Mobilizing Grassroots in the City : Lessons for Civil Society Research in Central and Eastern Europe

• What can we learn about civil society in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Russia from studies on activism within the region’s urban spaces? In this article, we argue that studying urban activism in CEE offers useful insights for general theory building about the importance of uneventful protests, the formation of agency and the processes of becoming active in the public sphere (conceptualized here as “political becoming”), and the enabling role of informality in collective action in adverse contexts. By contributing to our understanding in this way, these insights help to advance relational and process-based conceptions of civil society.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Central and Eastern Europe

Civic activism

Civil society

Post-socialism

Urban movements

Östersjö- och Östeuropaforskning

Baltic and East European studies

urban movements

urban activism

civil society

Central and Eastern Europe

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)