477
Social Protests and Biographical Implications
Social Protests and Biographical Implications
Abstract Submissions Closed
Thursday, 25 February 2021: 14:15-15:45
Location:
RC38 Biography and Society (host committee)
Language: English
Session Type: Oral
In the last decade, countries in the Global North as well as the Global South have witnessed protests that are not rooted in organised movements but have fostered political changes in radical ways. These include the #RejectSerzh demonstrations in 2018 exposing corruption of the back-then Armenian government or the uprising in 2010/11 in Tunisia that inspired the so-called Arab Spring in the Mashriq and Maghrib. Yet, some also faded time or were instrumentalized by the remaining governments like the 2013 Gezi protests in Turkey. Meanwhile, European countries have hosted populist or far-right demonstrations with similar patterns. Furthermore, women marches objected the populist government’s abortion bill in Poland, problematised Femicides in Argentina and stood for lifting of the temple ban in India. The year 2018 has seen a rise in demonstrations with social demands, such as les gilets jaunes or the youth strikes on climate change leading to a global collectivization of pupils. In all these examples, people of various biographical and social backgrounds stand up together and protest for change. Such protests are influenced by individual life stories and can also have unforeseen impacts on an individual’s biography.
In terms of biographical perspectives, the panel aims to discuss the role of identity building processes, collectivity perceptions and motivations in organising and partaking in protests. The session regards the above mentioned and further demonstrations as social spaces of collectivization and processes formed by the participants themselves. It questions the impacts of participation and collective understanding on the biographical project.
Session Organizers: