From June 16th to June 18th 2025, almost 90 researchers of social movements, mobilization, and protest met at CEU's Shattuck Center for Human Rights in Vienna to discuss "Contested Solidarities: Contentious Politics Between Resistance, Backlash and Change". The event was co-organized and co-funded by the European Sociological Association Research Network 25 on Social Movements, the European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on Participation and Mobilization, the Council for European Studies Research Network on Social Movements, CEU's Shattuck Center for Human Rights, as well as the Department of Public Policy at Central European University.
We had 19 exciting panels and fascinating discussions on how the landscape of participation and mobilization is shifting in the contemporary and how solidarity oftentimes has become a key area of contestation but also a valuable and highly effective instrument of resistance. At the same time, many regimes and actors of autocratization attempt to reframe and shift understandings towards rather exclusionary readings of solidarity - offering community and support for some in exchange for the exclusion and oppression of others.
We also brought together journal editors from four leading academic journals - Social Movement Studies, Mobilization, Partecipazione e Conflitto, Interface - in the field to discuss how publishing in the area of social movement studies has evolved.
Furthermore, we enjoyed highly interesting keynotes by Margit Mayer on urban movements in neoliberal times, as well as by Andrea Krizsan, and Conny Roggeband on feminist resistance against authoritarian and anti-gender politics.
The discussions underlined that we need a deeper understanding of what drives people to mobilize and protest under constantly changing circumstances - and what makes them resist adversities. Here, the impressive number of junior researchers in the field presenting fascinating topics provides hope. And lastly, this event underlined the value of a positive and encouraging research community that celebrates academic rigor, imagination, and courageous fieldwork to better understand how democracies can be defended and how the challenges of autocratization might be countered. Thank you for these inspiring days!
