A social psychological perspective on post-disaster campaigns for justice: strategies in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire

Previous research has shown that people help each other with different types of needs when there is a disaster or emergency. Moreover, it was also evidenced that rebuilding and restoring the community become successful and sustainable when there is an active participation of community members during the recovery process. However, research on previous disasters also reported that the support doesn’t only come from the community members. Sometimes, allies from different communities come together with the survivors and bereaved families to meet various types of needs. This thesis examined the justice seeking processes of campaigners who supported survivors and bereaved families in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. The overall aim of the research was to understand how justice campaigns arise after the disaster and why the people who are not primarily affected by the disaster also support those campaigns. Specifically, I intend to achieve a better understanding about how post-disaster campaigns succeed or fail. I asked: 1) How do local and wider community members share a social identity and engage in post-disaster justice campaigns in order to empower the disaster community and their actions? 2) How is street mobilisation used as a strategy to seek justice in the aftermath? 3) How does racism and victim blaming delegitimize the identities of victims and their justice seeking actions? In my first study, thematic analysis of interviews with 15 campaigners helped me to understand that reaching out to allies and building shared social identity among supporters were two main ways to achieve campaign goals. In the second study, using ethnography as a framework and thematic analysis of 15 more interviews helped me to understand that people don’t just become groups; they also strategically take collective actions to constitute themselves as a group and try to overcome injustice. In my third study, using a critical discursive psychological approach to analyse 416 hostile tweets which attacked victims of the Grenfell Tower Fire delegitimize them and their demands for justice. Throughout the thesis I argue that achieving campaign goals and empowerment of actions are possible when the support is mobilized from beyond the immediate community. Therefore, organizing campaign events strategically in an inclusive way can contribute to this empowerment. Lastly, even though support from other (wider) communities can be more salient, victim blaming might also happen by individuals from other communities. Moreover, this victim blaming often takes the form of racist attacks. Therefore, even though working class and ethnic minority groups experience disasters disproportionately, they might also face with racist way of victim blaming in the aftermath of a disaster

How do those affected by a disaster organize to meet their needs for justice? Campaign strategies and partial victories following the Grenfell Tower fire

Previous research has shown that disasters often involve a sense of injustice among affected communities. But the empowerment process through which ‘disaster communities’ organise strategically to confront such injustices have not been investigated by social psychology. This study addresses this gap by examining how community members impacted by the Grenfell Tower fire self-organized to demand justice in response to government neglect. Thematic analysis of interviews with fifteen campaigners helped us to understand the strategies of those involved in support campaigns following the fire. Campaigners aimed to: overcome injustice against the government inactions in the aftermath of the fire; empower their community against government neglect; create a sense of community for people who experienced injustice. Community members created a petition calling on the government to build trust in the public inquiry; they achieved their goals with the participation of people from wider communities. We found that reaching out to allies from different communities and building shared social identity among supporters were two main ways to achieve campaign goals. The study suggests ways that empowerment and hence organizing for justice can be achieved after a disaster if campaigners adopt strategies for empowering collective action

Research data for paper: Racist way of victim blaming in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire

This dataset for a forthcoming publication involves racist tweets against Grenfell Tower fire victims. We aimed to understand how tweeters used racist language to delegitimise the victims and their supporters.Data was collected in January 2021, using the Advanced Search option within Twitter and by downloading tweets using tweepy.org, developer.twitter.com, and kaggle.com. The data was processed using Pandas Package (pandas.pydata.org).The dataset consists of four files of tweet ID numbers of racist Twitter posts against Grenfell Tower victims, survivors and bereaved families. In total we collected 26,653 tweets that involved #Grenfell #GrenfellTower #GrenfellTowerfire hashtags in four different time periods (see below for more information), and separated the ones that used hostile and racist language against Grenfell Tower fire victims and bereaved families. Tweets were also analysed which were in themselves not using racist language, but where replies included racist language.This dataset represents 267 of the 416 tweets that were analysed, in the following documents:1. ‘2017_Tweets_Grenfelll Public Inquiry began’ represents data that were collected between September 7 and 21 in 2017. This centred on the formal opening of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry on 14th September 2017. We collected 93 racist tweets out of 6,348 Grenfell Tower fire-related tweets from this period. 2. ‘2018_Tweets_Petition’ represents tweets from the second data collection time period that was during the time of the petition that Grenfell supporters created to demand a debate in Parliament to include survivors and bereaved families in the inquiry process. The petition began on 14th May 2018 and it ended on 30th May 2018. We collected 112 racist tweets out of 7,578 Grenfell Tower fire-related tweets between those dates. 3. 2019_Tweets_Inquiry Report’ has tweets that were collected between 23rd October and 7th November in 2019. This included the date of the first inquiry report on 30th October. We collected 47 racist tweets out of 11,718 Grenfell Tower fire-related tweets during this period.4. ‘2020_Tweets_COVID cancelled SW’ involves the last data collection time period that happened between 7th and 31st March 2020. This included the first Silent Walk that was cancelled because of the COVID-19 outbreak. We collected 33 (13 tweets with hashtags) racist tweets out of 1,010 Grenfell Tower fire-related tweets.The Readme file includes further details.The files include TweetIDs as captured in January 2021. These can be rehydrated using resources such as Twarc (https://github.com/DocNow/twarc) or Hydrator (https://github.com/DocNow/hydrator) in order to retrieve the Tweets as they currently appear on Twitter. Tweets which have been deleted since data capture will not be retrieved.</div

Subacute THYROiditis Related to SARS-CoV-2 VAccine and Covid-19 (THYROVAC Study): A Multicenter Nationwide Study.

Context The aims of the study are to compare characteristics of subacute thyroiditis (SAT) related to different etiologies, and to identify predictors of recurrence of SAT and incident hypothyroidism. Methods This nationwide, multicenter, retrospective cohort study included 53 endocrinology centers in Turkey. The study participants were divided into either COVID-19-related SAT (Cov-SAT), SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related SAT (Vac-SAT), or control SAT (Cont-SAT) groups. Results Of the 811 patients, 258 (31.8%) were included in the Vac-SAT group, 98 (12.1%) in the Cov-SAT group, and 455 (56.1%) in the Cont-SAT group. No difference was found between the groups with regard to laboratory and imaging findings. SAT etiology was not an independent predictor of recurrence or hypothyroidism. In the entire cohort, steroid therapy requirement and younger age were statistically significant predictors for SAT recurrence. C-reactive protein measured during SAT onset, female sex, absence of antithyroid peroxidase (TPO) positivity, and absence of steroid therapy were statistically significant predictors of incident (early) hypothyroidism, irrespective of SAT etiology. On the other hand, probable predictors of established hypothyroidism differed from that of incident hypothyroidism. Conclusion Since there is no difference in terms of follow-up parameters and outcomes, COVID-19- and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-related SAT can be treated and followed up like classic SATs. Recurrence was determined by younger age and steroid therapy requirement. Steroid therapy independently predicts incident hypothyroidism that may sometimes be transient in overall SAT and is also associated with a lower risk of established hypothyroidism