Uprisings, Revolts, and Revolutions: Global Perspectives

This session examines uprisings, revolts, revolutions, and related forms of mass contention across regions across the world. Recent episodes of large-scale mobilization challenge conventional distinctions between social movements and revolutions. Many do not fit neatly into established categories: they may be massive yet weakly institutionalized, disruptive yet not fully revolutionary, reformist and ruptural at once, capable of extracting concessions while falling short of deep structural transformation. As scholars across fields revisit and critique established concepts (e.g. Clarke 2025; Stewart 2026), these episodes invite renewed attention to the mechanisms, trajectories, and consequences through which contemporary unrest is classified, compared, and explained

We invite papers addressing theoretical and conceptual debates, empirical case studies, and national, regional, or cross-regional comparisons. Contributions may examine causes, repertoires, organizational forms, temporal dynamics, trajectories, and outcomes, using quantitative, qualitative, historical, or mixed-methods approaches. We especially welcome papers that move beyond single-case analysis, identify common and divergent pathways, connect contemporary episodes to longer historical processes, or develop concepts that travel across regions without erasing local specificity.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to: the relationship between uprisings, revolts, revolutions, social movements, and mass unrest; digital infrastructures and tactical innovation; regime type, repression, and authoritarian governance; economic crisis, austerity, inequality, and redistribution; environmental crisis and demographic change; religious revival and cultural conflict; geopolitical tensions and transnational diffusion; urban space and protest escalation; and the long-term political, institutional, cultural, and subjective effects of contentious episodes that do not necessarily culminate in regime change.