Political protest in the focus of social and humanitarian science: basic conceptual approaches

The paper is devoted to the theoretical and methodological analysis. The key goal of the paper is the systematization of approaches of social and humanitarian science in the area of analysis of political protest. The author notes a remarkable contradiction between growing relevance of studies of political protest in contemporary society and the entanglement of understanding of this phenomenon in current researches. During the theoretical and methodological analysis, the author seeks to systematize the ideas and approaches in the area of political protest, which appeared in social and humanitarian science. This analysis allowed author to identify four main approaches in the researches of political protest: theory of collective behavior; theory of relative deprivation; theory of resource mobilization; communication theory. The author systematizes information about the analytical advantages and limitations of each of these approaches and evaluates their heuristic potential. In the final part of the article, the author formulates his own understanding of political protest, based on a synthesis of current scientific approaches, which were analyzed in the article.