Call for papers: Revolution, protest, indignation

Pénélope Larzillière and Boris Petric, editorial coordinators

The colour revolutions in the post-soviet space, the Arab spring, the Indignants movement in Europe… many political regimes have recently been challenged by social movements that are organizing in new ways. Over and above the uniqueness of each of these separate political events, Socio seeks to stimulate a debate around the analysis and comparison of these movements. Together do they mark the beginning of a new historical moment?

These movements are characterized by new forms of organization that seem to reject hierarchies and leaders. They seek to emphasize horizontality and their unity appears to be rooted in shared forms of action rather than around a shared ideology. The figure of the intellectual and classic organizations like unions and political parties appears to be marginalized in favour of spontaneous movements emerging from a naturalized and de-politicized “civil society”. Is this novel form of organizing the shared distinguishing characteristic among otherwise varied movements? An important aim of this issue of Socio is to contextualize these potentially unprecedented developments.

1. Concretely, how do these movements build a consensus against the established order and various forms of repression? In what spaces do these movements develop new forms of collective action outside of traditional institutionalized politics? Do the ‘classical’ institutions and actors resume a central role as these movements persist and even take power?
2. What is the importance of new processes of identification and the creation of transnational networks? Concretely, how is the circulation of experiences, emotions, images and techniques of protest organized? In what ways have the social media modified forms of collective action and participation? Do they enable the emergence of a new public space?
3. How might these events be interpreted historically and globally? Do we find the specificity of the revolutionary moment as identified by historians of the Revolution? Do these movements offer fundamentally new ways of imagining the future?

Socio invites approaches rooted in original empirical work and comparative analyses over space and time. Articles that are sensitive to the articulations between the local and the global, going beyond country or culturally-specific analyses are particularly welcome.

Authors should send a proposal of about two pages to the editors by January 15, 2013. The proposal should describe the article’s problematic and empirical scope, including a bibliography. If the proposal is approved by the editors, the author should send the article, of between 30 000 to a maximum of 50 000 characters (including notes and bibliography) by April 15, 2013 at the latest. We ask authors to make a particular effort to write in a clear and accessible style that establishes the contribution’s importance for a broad, interdisciplinary audience.

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