Protests and Social Movements between Innovation and Tradition

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.