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In the wake of the pandemic, various ‘progressive’ and ‘regressive’ movements gather pace to imagine and enact their desired futures. Extinction Rebellion, the Movement for Black Lives, movements for alternative economies and autonomous collectives, but also new right movements such as the Identitarian Generation in Europe or (neo-)fascism take collective action to reshape society according to their views and principles. The module introduces students to the concepts and theories that social sciences have developed to understand various forms of collective action for political goals. We will learn about social movements around the globe through ethnographic works aimed at understanding the worlds of the actors involved from their own perspective. We will examine strategies of collective action, as well as the ambivalences, paradoxes, and conundrums that activist collective action struggles with in various contexts.
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