Understanding Conflict, Change and Power after the Financial Crisis

Abstract

The most significant progress in the study of political conflict has been related to turmoil, insurrections and rebellions. Revolts against colonial powers in Africa, Asia or the Middle East, transitions to democracy and the struggles against dictatorships in Latin America or Southern Europe, guerrilla and insurrectionary movements in Asia or Central America, the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe, or the sequence of demonstrations against international institutions and global financial powers that started in 1999 in Seattle, all these processes of conflict and resistance have invigorated the field of studies in successive waves. The seminal works of authors such as Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow and many others are related to the rise of the civil rights movement and the student protests of the 1960s and 1970s. The influence of these authors is enormous, and the debate they generated and the criticisms they received prove it. In Europe, the events of 1968 were the breeding ground and inspiration for many scholars – not only sociologists – which paved the way to the incorporation of these concerns in universities and research institutions.