Joakim Kreutz
In an increasingly globalised and digital world, national borders are no longer constraints on political mobilisation, argue Joakim Kreutz and Anthi Antonia Makrogianni. Thailand's 2020 #MilkTeaAlliance protests show how shared identities created in online communities can form in reaction to online repression Read more
Joseph Ward
The rise of authoritarian politics in ‘formal democracies’ across Europe has been met with various forms of protest. Some of these movements have achieved partial success. But evidence from the UK and France suggests that neoliberal governments are harnessing such resistance to accelerate authoritarianism and hostility towards marginalised people, write Joseph Ward and Thomas Da Costa Vieira Read more
Didem Unal Abaday
In Turkey, LGBTI+ events and pressures on queer people’s right to assembly face increasing restrictions. This, writes Didem Unal Abaday, will only get worse with democratic decline. In the new parliamentary term after the 2023 elections, democratic backsliding is turning political homophobia into state policy Read more
Sabine Volk
Too much populism research focuses on populist leaders, argues Sabine Volk. Yet looking through the lens of collective action offers valuable insights into how we might define populism. It also provides fresh understandings of what populism does, and how it works Read more
Adrian Smith
New digital platforms for citizens' initiatives, such as Decidim, are becoming more popular. Adrian Smith and Pedro Prieto Martín argue that while the technology may not be developed in a democratic way, such instruments can develop into tools for democracy in today’s digital societies Read more
Sophia Hunger
In recent years, demonstrations against containment measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 have dominated the protest landscape. Sophia Hunger, Swen Hutter and Eylem Kanol explain what drives individuals from passive sympathy to active participation. They find that political and ideological attitudes, rather than 'biographical availability', play a critical role Read more
Abbey Heffer
Authoritarian regimes are not centralised monoliths. In China, authoritarian responses to protest can differ dramatically across localities. Abbey Heffer argues that research on regime-level authoritarianism often overlooks decentralisation. Studying aspects of authoritarianism, such as protest repression and concessions, requires a practice-based approach that reconciles national and localised authoritarianism 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
