IV ISA Forum of Sociology (February 23-28, 2021)

608

The Challenges of Democratic Political Agency in Social Movements Today

Abstract Submissions Closed

RC48 Social Movements, Collective Actions and Social Change (host committee)

Language: English

Session Type: Oral

The growing social inequality created by neoliberalism is still being challenged by social movements that are critical of the new forms of hyper aggressive global capitalism. In this context social justice movements, which in the past have tried to create open, democratic spaces, and more horizontal forms of leadership and autonomy apart from the state and the institutions of global capitalism, continue to prefiguratively respond to the narrowing of democracy under neoliberalism. With this context as a backdrop this panel session seeks to explore multi-dimensional issues of political agency - and its contradictions and challenges - in progressive social movements from the World Social Forum to Momentum in the UK, Aufstehen in Germany, En Comu in Barcleona and DiEM25 in the EU, and the grassroots, decentralized protests in Brazil. In doing so the panel tries to assess where movements are: 1) strategically as they engage in debates about whether to remain autonomous from states and parties, 2) as some launch insurgencies into, or create loose alliances with, existing parties (UK, US, Germany). How are movements dealing with neoliberal state power in the current historical conjuncture? The panel also seeks to explore the social-psychological dimensions and dynamics of movement organization and struggles, asking how participants are changed or transformed as they engage in struggles to keep open spaces open. How can 'new cultures of participation' be sustained in the current historical conjuncture? What are the challenges facing democratic movements today compared with the World Social Forum in the early 2000s?