Conference Sessions

This panel brings together critical analyses of various aspects of social movements such as movement strategies and tactics, responses from those in the position of power and authority, and multilayered outcomes of movements. Examining empirical cases from a diverse political context, the papers present nuanced analyses of the role of emotions in shaping social movements’ strategies, the choice of movement tactics in dealing with an authoritarian government not willing to negotiate and compromise, protest management tactics especially the violent response of the state, and outcomes of environmental movements in a hybrid political regime.

This panel presents critical analyses of various aspects of politics by interrogating its multilayered and complex effects on language, discourse, and culture. The papers examine interesting empirical cases from different socio-cultural and political contexts – Cuba, Canada, and Iran. They present nuanced analyses of politics involving issues such as the challenges urban artists face to occupy public spaces, language politics especially the strategies of anti-bilingualism movement to occupy public spaces and gain access to political power, and the representation of public and private spaces in cinema before and after the Iranian revolution.

What cultural logics underlie contemporary social movements? How do movements draw on and modify cultural frames to mobilize support? And what is the role of political context in shaping how these dynamics unfold? The presentations in this session will broadly explore these questions by covering a range of substantive topics including conflict over gender and sexuality issues in Canada and in Taiwan, cultural framing of the global solidarity movement for East Timor, of BLM by right-wing conservative movements in America, and grassroots mobilization of the Trump movement.

While the rise of the populist radical right around the world is reminiscent of the 1930s, today’s actors and organizations have adapted their discourses and styles to fit the 21st Century (Rydgren, 2018). Marked by what Mudde (2019) terms an increasing meanstreamization of radical right ideas that blurs the lines between rightwing and radical right politics, this adaptation has been helped by the radical right’s ability to seize current issues and impose its narratives, sometimes even hijacking and distorting certain causes long championed by liberal and left-wing forces. In recent years, scholars have pointed out the way large parts of the radical right have wielded women or LGBT+ rights against minorities through femonationalism (Farris, 2017) and homonationalism (Puar, 2007); implemented robust yet exclusionary social welfare policies (Scheppele, 2022); embraced a secularised Christianity and a common ‘European identity’ (Brubaker, 2017); or instrumentalized “anti-antisemitism” against Muslims (Kalmar, 2020). Scrutinizing the ways various forms of racisms, such as anti-migrant politics, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and antitziganism, interplay with discourses of national and civilizational belonging, welfare and class, and gender and sexuality, this panel seeks to provide an intersectional and comparative analysis of contemporary populist radical right politics, movements, parties, and organizations.

While the rise of the populist radical right around the world is reminiscent of the 1930s, today’s actors and organizations have adapted their discourses and styles to fit the 21st Century (Rydgren, 2018). Marked by what Mudde (2019) terms an increasing meanstreamization of radical right ideas that blurs the lines between rightwing and radical right politics, this adaptation has been helped by the radical right’s ability to seize current issues and impose its narratives, sometimes even hijacking and distorting certain causes long championed by liberal and left-wing forces. In recent years, scholars have pointed out the way large parts of the radical right have wielded women or LGBT+ rights against minorities through femonationalism (Farris, 2017) and homonationalism (Puar, 2007); implemented robust yet exclusionary social welfare policies (Scheppele, 2022); embraced a secularised Christianity and a common ‘European identity’ (Brubaker, 2017); or instrumentalized “anti-antisemitism” against Muslims (Kalmar, 2020). Scrutinizing the ways various forms of racisms, such as anti-migrant politics, Islamophobia, antisemitism, and antitziganism, interplay with discourses of national and civilizational belonging, welfare and class, and gender and sexuality, this panel seeks to provide an intersectional and comparative analysis of contemporary populist radical right politics, movements, parties, and organizations.