The development of a theoretical framework for the analysis of contentious politics in modern democracies represents one of the major achievements of the research project. The framework is based upon a critical theory of democracy that combines analytical perspectives from social theory and democratic theory to allow for a better understanding of how social structures, legal institutions, and political engagement interact in protest. In line with this, a first distinction can be drawn between reformist and transformative forms of protest: While reformist protest does not challenge the given dimensions of the modern democratic order, transformative protest politicizes the basic principles of that order. The criteria furthermore include: 1) expanding the circle of those who benefit from the fulfillment of democracy’s promises; 2) the establishment of discursive democratic spaces; 3) a balance between dramatization and exchange; and 4) a willingness to become someone else. The project’s research perspective and the criteria for normative evaluations of political protest thus enable us to substantially distinguish between emancipatory and regressive forms of protest.
Against the backdrop of an interpretative research perspective, the empirical subprojects have worked out the different ways of how and to what extent democracy is imagined, negotiated, and problematized within protest, and how these protests interact with the democratic institutions in place. It could be shown that digital protests put forward new understandings and workings of the public sphere. Climate protest sheds new light on the relationship of democracy and time and foregrounds reflections on the conditions of democratic ordering. In their protest, irregularized migrants imagine and prefigure new forms of co-existence that transcend established political boundaries. While also claiming to act in the name democracy, right wing movements demand the fallacious return to a homogenous people. Accordingly, studying these protests reveals the complex fabric of democratic orders, democratic norms and their preconditions.
We have discussed and disseminated our research results within the scientific community and a broader public:
- In July 2021, the research group has hosted an international workshop, bringing together leading scholars from the fields of democratic theory and social movement research to present their work on the conceptualization of political protest. This important exchange resulted in a Special Issue in the journal Democratic Theory that systematizes and deepens the debate on the meaning of protest along our research perspective (see: Gobbi et al 2022).
- First excerpts of the analytical framework and the criteria for a substantive normative assessment of political protest have been presented by PI Christian Volk within the scientific community in numerous talks and keynotes and will be published in 2024 with Suhrkamp.
- The members of the research group have discussed their research at international conferences and workshops. Moreover, they succeeded in influencing the research fields adjacent to the subprojects through the organisation of conferences and working groups with subsequent publications (for the field of migration studies, see Glathe/Gorriahn 2022; for the field of digital transformations, see Staemmler et al 2022).
- Beyond the scientific community, expertise from the project was repeatedly requested; PI Christian Volk was asked in numerous interviews about his assessment of the legitimacy and success of the climate protests and other movements (see for example Spiegel, Stuttgarter Zeitung (print), WDR (radio)).
