Cosmos

Philip Balsiger

I study the interactions of movements with corporations, and I was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. I received my Ph.D. as a joint degree from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Sciences Po Paris in 2011 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne before joining the EUI. In my research I study the repertoires and dynamics of contention in market arenas. My Ph.D. and forthcoming book compares the emergence and dynamics of the anti-sweatshop movements in Switzerland and France, and explains how this movement provoked market change. Papers building on this research focus on the repertoire of political consumption, the role of tactical competition for market transformation, and the interaction dynamics of outcomes. I continue to investigate the role of social movements in the creation and transformation of markets, studying in particular the markets for ethical fashion and the domain of food politics. Regarding social movement theory, I am interested in developing interactionist approaches to the study of movements’ tactical action repertoires and dynamics in different interaction fields and arenas.

Research Interests : social movements, markets, political consumption, organization, repertoires