For this assignment, imagine that you are a social psychology expert who is consulted by a local government committee. The government committee is concerned that public protests can be counterproductive, risk harming the protesters and public, or can deteriorate into violence. The committee is consulting with several experts so your report will be one of several sources of information they will use. Given that the issue under protest is of huge public concern, the government committee must carefully decide how to respond, drawing on all available information.

Build report which provides a social psychological perspective on protests which can help the committee to make its decision. It is not the aim of the report to comment on the cost of living, inflation or similar pressures nor to engage in political commentary. It must focus on the protests and apply social psychological theory. Your report will not influence decisions about managing the cost of living but will contribute to decision-making about how the government committee publicly responds to future demonstrations across the UK (e.g. should protest be permitted or not, should it be policed tightly or not and how would the response be justified, etc) including social identity theory (SIT), relative deprivation theory (RDT), resource mobilisation theory (RMT) and SIMCA. You could also consider relevant discourses (e.g. of risk, equality, equity and power/autonomy).