Protests and social movements are fuzzy objects to study. Scholars face a lack of clear boundaries, diversity-by-definition, and -often dramatic- changes over time. The field of social movement studies holds particular challenges to researchers with a view to getting the research design straight and becoming clear about the restrictions of an argument. These challenges contrast with the conditions of scientific production: the lion’s share of research on social movements and protests is realized in individual post-graduate projects. Scholars at this stage of their career tend to be isolated, they lack opportunities for exchange with peers, and their supervisors are more often than not specialized in an altogether different field.
The workshop Politics from below, to be held in Berlin on 25 October 2019, is hence designed to create a space for critical discussion and encouragement. During the one-day event, participants give and receive feedback on their work in the field of social movement and protest studies. They present central problems of their ongoing research and discuss them with colleagues at both early and advanced stages of their career.