This announcement should be of interest to some listmembers.
Alice
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Association and Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies (Institut für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung i.G. - ipb)
In August 2012 a group of social scientist founded an association for protest and movement research in Berlin with the aim of setting up an institute for protest and movement studies. The association is supported by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin). Already established are an administration office and a management which is attending to daily business, coordinating internal matters and replying to or forwarding external requests. The Institute’s work shall be accompanied and promoted conceptionally by renowned personalities from science and civil society.
Recent years have once again proved the power of protest and social movements in shaping society. Grassroots politics is now high on the public agenda. Nevertheless, it is only a marginal topic in the German-speaking social sciences. Large research projects in this area are rare, and an institutional anchor is missing. The newly founded Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies aims to fill these gaps. It creates a place in which ‘politics from below’ is studied systematically and continuously. It will connect scientists from Germany, Europe and the rest of the world in exchanges and joint research.
The institute shall primarily be a place for research. Its aim is to deliver and spread theoretically guided, empirically grounded and both scientifically and politically relevant knowledge in the field of protest and social movements. Analyzing the self-organization of citizens as well as the context, forms and effects of their intervention in politics and society is indispensable. What are the motives and themes that make people take to the streets? How does mobilization work? Which groups are excluded from grassroots politics? Which collective interventions strengthen and which undermine democracy? To answer such questions, the research institute to be established will continuously analyze present and recent protest in its respective political, social and cultural context. This will be done primarily with a focus on Germany. In the long run, however, we also wish to draw cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons and analyze transnational mobilization processes as well.
Along with its research activities, the institute also intends to become a center for research cooperation with other institutions at home and abroad.
The Institute shall focus on the following core tasks:
- Documentation and analysis of political and social protest in Germany in the form of continuously updated protest monitoring – especially in line with and in continuation of an already existing data record on protest in Germany since 1950 (‘Prodat’)
- Mapping of citizen initiatives and similar groups on the basis of a nation-wide survey
- In-depth interviews with protesters (regarding political socialization, conditions, reasons and forms of their present engagement, social selectivity of the activists, etc.)
In addition to such more comprehensive endeavors, the Institute shall also deliver studies on present conflicts at relatively short notice, for example:
- Largely standardized on-the-spot surveys of protesters in cases of prominent conflict, such as in the field of energy policy and transport
- Case study based and partly participatory research on outstanding conflicts including various forms of citizen engagement and intervention such as street protest, litigation, referenda, citizen forums, round tables and mediation processes.
The Institute shall be directed by a small group of social scientists who are experts in the research area. In addition, other scholars working in or interested in the field shall join the Institute. An office for administrative and organizational tasks will be set up at the Technical University of Berlin. The Institute shall be supported by an advisory council composed of renowned personalities from the social sciences and civil society.
Initiative for the establishment of the Institute on Protest and Social Movement Studies:
Priska Daphi, Donatella della Porta, Roland Roth, Dieter Rucht, Simon Teune, Wolfgang Stuppert, Heike Walk and Sabrina Zajak
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Alice Mattoni
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Sociology
University of Pittsburgh
www.alicemattoni.com
New Book! Media Practices and Protest Politics. How Precarious Workers Mobilise.
www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409426783
