Becoming an Activist in the Age of Polycrisis: The Biographical Experience of Advocating Social Change
Becoming an Activist in the Age of Polycrisis: The Biographical Experience of Advocating Social Change
Friday, 11 July 2025: 15:00-16:45
Location: ASJE031 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
RC38 Biography and Society (host committee) Language: English
The session is dedicated to the biographical investigation of the careers of social activists on the brink of a polycrisis. In recent decades, marked by severe economic, political, and epidemiological crises, along with a growing awareness of environmental threats, social activism has emerged as a viable means of addressing uncertainty and insecurity.
We invite submissions analyzing the careers of climate activists, social activists, and politicians advocating for social change in the Anthropocene era. We welcome both empirical contributions and theoretical papers responding to the call by Andfeas Reckwitz and Hartmut Rosa (2023) for a theory capable of addressing the broader picture of a world under stress.
The thematic scope of the session includes, but is not limited to:
- Biographical sources of social activism,
- Careers of social activists from a life course perspective,
- Value systems and motivations for becoming an activist,
- Intricacies and paradoxes of activists' work,
- Comparisons between various kinds of activism,
- Generational and geographical varieties of activism,
- Production and dissemination of discourses on activists.
Keywords: crisis, Anthropocene, polycrisis, biographical research, social activists
References:
Reckwitz, A., Rosa, H. (2023). Late Modernity in Crisis: Why We Need a Theory of Society. Cambridge: Polity.
Session Organizers:
Chair:
Oral Presentations