The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
We live in a time of deep reconfigurations of both democracy and social movements. The democratic project is under serious threat in various regions of the world. On the one hand, social movements are repressed, journalists killed, citizens are spied upon by their states and major trade negotiations are conducted by technocrats on which citizens have little impact. On the other, conservative, racist and far right movements are gaining impetus in the West and in the East, jihadism attracts young people from all regions of the world.
This dark panorama is however an incomplete picture. All around the world, insightful social movements and new forms of activism and democratic practices have emerged. They open horizons of possibility and challenge our classic perspectives about what activism, social movements and democracy mean today. Citizens have occupied squares, and invaded the Internet to organize, diffuse their messages and promote an open and free society where knowledge and information are shared. They consider democracy not only a matter of polls or demands addressed to their governments, but a claim for social justice and dignity as much as a personal commitment they intend to implement in their activist and daily life practices.
