Periodic Reporting for period 3 - POWDER (Protest and Order. Democratic theory, contentious politics, and the changing shape of western democracies)
Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2022-01-31
The research project aims to analyze the interrelationship between protest and political order under the contextual conditions of the changing shape of modern western democracies. Two groups of questions are connected to this study perspective, which will be answered by means of a democratic-theoretically-led synchronous comparison of selected contemporary protest movements – digital protest movements, transnationally organized climate protest movements, migrant resistance movements and the rightwing identitarian protest movement: The aim is to clarify firstly the extent to which the new forms of protest question the premises of democratic orders: What potential for further development lies within the new forms of protest on the one hand, and what are the challenges to democracy on the other? Secondly, the aim is to determine the influence and relevance held by the democratic order itself in an age of the changing shape of democracy with regard to the specific formation of the new forms of protest, and what statements can be made on how the formation of the order is changed, in turn, by the new forms of protest themselves.
In the reporting period, efforts in the implementation of the project focused first on a) hiring staff; b) discussing the alignment of the subprojects that compose the POWDER project; c) advancing the shared epistemological understanding of the project framework; d) training the research assistants on methods; and e) discussing the theoretical bases of the project. These activities have been conducted through bi-weekly meetings restricted to the participants of the project, reading colloquia open to the scientific community, individual orientation sessions between the coordinator and the research assistants, a workshop retreat of the group and several workshops with the participation of external commentators. Furthermore, the project has won a legal scholar as an associate member to contribute cross-disciplinary perspectives on protest and law.
The project has completed the step 1a (Inventory and selection of the specific movements to be examined, as well as the countries to which reference will be made). Steps 1b-d (Literature research and secondary analyses of each protest movement and their political themes; complete literature research on the changing shape of democracy, systematic development of the basic dimensions of the democratic order and of their operationalization for empirical research; complete literature research on the relationship between protest and democracies in the fields of political theory and social theory, systematic reconstruction of the relationship) were conducted successfully, but will be revised continuously. This serves to include new contributions in the relevant research strands on the changing shape of democracy, on the subject of protest and democracies, and on empirical research protest and movements.
Within the subprojects, steps 2a (Documentary research) and 2b (Implementation and assessment of guided interviews and participatory observation) have already been started and may take longer than initially planned. This will likely impact step 2c (Theoretical linking of the analyses of protest movements with democratic theoretical considerations) that may also take longer than initially planned. Due to the complementarity between data gathering (2a-c) and analysis (3a-b), the delays will not significantly influence the overall implementation of the project. Regarding Step 2d, the workshop had to be rescheduled to spring 2021 due to the ongoing Corona restrictions.
The project has completed the step 1a (Inventory and selection of the specific movements to be examined, as well as the countries to which reference will be made). Steps 1b-d (Literature research and secondary analyses of each protest movement and their political themes; complete literature research on the changing shape of democracy, systematic development of the basic dimensions of the democratic order and of their operationalization for empirical research; complete literature research on the relationship between protest and democracies in the fields of political theory and social theory, systematic reconstruction of the relationship) were conducted successfully, but will be revised continuously. This serves to include new contributions in the relevant research strands on the changing shape of democracy, on the subject of protest and democracies, and on empirical research protest and movements.
Within the subprojects, steps 2a (Documentary research) and 2b (Implementation and assessment of guided interviews and participatory observation) have already been started and may take longer than initially planned. This will likely impact step 2c (Theoretical linking of the analyses of protest movements with democratic theoretical considerations) that may also take longer than initially planned. Due to the complementarity between data gathering (2a-c) and analysis (3a-b), the delays will not significantly influence the overall implementation of the project. Regarding Step 2d, the workshop had to be rescheduled to spring 2021 due to the ongoing Corona restrictions.
In order to achieve these study perspectives, POWDER consists of an overarching democratic-theoretical framework project (TFP) and four empirical subprojects (SP 1-4), which each analyze one of the protest movements mentioned in the context of a qualitative approach (documentary analysis, participatory observation, qualitative interviews). The comparison of these protest movements investigates (I) recurring patterns, but also contrasting assessments with regard to the interrelationship between the political order and the protest movements, examines at a second level (II) the different manners in which the new forms of protest challenge democratic-theoretical dimensions, and attempts at the third level (III) to reconstruct a general democratic-theoretical determination of meaning of present-day protest movements.