JS-78
Social Movements, Contentious Politics, and the Imagination of Alternative Futures. Part I
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC48 Social Movements, Collective Actions and Social Change (host committee)
RC07 Futures Research
RC47 Social Classes and Social Movements
Language: Spanish and English
Session Type: Oral
The ISA Research Committees RC07, RC47, RC48 are planning one or more Joint Sessions on social movements, contentious politics, and the imagination of alternative futures.
The recent rise of retrotopian politics and authoritarian leadership across world regions (Bolsonaro, Duterte, Erdoğan, Orban, Trump, among others) has uncovered a widespread disenchantment with narrowly conceived liberal democracy. This lends heightened urgency to better understand the radical imagination and creative efforts of social movements to overcome the confines of the social and institutional status quo.
The aim of this session is to bring theoretical approaches, empirical case-studies, and historical comparisons of different settings and regions, South and North, into a fruitful dialogue. Abstractly formulated, the questions may include (but are not limited to):
- How do social movements invent, articulate, and engage with alternative visions of the future?
- Why do the horizons of imaginable futures expand or shrink at certain times and places?
- How do visions relate to social interests, identities, ideologies, solidarities, repertoires, values, and innovative agency?
- What led to the current political polarization, and how does it impact political alternatives and the prospects for a better world?
- How do social movements appropriate or invent media for disseminating and deliberating about their visions?
- How do assumptions about the achievability of desirable futures shape contentious politics and influence the outcomes of social movement struggles?
- What are the appropriate methods to engage with these visions and their dynamics? And what upcoming tasks should be high on the research agenda?
See more of: RC07 Futures Research
See more of: RC47 Social Classes and Social Movements
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