On October 23-24, Scuola Normale Superiore will host the international conference Protesting Crises: Progressive Social Movements in the Face of Authoritarian Backlash

The war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza expose how economic, environmental, transnational, and domestic crises now collide, fueling authoritarianism and eroding democracy, equality, and human rights. Progressive social movements are often hailed as a force of resistance, yet their effectiveness remains uneven.

Since the 2008 financial crash, waves of protest have erupted worldwide: in Western Europe and Latin America, movements and parties reshaped politics, while uprisings in post-Soviet countries, Turkey, and Northern Africa struggled to achieve lasting change. In the United States, civic mobilizations like Occupy faltered against conservative backlash, paving the way for Trumpism, while in South East Asia protest movements are caught between shifting identities and external pressures. This International Conference explores why some struggles ignite democratization while others reinforce existing power, and what conditions allow progressive coalitions to resist authoritarian backlash and rising inequality. By bringing together research on revolutions and social movements across diverse contexts, it aims to illuminate strategies through which grassroots mobilization can challenge nationalism, reclaim freedoms, and imagine emancipatory futures.

The conference will be open to the public and livestreamed, full programme and links here: https://www.sns.it/en/node/945307

Full program:

Thursday, 23 October

9:00 – 9:30 – Welcoming

Session 1: Social Movements and Democratic Transformation

9:30 – 10:00 – Santiago Anria | Cornell University: Latin America After the Left Turn: Progressive Movements and Backlash Politics
10:00 – 10:30 – Nino Khelaia | Freie Universität Berlin: Middle-Class Protests in Georgia
10:30 – 11:00 – Lillian Cicerchia | University of Amsterdam: Hyperpolitics and Social Movements
11:00 – 12:00 – Discussion with Marco Antonelli | SNS

12:00 – 13:30 – Lunch Break

Session 2: Movements and Repression in the Global Movement for a Free Palestine

13:30 – 14:00 – Dirk Moses | City University of New York: Jewish Fear and the German State
14:00 – 14:30 – Donatella Della Porta | SNS: Authoritarian Backlash and Movement Strategies
14:30 – 15:00 – Roberto De Vogli | University of Padova: Gaza as a Moral Litmus Test of the West: From Selective Empathy to Global Solidarity
15:00 – 15:30 – Ghassan Hage | University of Melbourne: Naked Power as Generalised Governmentality
15:30 – 16:30 – Discussion with Laila Sit Aboha | SNS

16:30 – 16:45 – Break

Session 3: Roundtable – Activism, Power & Strategy in the Context of Authoritarian and Right-Wing Turn

16:45 – 18:15 – Roundtable with:
Leonard Benardo (OSF), Mario Arriagada (OSF), Oleg Zhuravlev (Freie Universität Berlin), Maria Chiara Franceschelli, Hans Kundnani (Open Society Foundation / LSE), Nino Khelaia (Freie Universität Berlin), Roberto De Vogli (University of Padova)
Moderator: Donatella Della Porta | SNS

Friday, 24 October (LINK TEAMS)

Session 1: Legal, Historical, and Theoretical Perspectives on Social Movements

9:30 – 10:00 – Dylan Riley | University of California Berkeley: The Working Class and the Right: The Material Foundations of Right-Wing Politics
10:00 – 10:30 – Camila Vergara | University of Essex: Plebeian Power and Anti-Oligarchic Constitutionalism
10:30 – 11:00 – Volodymyr Ishchenko | Freie Universität Berlin: Deficient Revolutions and (Counter)Hegemony Crisis: Political Fragmentation in Ukraine’s Euromaidan
11:00 – 12:00 – Discussion with Lorenzo Zamponi | SNS

12:00 – 13:30 – Lunch Break

Session 2: Global Dynamics of Authoritarianism

13:30 – 14:00 – Brian C. H. Fong | National Sun-Yat Sen University (Taiwan): Autocrat Alliances and Global Autocratisation
14:00 – 14:30 – Hans Kundnani | Open Society Foundations / LSE: Immigration and Race in Far-Right Politics
14:30 – 15:00 – Oleg Zhuravlev | Freie Universität Berlin: Authoritarianism, Counter-Revolutionary Social Change and Conservative Civil Society in Wartime Russia
15:00 – 15:30 – Asef Bayat | University of Illinois: Protesting in a Post-Political Movement
15:30 – 16:30 – Discussion with Maria Chiara Franceschelli | SNS

16:30 – 17:00 – Break

Final Session: Can Progressive Movements Win?

17:00 – 19:00 – Collective Discussion with:
Dylan Riley (UC Berkeley), Dirk Moses (CUNY), Camila Vergara (University of Essex), Volodymyr Ishchenko (Freie Universität Berlin), Oleg Zhuravlev (Freie Universität Berlin), Leonard Benardo (OSF), Lillian Cicerchia (University of Amsterdam), Ghassan Hage (University of Melbourne)
Moderator: Donatella Della Porta | SNS