When disruption resonates but fails to mobilize: bank heists between expressions and practices of solidarity in post-revolutionary Lebanon

Studies of radical actions mostly examine flanking effects on broader mobilization as a single outcome, neglecting potential ambivalent effects. This article addresses this gap by examining the conditions and consequences of a specific subset of radical actions, namely individualized disruptive actions that break with societal norms but nevertheless garner a high degree of cultural resonance and sympathy. It centers a series of peculiar bank heists in Lebanon, where depositors resorted to force to recuperate their savings amid a monetary crisis. These heists provide an instructive case to explore the boundary conditions of public solidarity with radical action. The heists emerged as a powerful signifier for resistance against corruption and financial exploitation, thus inspiring countless expressions of solidarity. But the very features that explain this public support, at the same time, deterred many seasoned activists from acting as brokers for wider mobilisation, thus constraining the ability of the heists trigger more tangible practices of solidarity. Substantiated by original event data, interviews, and media analyses, the case demonstrates the dual-edged nature of radical actions: as events that can galvanize hope and a spirit of resistance but also risk confinement to symbolic significance.