Here you will find the current activities of the ipb and its members: information on new projects and events, comments on current (protest) events.
The call is addressed to researchers working in the field of protest and social movement research. The ipb colloquium offers an open space for the presentation of work in progress, the discussion of new ideas, and interdisciplinary exchange. We equally welcome contributions from researchers at all career stages, including early-career scholars as well as established researchers.
On November 29, 2024, the working group “Social Movements and Police” organized a workshop in Vienna on “Protest Policing in Hybrid Publics. Third Parties in Relation to Protest and Policing”. International researchers gathered to examine this relationship in more detail.
The Institute for the Study of Protest and Social Movements has now systematically processed and harmonized a collection of 31 protest surveys from Germany and Poland. Through GESIS they are now made available to other researchers and the general public. Sebastian Haunss, Piotr Kocyba, Pascal Siegers, Marvin Stein, and Simon Teune report on the project.
In recent years, the political mobilisation of misinformation has become a relevant and sometimes dominating factor. Simon Teune describes the development from “climate lie” to “plandemic”.
This authoritarian masculinism – experts call it “protective masculinity” – requires a counterpoint: a weak woman worthy of protection who, in traditional patriarchal and heterosexual relationships, serves the man and of course can be sexually subjugated by him. Those of a right-wing authoritarian leaning thus seek to mobilise opposition to the neoliberal notion of women taking up employment, propagating instead traditional roles such as mother and housewife. It’s not only men who do this: female influencers who dub themselves “tradwives” (short for “traditional wife”) make their money from this latter model.
Development and Cooperation, 30.12.2025: The Chainsaw Men
Birgit Sauer (Uni Wien)
The leading figures [of Generation Deutschland] come from a far-right milieu, in which former activists from the Identitarian Movement, fraternities, neo-Nazism and ethno-nationalist groups come together.
France24, 29.11.2025: German far right founds new youth wing in face of protests
Fabian Virchow (HS Düsseldorf)
“Whether you’re talking about the Communists, Yabloko or [the unregistered] Rassvet, at least they exist and they can do something,” Dollbaum told The Moscow Times. “Let’s take the Feminist Anti-War Resistance, one of the most courageous and numerous activist groups that are…very principally against the war and the regime. They [operate in Russia] anonymously…but they can’t currently be a real political actor,” he added.
The Moscow Times, 28.4.2025: Explainer: Does Russia’s ‘Systemic Opposition’ Still Exist?
Jan Matti Dollbaum (Université de Fribourg)
If climate activists foster alliances with trade unions and progressive corporations, a conservative-led government will have to deal with a powerful narrative.
dw.com, 13.2.2025: What’s next for Germany’s climate movement?
Simon Teune (FU Berlin)
A study of nonviolent action by Dalilah Shemia-Goeke finds that multinational corporations are deeply entangled with states in reciprocal relationships of dependence. While this puts constraints on the ability of states to regulate corporations, power imbalances between business and society can be redressed when people withdraw the support on which corporate entities depend.
Salon.com, 29.9.2024: Can we still prevent global catastrophe? Yes — by fighting corporate power, now
Dalilah Shemia-Goeke (Uni Marburg)
This remarkable movement is significant due to its sheer size—German sociologist Dieter Rucht described it as “the biggest mass movement in the history of the Federal Republic”—and also because it stands in stark contrast to the stunning complacency pervading the United States.
Newsweek.com, 7.5.2024: Germans have taken to the streets to protect their democracy. Why aren’t Americans?
Dieter Rucht (WZB)