Mobilization Under (Growing) Autocracy

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

Eighty percent of the world’s population resides in a country that is “not free” or “partially free.” Even those in “free” countries may experience democratic backsliding, may be directly repressed by the state due to racial, ethnic, or other minoritized status or protest participation, and/or experience repression by illicit organized actors and/or more disorganized but still damaging harassment. We seek research papers on: (1) new dimensions or insights into political control and/or repression; or (2) collective action strategies being developed in backsliding or autocratic contexts, at either the national or subregional level. We especially welcome papers that theorize how effective tactics for collective action under repression could be fruitfully applied in settings that are beginning to shift towards autocratization. We are open to research on the US or on cases from around the globe. We are also open to papers with preliminary findings in contexts where democratic backsliding is recent or ongoing.

Sub Unit

• Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section / Mobilization Under (Growing) Autocracy

Presider

• Anjuli Fahlberg, Tufts University

Individual Presentations

• State Capacity and Protest: How Authoritarian State-Building Unintentionally Fuels Contention - Fangsheng Zhu, Duke Kunshan University

• Cordial Containment: Transnational Activism and Authoritarian Hospitality Among Post-2022 Russian Migrants in Serbia - Liudmila Listrovaya, University of Michigan

• Arts and Artifacts of Movements in Suppressive Contexts: The Case of 2022 Protests in Iran - Jaleh Jalili, Rice University

• Why Autocratization in Democratic Societies Proves Hard to Resist: Three ‘Mobilization-Dampening’ Mechanisms - Benjamin Abrams, University College London

• Relational Infrastructure and Resilient Resistance: From George Floyd Square to ICE Resistance Networks in Minneapolis - Anna DalCortivo, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Session Organizers

• Jennifer Earl, University of Delaware

• Anjuli Fahlberg, Tufts University