Protests and Social Movements between Innovation and Tradition
Annual conference of the Institute for Social Movement and Protest Studies in cooperation with SOCIUM, FGZ & ZEMKI at the University of Bremen
1 & 2 October 2025 @ University of Bremen
Call for Papers
Social Movements have a long history. Charles Tilly locates the emergence of modern social movements in the second half of the 18th century. But of course public uprisings and various forms of protest go back in time much longer. Throughout history social movements have learned from other movements, have modified their organizational forms and forms of political intervention. And they were and are very innovative: New forms of protest have been and still are being invented, new issues have been addressed, and new forms of community are advocated and sometimes prefiguratively tried out.
But protests and social movements are also discontinuous. Often, they seem to emerge almost spontaneously, and to the surprise of political observers, researchers and even activists. The Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter, or Fridays for Future are all examples of massive protest waves with dynamics that surprised almost everybody and whose emergence nobody had foreseen. The same is true for populist and right-wing mobilizations like the Tea Party, PEGIDA, or the Yellow Vests. At this year’s ipb annual conference, we want to focus on this remarkable simultaneity of (historical) continuity and innovation of social movements and protests.
We invite contributions that address the histories and continuities of social movements and protests and papers that explore future trajectories, e.g. how emerging technologies or shifting political landscapes shape movements in the years to come. And we would like to see submissions that analyze the relationship between innovation, invention and tradition in current and historical protests and social movements.
We welcome proposals for various types of contributions: academic research or activist reflections. We accept submissions of individual presentations or complete panels with multiple presentations.
The annual conference will take place at the University of Bremen. Conference languages are German and English.
The deadline for submitting abstracts for contributions or panels (max. 250 words, 5 keywords, in German or English) is May 31, 2025. Proposals can only be submitted via the online form (http://unihb.eu/ipb_conference_2025).
Conference Fee: 60 € (10 € reduced fee)
The conference organizing team: Sebastian Haunss, Sophia Hunger, Thomas Kern, Stephanie Geise, Ricarda Luther, Svenja Spyra, Philipp Srama, Pal Susanszky, Judith Vey
