New Urban Mobilizations and Solidarities - Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

The interest in urban social movements and urban activism has been growing steadily in recent years and emerging as a new interdisciplinary research area. The field of urban movements is associated with social movement studies and research on contentious politics, as well as with urban studies on spatial planning, governance, and local politics. Urban mobilization manifests itself in various collective forms: informal and non-governmental organizations, neighborhood groups, but also as collective mobilization to improve housing conditions, environmental prefigurative action to promote a socio-ecological transition, and various other forms of protests. Urban activists introduce new issues in urban politics and local development, and often hold the position of norm entrepreneurs in the urban polity. They attempt to convince political elites to embrace new norms based on diverse repertoires of action, which involve traditional protests, advocacy, grassroots engagement and class baed urban politics, digital activism, and community services. Our session aims at summarizing diverse aspects of recent urban mobilizations, and revisiting the current research agenda on urban social movements. We believe that future research on urban movements needs to be based on more diverse approaches to the urban context, allowing a greater understanding of region-specific social problems and conflicts. We also invite proposals analyzing new forms of urban solidarity in the post-COVID context, in both Global North and South.