Theorizing Social Movements: A View from the Global South

This working group contributes to a larger effort in social movement studies to interrogate these classic theories centred on North America and Europe. How can we revise and reformulate existing theoretical frameworks to reflect the importance of global Southern activism? To what extent do these theories, developed narrowly to understand the protest dynamics of Western liberal democracies, apply to hybrid regimes and illiberal states in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East? How is the increasingly digital and transnational nature of movements forcing a reconsideration of social movements’ geographical emergence and impact? This group will read critically and think creatively about how contemporary social movements in the global South extend our understandings of contentious politics. Co-Sponsored by UTM Office of the Vice-President Research.

Leads

  • Julie Moreau, A&S Political Science
  • Janine Clark, UTM Political Science

Members

Faculty, University of Toronto

  • Diana Fu, A&S Political Science
  • Shannon Liu, A&S Economics and Rotman School of Management

Faculty Members outside University of Toronto

  • Kathleen Fallon, Global Health/Sociology, York University

Graduate Students, University of Toronto

  • Yujia Shi, Political Science
  • Siru Chen, Political Science
  • Jessica Neaime, Political Science
  • Lily Nellans, Political Science