In this paper the results of a systematic experimental assessment of the plasma edge rotation and radial electric field with application of resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) are presented. The results are based on the radially resolved measurement of the poloidal (v _pol) and toroidal (v _tor) rotation. It is shown that the radial electric field E _r can be deduced from the radial force balance when small amplitude resonant magnetic perturbations are applied to the plasma boundary (B _r /B _tor ∼ 10⁻⁴). Both v _pol and v _tor spin-up in the ion-diamagnetic-drift and co-current direction, respectively, with increasing external perturbation field (Δv _pol ∼ 15 km s⁻¹, Δv _tor ∼ 2–5 km s⁻¹) yielding an increase in E _r by ΔE _r,max = 9 kV m⁻¹. The toroidal rotation increases over the whole radius while the poloidal rotation shows distinct local features driving the evolution of the E _r -profiles. Depending on the edge safety factor a local (at the q = 5/2 rational surface) increase in the shear rate Ω _{E × B} (ΔΩ _q=5/2 = 1.4 × 10⁵ s⁻¹) or reduced shearing can occur. Increased shearing is correlated with an improved particle confinement with an increase in the particle confinement time by Δτ_p = +40%. Increasing the local resonant amplitude by 30% induces a reduced density level, the so-called RMP induced pump-out. At this confinement stage the shear rate decreases by 15% correlated with a significant drop in particle confinement (Δτ_p = −30%). Field line tracing in the vacuum approximation gives indications towards explaining the threshold behaviour connecting the shearing rate, confinement stages and magnetic topology to the amount of applied RMP. However, this basic approach does not account for plasma response and the results presented are linked in the discussion section to recent results on the link between rotation and plasma response as well as on the transport features of RMP.