XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

816

Activism and Collective Action in the Post-Occupy Era

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

Language: English

This session examines the new manifestations and continued dynamics of social movements in the post-Occupy era. After an intense wave of occupation protests worldwide, rather than coming to a standstill, activism and collective action have moved from the streets into other social and political domains. While some of the former activists have shifted their arena of contention to institutional politics, others have experimented emancipatory practices through the development of alternative organizations and social enterprises. These include but are not limited to the rise of youth politicians and their grassroots supporters, post-movement cinema and art, self-governed communities and online groups, as well as other popular forms of citizen action in different regions. In order to analyze these current trends, this session solicits papers to explore activism and collective action in the post-Occupy era. We would like to address the following research questions:

What are the major activities, actors, causes, and features of activism and collective action that emerged in the post-Occupy era? And what are their relationships to the earlier wave of occupation movements?

What are the conditions and mechanisms under which they develop? And how far do they have the capacity to shape social orders and political realities?

How should we conceptualize the theoretical and methodological implications of the recent developments? And what are the roles played by social media and digital technologies in these processes?