Power to the People: Social Movements, Activism and Grassroots Organising

Although we appear to be witnessing a rise in protests across the globe, activism and collective action have been prevalent throughout human history. Ever since top-down institutions have developed in our societies, bottom-up alternatives and challenges have sprung up in opposition. In this course we will explore these citizen and group-led bottom-up initiatives, as they oppose existing institutional arrangements, and provide alternative perspectives. These initiatives range from protest movements (contentious politics) and self-organised communities (prefigurative politics) to informal security arrangements and also advocacy work. The course starts with a thorough overview of social movement theory and work on collective action, as well as a brief introduction to state formation. Subsequently, we will offer methodological tools to study bottom-up initiatives, after which we will combine the theories and methods to zoom-in on a the range of case studies.