and Balkan Europe
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Interdisciplinary Symposium - Power of the People: the dynamics and limits of social mobilization in South Eastern Europe
Conference venue: St Antony's College and St John's College, 62 Woodstock Rd, OX2 6JF Oxford, United Kingdom
Period: Friday, 27 February 2015 from 09:30 to 19:30 (GMT)
- Oxford
Description
The aim of the symposium is to bring together distinguished scholars from various disciplines to discuss the merits, limits and legacies of social protests, demonstrations, sit-ins and other forms of social mobilization, which we have witnessed in South Eastern European in the past twenty years and especially since 2011. The keynote speaker for this conference is Professor Michael Biggs (University of Oxford). The keynote panelists of the symposium are two scholars-activists Igor Štiks and Srećko Horvat, who have just published one of the first analyses of contemporary radical politics in the former Yugoslavia.
Our understanding of the diversity and communality of these protests and other actions of social mobilization in SEE have been until now very limited. Why and how were these protests organized? Who are the main actors? What is their motivation? How have people been mobilized? What comes after the protests? Does anyone have a plan what comes next?
Similarly unsatisfactory have been our approaches to studying this theme through various methods and approaches – mostly dominated by political scientists and sociologists. The field of social action and mobilization needs to be examined through a variety of approaches such as law, psychology, economics, geography, cultural studies, history, philosophy, media studies, literature, and film studies.
Our primary aim is to bring together scholars from various disciplines interested in the study of social mobilization as well as South Eastern Europe in particular, together with experts in the theory of social action and methodological approaches to its study. Our secondary aim is to look at the Balkans from a new perspective, which would be more embedded in the common European legacy, rather than singling this region out as a worn-torn European periphery.
Our aims are the following:
- To engage political scientists, historians, economists, anthropologists, lawyers, sociologists, psychologists, artists, media experts, ethnographers, linguists and researchers from other disciplines working on the topic of social movements, protests, collective action and mobilization of citizens, who often work with different assumptions, in a discussion over the dynamics and limitations of social mobilization in SEE.
- To create a network of researchers interested in SEE but with different approaches to the study of popular protests, collective action, and various other ways of citizens’ activism.
- To link different disciplines, objects of research and methodologies in a fruitful discussion about the various pathways of studying social mobilization.
- To demonstrate that interdisciplinarity, heterogeneity and multiplicity of approaches leads to a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of social mobilization.
- To point towards the existing gaps in research on the topic, such as the discrepancy between structure (context and institutions) and agency.
- To reinvigorate the Oxford-community of scholars interested both in the region and the field of inquiry.
The specific themes we want to explore are the following:
- Power and leadership;
- Sources of mobilization – motivation and rationale;
- Role of the media and new media (Facebook, Twitter);
- Economic factors;
- Role of the civil sector;
- Role of emotions;
- Visualization of social actions and culture as a platform for mobilization;
- Successful versus failed cases and legacies of social protests;
- Positive and negative aspects of social protests;
- Methodological approaches to social mobilization beyond social sciences (fieldwork);
- Ethical issues in the study of social action.
How to register
If you would like to attend the event as a not presenting participant, register here.
Organizer
Information & contacts
Convenors: Jessie Hronesova, Ana Ranitovic, Ivor Sokolic
e-mail: protestconfox2015@gmail.com
PECOB: Portal on Central Eastern and Balkan Europe - University of Bologna - 117, c.so della Repubblica - Italy
