Brain-Twisters of Social Movement Research | Berlin, 5 and 6 October 2026
Research on protests and social movements is characterised by recurring puzzles – open questions that arise repeatedly across cases, methods and theoretical traditions. While we have accumulated rich empirical knowledge, many core issues remain contested, conceptually unsettled or dependent on context. Rather than viewing these disputes as a shortcoming, this conference invites participants to recognise them as productive starting points for collective thinking.
The Format
The Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements (ipb) will organize its 2026 annual conference in an experimental format. Instead of conventional panels that bring together several but often unconnected papers under a shared theme, each session will be organized around one clear-cut question. Each speaker is expected to provide a concise answer, i.e. a brief contribution based on their own research, literature review, empirical case studies, data or methodological expertise.
In order to minimise the usual trade-offs between parallel sessions, the conference will run with a maximum of two parallel panels at any one time. Each 90-minute panel will include three to four speakers. Contributions will be brief (approximately 5-10 minutes, depending on the number of speakers), leaving ample time for discussion. The panels will follow a fishbowl-inspired format, whereby members of the audience can join the discussion by taking a reserved seat and providing a brief response to the guiding question or offering their own perspective and/or research-based comments on the speakers‘ answers.
How To Get Involved / Registration
Initial inputs with contributions to the discussion have been selected following a Call for Answers (see conference program).
You are warmly invited to become part of the conversation and come to the conference with your answers to the questions. Resistration is now open. Please use this form to register and transfer the participation fee (60 Euro, 10 Euro reduced fee) to the following account by July, 31st:
Verein für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung
IBAN: DE90430609671147040300
BIC: GENODEM1GLS (GLS Gemeinschaftsbank eG)
Payment reference: ipb conference 26 [regular/reduced] fee [your surname]
A receipt will be available at the conference registration desk. You can also scan the respective QR Code with your banking app.
The Program
Monday, 5 October 2026
starting 12:30 Registration
1:15 – 1:30 Welcome and introduction
Organizing Team
1:30 – 3:00 Session 1: What are we talking about when referring to social movements?
- Or Vosefov (Humboldt University of Berlin): Contemporary social movements could evolve into a civil society of war whose involvement in violent conflict both reproduces and constrains war
- Thalles Breda (Federal University of São Carlos): From social movements to collective networks? Hybrid organizational forms and strategies of mobilization in contemporary Brazil
- Kai Heidemann (Maastricht University): When we talk about social movements, we’re talking about educational agency
- Dieter Rucht (Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements): Social movements are a product of modernity, based on the idea that society can be created and changed by human beings
Facilitation: Johanna Wahl (University of Oldenburg)
3:00 – 3:15 Break
3:15 – 4:45 Session 2: Does (state) repression work – even in the long run? Part 1
- Lisa Voigt (Hertie School of Government): Long-term demobilization of SMs can result from the consolidation of repressive frames in parliaments and courts, but contestation can also disrupt delegitimization
- Ruth Simsa and Julia Litofcenko (both Vienna University of Economics and Business): Yes, and it already starts with negative narratives and delegitimizing media discourses
- Merel Driessen (Erasmus University Rotterdam): State repressions ‘works’ when informalized towards legitimation
- Katharina Fritsch (University of Vienna): Repression hits emotionally and can produce both mobilizing and demobilizing effects
Facilitation: Philipp Knopp (Technische Universität Chemnitz)
3:15 – 4:45 Session 3: Can social movements in the Global North and South overcome hurdles to cooperate?
- Marie-Sophie Borchelt (University of Bielefeld): tba
- Zozan Baran (Freie Universität Berlin): tba
- Felix Anderl (University of Marburg): tba
Facilitation: Eva-Lotte Schwarz (Scuola Normale Superiore)
4:45 – 5:15 Break
5:15 – 6:30 Plenary panel discussion: What is the impact of AI on social movements?
Speakers: Philipp Knopp (Technische Universität Chemnitz), Can Şimşek (Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society), Lisa Bogerts (Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements)
Facilitation: tba
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
9:15 – 10:45 Session 4: How do social movements die?
- Jannis Julien Grimm (Freie Universität Berlin): Mass movements die because of burnout, adaptation, and infighting
- Ann-Kirstine Rønn (Aarhus University): Diaspora movements die when they fail to cater to the diaspora community
- Myriam Ahmed (Freie Universität Berlin): Revolutionary movements die when external and internal factors change the realities and priorities of key mobilizing actors
- Endre Borbáth (University of Heidelberg): Social movements die when their participatory infrastructure stops converting grievances and sympathy into meaningful collective voice
- Tine Gade (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs): Social movements decline when conflict escalation and exposure to violence eithers fuels more contestation or leads to demobilization
- Nerea Montejo-López (Scuola Normale Superiore): Social movements die when the relationship between present conditions and future horizons becomes misaligned
Facilitation: Jannis Julien Grimm (Freie Universität Berlin)
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:30 Session 5: Does (state) repression work – even in the long run? Part 2
- Sofia Rolim (University of Bergen): Repression works when it hides: Politics of visibility in legal prosecution
- Clemens Arzt and Maren Wegner (Berlin School of Economics and Law): Freedom of expression and assembly: Access to justice in Germany offers very limited remedies, if any
- Julia Schreiber (University of Sussex): Repression can spark transnational solidarity (depending on who represses and gets repressed)
Facilitation: Katharina Fritsch (University of Vienna)
11:00 – 12.30 Session 6: What power do objects and symbols hold in social movements?
- Lior Ayali (Tel Aviv University): Social movement objects gain power when they become totems that organize belonging, obligation, and collective identity
- Nicole Milman-Doerr (University of Siegen): How visual images have polarized a global Left, and on limits and strengths of critical visual image work
- Simon Teune (Freie Universität Berlin) Symbols are shortcuts to movement messages and identities. Their power rests in shared practices
- Lisa Bogerts (Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements) Images allow movements to communicate their world-views in subtle and ambiguous ways and thus to employ diverse persuasion strategies
Facilitation: Johanna Wahl (University of Oldenburg)
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch break
2:00 – 3:30 Session 7: Global North South cooperation : Under what conditions does de-solidarisation occur, why do alliances break, and what can be done about it?
- Antje Daniel (University of Vienna): tba
- Nicole Milman-Doerr (University of Siegen): tba
- Sabrina Zajak (Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin): tba
Facilitation: tba
2:00 – 3:30 Session 8: Will social movements be able to throw a wrench in the works of fascism?
- Janne Frederike Fenz (Karlstad University): Practices of constructive resistance are crucial for the sustainability of antifascist countermobilization
- Peter Nikolaus Funke (University of South Florida): Hopefully if they help lead a broader „popular front”
Facilitation: Simon Teune (Freie Universität Berlin)
3:30 – 3:45 Break
3:45 – 4:45 Concluding discussion: What is the responsibility of protest research in authoritarian times?
Inputs by Jannis Grimm (Freie Universität Berlin), Carla Tempel (activist and independent scholar), Swen Hutter (Freie Universität Berlin/Berlin Social Science Center)
Facilitation: Marvin Stein (University of Leipzig)
The Venue
The 2026 ipb annual conference will be held at the Institute for Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin, Universitätsstraße 3B, 10117 Berlin.
All rooms are on the ground level.
Organizing team
For any question, please contact the organizing team by Email: conference@protestinstitut.eu
Dieter Rucht, Eva-Lotte Schwarz, Marvin Stein, Simon Teune, Johanna Raphaela Wahl
