Movement, Protest, Activism.

Interdisciplinary Approaches to an Elusive Phenomenon

„Women‘s March on Washington“, Peter Kaminski, CC BY 2.0

Fridays for Future, mass protests in Hong Kong, the Pussy Hat Project – social movements, public protest and activism promise alternatives and correctives to the established political parties and institutional politics in many places. They are also a prominent topic of research for historians, ethnologists and sociologists, but the disciplines often stick to their established methods and rarely take the chance to learn from each other: Sociological approaches demand theoretical models, for example on transnationalisation, diffusion and change of movements, or on the meaning of digital media. Historians emphasize the inherent logic and the historical context of specific social movements and tend to call for the historicization or problematization of the terminology’s normative content. In contrast, ethnological micro-studies usually reflect on activism as an emergent form of sociality, teaching and learning processes in the socialization of actors, as well as the significance of (material and political) infrastructures.

The international workshop 'movement, protest and activism' aims at an interdisciplinary exchange and a discussion of those phenomena. On a theoretical-methodological level, respective disciplinary approaches will be presented and conceptual reflections will be made. Another panel addresses the significance of 'movement', 'protest' and 'activists' as labels of self- or hetero description. The presentation of research projects at the University of Konstanz illustrates different approaches and enables the discussion by the example of concrete case studies. The comprehensive aim of the workshop is to take up the different models of theory and research and to identify possible synergies.

Public Keynote

Prof. Dr. Myra Marx Ferree

Reproduction as movement politics: Linking abortion rights and immigration restriction struggles

October 24th, 2019, 7.15-8.30 pm

Venue

Universität Konstanz, Room K7
Universitätsstraße 10
78464 Konstanz

No registration required.

Interdisciplinary Workshop

October 24th ‒ October 25th, 2019
Bodenseeforum Konstanz | University of Konstanz

For participation as a guest, please register with Johannes Pantenburg or Benedikt Sepp by 6 October.

Thursday October 24th, 2019

2.00-2.30 pm - Opening remarks and kick-off presentations: Movement, protest, activism - conceptual approaches

Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer

Researching activism between militant anthropology and cultural critique: Towards a public anthropology of engagement

Prof. Dr. Boris Holzer

Eluding pigeonholes? Social movements and the distinctions of sociological theory

Prof. Dr. Sven Reichardt

Between criticising institutions and responsiveness: Social movement research and the history of the present

2.30-4.30 pm - Disciplinary approaches and their implications

 (presented and discussed on the basis of completed and ongoing research projects)

Chair: Prof. Dr. Myra Marx Ferree

Prof. Dr. Bernd Weisbrod

Social movements and/within historical frames

Prof. Dr. Fabiana Li

Resource extraction, environmental conflict, and struggles for justice: Anthropological perspectives

Prof. Dr. Priska Daphi

Protest, politics and culture – Sociological perspectives on social movements

5.00-6.30 pm - Ongoing research projects at the University of Konstanz (I)

 

Chair: Prof. Dr. Sven Reichardt

Hanno Mögenburg

Inside the infrapolitics of service delivery in post-apartheid South Africa

Johannes Pantenburg

The role of fear in the West German peace movement of the 1980s

Comment: Dr. Raul Acosta

7.15-8.30 pm - Public Keynote

(at the University of Konstanz, Room K7)

Prof. Dr. Myra Marx Ferree

Reproduction as movement politics: Linking abortion rights and immigration restriction struggles

Friday October 25th, 2019

9.00-11.00 am - Legitimation through attributions. Self- and hetero description as “movements”, “protests” and “activists”

Chair: Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer

PD Dr. Andreas Pettenkofer

The proof of activism

Dr. Freia Anders

The limits of the legitimate: Runway opponents, squatter, autonomists

Dr. Mateusz Laszczkowski

The Good, the Bad, and the Blek-Blok: The violence of labelling in an Italian protest movement

11.15am-1.15pm - Ongoing research projects at the University of Konstanz (II)

Chair: Prof. Dr. Boris Holzer

Björn Herold

Protests and activism in contemporary South Africa

Christian Hilgert

Diverting movements: Environmentalism as a counter-narrative in the early 1970s

Daniel Eggstein

Knowledge and sciences in the ecology movement. Germany and the USA in the 1970s and 1980s

Comment: Prof. Dr. Christian Meyer

2.30-4.30 pm - Ongoing research projects at the University of Konstanz (III)

Chair: Prof. Dr. Thomas Kirsch

Carolin Hirsch

(In)visible people in (non)existing spaces - The setting up of alternative spaces in the already existing urban space

Benedikt Sepp

Thinking in (a) movement. Theory as a social practice in the student movement of “68”

Sandrine Gukelberger

Protest practices and temporal orientation of youth activists in Senegal

Comment: Prof. Dr. Thomas Lindenberger

5.00-6.00 pm - Final discussion

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Christian Meyer

Chair: Prof. Dr. Thomas Kirsch, Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer, Prof. Dr. Myra Marx Ferree, Prof. Dr. Sven Reichardt, Prof. Dr. Boris Holzer, Prof. Dr. Thomas Lindenberger

Organized by Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer, Prof. Dr. Boris Holzer, Prof. Dr. Thomas Kirsch, Prof. Dr. Christian Meyer and Prof. Dr. Sven Reichardt.

Venue

Bodenseeforum, Room K 3
Reichenaustraße 21
78467 Konstanz