires: Tactical radicalization and protest spectacle in rural China”, Journal of Contemporary China, 24(93): 457-470.
Opp K.D. (1994), Repression and revolutionary action: East Germany in 1989. Rationality and Society, 6(1) : 101-138.
Parazelli, M., A. Campeau and L. Gaudreau (2018), L’action communautaire : quelle autonomie pour ses destinataires? Montreal : Service aux collectivités de l’UQAM.
Paumier, R. (2022), Le travail des politiques publiques : développement et (re)production des organismes communautaires en réduction des méfaits aux usages de drogues à montréal, Ph.D Thesis, Sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal.
Peña Alejandro M., L. Meier and A. Nah (2023), “Exhaustion, Adversity and Repression: Emotional Attrition in High-Risk Activism”, Perspectives on Politics, 21(1): 27-42, doi:10.1017/S1537592721003273
Petitjean, C., and J. Talpin (2022), Tweets and Doorknocks. Differentiation and Cooperation between Black Lives Matter and Community Organizing, Perspectives on Politics, 20(4): 1275-1289. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592722001049
Rafail, P. (2010), “Asymmetry in Protest Control? Comparing Protest Policing Patterns in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, 1998-2004”, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 15(4): 489‑509.
RODCD. (2024), Regroupement des organismes en défense collective des droits, Montreal : RODCD. https://www.defensedesdroits.com/
Starr, A., L. A., Fernandez, R. Amster, L. J. Wood, and M. J. Caro (2008), The Impacts of State Surveillance on Political Assembly and Association: A Socio-Legal Analysis, Qualitative Sociology, 31(3): 251-270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-008-9107-z
Talpin, J. (2016), Une répression à bas-bruit. Comment les élus étouffent les mobilisations dans les quartiers populaires, Métropolitiques, https://metropolitiques.eu/Une-repression-a-bas-bruit-Comment-les-elus-etouffent-les-mobilisations-dans.html
Tilly, C. (1978), From mobilization to revolution, Random House.
Tilly, C. (1995), Contentious Repertoires in Great Britain, 1758-1834, In M. Traugott (ed.), Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action (pp. 15-42), Durham: Duke University Press.
White, D., P. Dufour, F. Garon, L. Guay, P. Brum Schäppi, M. Galarneau and E. Lefrançois (2008), La gouvernance intersectorielle à l’épreuve : L’évaluation de la mise en œuvre de la Politique de reconnaissance et de soutien de l’action communautaire, Rapport final, Montréal : Équipe de recherche sur la gouvernance intersectorielle, CPDS, Université de Montréal .https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=La+gouvernance+intersectorielle+%C3%A0+l%E2%80%99%C3%A9preuve+%3A+L%E2%80%99%C3%A9valuation+de+la+mise+en+%C5%93uvre+de+la+Politique+de+reconnaissance+et+de+soutien+de+l%E2%80%99action+communautaire%2C+
Wood, L. J. (2014), Crisis and Control: The Militarization of Protest Policing, Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt183pdpn
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with PACO agree to the Creative Commons Attribution-Non commercial-Share alike 4.0 Italian License
Copyrights of each article are hold by the University of Salento.
PACO allows author(s) to retain publishing rights under permission of the Editorial Staff. But Authors are requested to always indicate that the first version of the article has been published in "Partecipazione e conflitto".
