Social Movements Challenges in a Post-Pandemic World: New Agendas, New Dynamics

How different social scholars across the globe have been pointed out, the COVID-19 pandemic has occurred in a specific sociohistorical context that has deeply affected social movements. The rise of populist leaders, the imposition of lockdown measures and other restrictions on mobility, deepening inequality in global vaccine distribution, the rise of poverty, global waves of protests, and a tense geopolitical context that has transformed the relationship between governments and their citizens are just a few examples of the most visible outcomes.

We are experiencing a double tension-dynamic inside the social movements field: while progressive intellectuals, radical thinkers, and social movements consider the pandemic as an opportunity to build a fairer and equal world, they compete with authoritarian and reactionary state actors and greedy capitalists to shape the meaning of the crisis and the world that may come out of it. In this context, the challenges encountering social movements scholarship are not minor.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected social movements and society in general? What are the intellectual challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing to social movements scholarship? By what means the COVID-19 pandemic has made an impact on collective action and social change? Is it time now to ‘reinvent the future’ and adopt new sociological perspectives to find solutions for major worldwide post-pandemic problems?

The aim of this RC48 session is to provide preliminary answers to these questions, and start a global open debate around this topic.