https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302241245660 Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 1–19 © The Author(s) 2024 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/13684302241245660 journals.sagepub.com/home/gpi G P I R Group Processes & Intergroup Relations Because societies are dynamic, no theory developed to explain a movement in a certain era can fully describe another one. The frameworks developed in the late 20th century remain relevant for the 21st, however. Modern movements are also struggles for power. They, too, must tackle the challenges of mobilizing resources, organizing mass participation, raising consciousness, dealing with repression and perfecting strategies of social disruption. (Morris, 2021) Protest is the exercise of people power to disrupt society in an effort to improve it. Thus, protest is a dynamic interplay of actions across levels of society (e.g., individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup) and across domains (e.g., social, Protest now: A systems view of 21st century movements Colin Wayne Leach, 1 Shaunette T. Ferguson 1 and Cátia P. Teixeira 2 Note: This article is part of a special issue entitled Addressing Critical Social Issues From the Perspective of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations: GPIR 25th Anniversary Special Issue, guest edited by Amber M. Gaffney, Michael A. Hogg, and Dominic Abrams. Abstract The 21st century has seen unprecedented levels of mass protest all over the world. Protest is a dynamic interplay of actions over time, across levels of society (e.g., individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup), and across domains (e.g., social, cultural, political, economic). To illustrate this systems view, we first describe the local and global ecology of protest as it operates in the world now. We rely mainly on macro-level social science research to describe the scale and scope of specific movements (e.g., Black Lives Matter) as well as temporal trends in protest across the world. Second, we offer an expansive conceptualization of the types of protest, and the consequences of protest, based on an integrative review of micro- and meso-level research in psychology, and macro-level research in social science. Third, we present a temporal social network analysis of the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement as an empirical example of a systems approach. Keywords Black Lives Matter, collective action, protest, social media, social movements, social networks Paper received 27 December 2023; revised version accepted 02 March 2024. 1 Barnard College, Columbia University, USA 2 University of Maastricht, the Netherlands Corresponding author: Colin Wayne Leach, Barnard College, Columbia University, 276 Barnard Hall, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY, USA. Email: cleach@barnard.edu 1245660GPI 0 0 10.1177/13684302241245660Group Processes & Intergroup RelationsLeach et al. research-article 2024 GPIR 25th Anniversary Special Issue