Nina Hall
Digital advocacy organisations have pioneered new strategies to mobilise people rapidly, and shape public opinion. But increasingly, they face challenges from new technologies, and complex relationships with NGOs. Nina Hall and Paola Pierri outline five potential futures for these organisations Read more
Sabine Volk
Germany’s largest far-right protest movement, PEGIDA, this month celebrates eight years of mobilisation and protest activity. Its survival, argues Sabine Volk, is a puzzle not explained by social movement theory. She explores an overlooked explanatory factor: PEGIDA's repetitive protest ritual Read more
Peter Gardner
Extinction Rebellion was created in 2018 by a small band of activists in Bristol, UK. By summer 2021, it was active in 79 countries across all continents bar Antarctica. Pete Gardner, Tiago Carvalho and Maria Valenstain argue that mass protest was key to the movement’s spread around the globe Read more
Bakhytzhan Kurmanov
To understand today’s autocratic regimes, we should look at how they exploit social media, argues Bakhyzhan Kurmanov. In Kazakhstan, a referendum in the name of ‘open government’ is effectively a sham. What's more, it is a cover for autocratic practices of silencing dissent Read more
Damir Kapidžić
Illiberal politics are a way to understand the process by which ruling elites (mis)use democratic institutions of the state to create an electoral advantage for themselves with the aim to remain in power indefinitely. With a focus on Southeast Europe, Damir Kapidžić explains the concept's roots in institutional legacies of past regimes Read more
Valesca Lima
The advance of left-wing, progressive parties in Latin America is driven by the mismanagement of the pandemic, the economic crisis, and the failure of right-wing populism in the region, observes Valesca Lima Read more
Ivaylo Dinev
More than one-third of all protest events in Bulgaria and Slovenia since the Great Recession were class-based. Workers’ mobilisations show durability, contends Ivaylo Dinev, though differences between sectors continue to exist Read more
Angelo Vito Panaro
Unprecedented anti-government protests spread across Kazakhstan in January 2022, andwere only quelled through a military solution. Angelo Vito Panaro argues that, despite the outcome, the protests expose the inherent fragility of the autocratic regime and the strength of public support for a democratic alternative Read more
