Building Bridges: Civil Society and Social Movement Theories in Times of Crisis

Discussant: Swen Hutter
Moderated by Edgar Grande

The Center for Civil Society Research is launching its lecture series on Conflict, Social Movements, and Civil Society.

Times of crisis are critical junctures. Social sciences are no exception: Each new transformation challenges us to update our conceptual toolkit. While often addressing related phenomena, social movement studies and the study of civil society are still treated as separate fields. Challenging some established views, times of crisis require more interaction between the two, as social movement organizations engage in alternative service provision and civil society organizations lose previous channels of access to institutions. Bridging knowledge in both areas enhances our understanding of the potential for grassroots democratic innovation.

Donatella Della Porta is Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Institute for Humanities and the Social Sciences and Director of the PD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, where she also leads the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos). Her research primarily focuses on topics including social movements, political violence, terrorism, corruption, the police, and protest policing.

Edgar Grande is the Founding Director of the Center of Civil Society Research.

Swen Hutter is Lichtenberg Professor in Political Sociology at the Freie Universität Berlin and Vice Director of the Center for Civil Society Research at the WZB.