ABSTRACT As mainstream celebrities circulate social justice signifiers, concurrent with a stark global rise in reactionary authoritarian populism, this paper considers how the levers and sites of political struggle are articulated when visibility is cast not as a prerequisite to politics, but politics is cast as a prerequisite to visibility. It critically analyses the emergence of resistance branding, referring to the process by which an individual or corporate entity adopts signifiers of political resistance and moral opposition in pursuit of cultural visibility. I explore the phenomenon of resistance branding through a specific case study: athlete-activist-celebrity Colin Kaepernick. The signature kneeling protest during the National Anthem of a 2015 NFL preseason game catapulted Kaepernick into a becoming a branded icon of authentic political resistance, repression, and sacrifice. Kaepernick has since embraced and maneuvered to extend this image, such that the Kaepernick Brand now proliferates across sport, advertising, publishing, merchandise, philanthropic organizations, and commercial sponsorships. Extending Stuart Hall’s work on the commodification of Black subjectivity, I explore Kaepernick’s trajectory to highlight the conjunctural shifts – most notably in regard to spectacularized sport, celebrity politics, and neoliberal recuperation – that rendered Black radical critique a pathway for fame/fortune rather than ostracization and repression. I argue that the Kaepernick Brand emerged within the racial economies of visibility, referring to how Black identity and its (assumed) corollary politics are shaped by buyers, sellers, and middlemen within the digital consumer marketplace. I conclude by assessing resistance branding as a mode of counter-hegemonic struggle within contemporary racial neoliberalism. I argue that, despite its potential material and symbolic benefits, resistance branding individualizes resistance, locates the locus of resistance in the commercial marketplace, and renders us reliant on the benevolence of capitalism’s spectacular winners rather than emphasizing incremental and unglamorous forms of grassroots resistance.

As specific type of political repression 'Zersetzung' is similar to the concept of social death, characterized by the loss of social connectedness and social identity. This study investigates if features of social death can be found in victims of 'Zersetzung' and whether this is reflected in suicidal ideation. Sixty-two affected individuals were assessed using the Oslo Social Support Scale (OSSS-3), the Sense of Coherence Scale, and the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), and compared with age-similar reference values from the general population. None of the victims of 'Zersetzung' had high social support, compared to 25% in the general population. The sense of coherence was significantly lower than in the comparison sample. An increased risk of suicidality was seen in 20%. The concept of social death can be meaningfully applied to victims of 'Zersetzung', and holds important implications on the individual and the societal level.

ABSTRACT Many news have been reported on sexual violence against female protestors in the world, such as Tunisia, Yemen and Mexico. The Hong Kong anti-extradition movement is also no exception. However, scholarship on violence against women in this movement has remained underexplored. Thus, I address this gap by exploring how female protestors experienced and navigated state-condoned sexual violence. I argue that such violence creates dual oppression against women as a systemic and symbolic tool, targeting both their gender and political agency under repressive regimes. While such repression generated fear and anxiety, the findings challenge that fear does not necessarily demobilize dissent. Instead, emotional responses to gendered repression were socially mediated and politically reinterpreted. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 65 participants of the movement between November 2022 and September 2023, I show that protestors employed adaptive mobilization strategies, shifting across frontline, logistical, and care-based roles. Feminist organizations transformed personal experiences of abuse into collective claims for gender justice through advocacy and legal education initiatives. My paper sheds light on how female protestors adopted strategic silence around sexual violence, which emerged as a politically situated choice shaped by movement priorities and risk calculation, navigating the intersection of gender-based violence and political activism.

Over half a decade after India abrogated Article 370, Kashmir has undergone unprecedented changes through what this article terms Comprehensive Coercive Integration (CCI). Situating CCI within the paradigms of authoritarian conflict management (ACM) and illiberal peacebuilding, the article argues that India’s post-2019 approach represents a specific variant of ACM, one that moves beyond conflict management toward comprehensive territorial absorption. This framework examines how New Delhi systematically restructured the region through legal, demographic, administrative, and symbolic measures. The analysis explores a shift from accommodation to absorption. Political space has contracted with mainstream parties navigating reduced influence and political newcomers, with little established credibility, being cultivated. Demographic engineering proceeds through domicile certificates for nonresidents and property purchases by outsiders, while administrative control has intensified through direct governance and narrative management. While militant violence has decreased, the legitimacy of the new arrangement remains disputed. Drawing on Höglund and Kovacs’s (2010) typology of negative peace, the article characterizes the current situation as a form of fearful and contested peace, in which the absence of political unrest and violence coexists with unresolved political incompatibilities and repression. This article offers a preliminary assessment suggesting that durable peace requires reversing this trajectory toward genuine autonomy, political pluralism, and inclusive dialogue addressing and harmonizing political aspirations of the people of the region.

ABSTRACT In this forum, we examine the progression of authoritarian governance in Bangladesh, tracing its origins from the nation’s liberation in 1971 to the Hasina regime’s collapse in August 2024. Drawing from historical accounts and analysis of contemporary sources, we interrogate how Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s nationalist movement, pivotal in the struggle for independence, simultaneously laid the foundations for centralised control and authoritarianism. The consolidation of power became a defining feature of Mujib’s leadership and that of his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, as her government increasingly reflected her father’s approach, resulting in political repression and the erosion of democratic institutions. We argue that the intergenerational transmission of power, intertwined with broader geopolitical shifts, reflects the complex dynamics of post-colonial state-building, where the legacies of liberation movements are often entangled with authoritarian governance. By contextualising these developments within South Asia and foregrounding our approach in subaltern geopolitics, we unveil the intersections of nationalism, leadership, and authoritarianism, contributing to broader discussions on state violence, power, and resistance on a regional scale. The regime’s collapse in 2024 marks a revolutionary moment of reflection on the cyclical patterns of power and governance in Bangladesh’s political history; another liberation emerged from resistance, and a new generation mirrored the call for independence.

ABSTRACT This paper presents the first structured scoping review of the new generation of feminist activism in China, synthesizing scholarship published between 2012 and 2024. The analysis maps the evolving landscape of Chinese feminist discourse, practices, and critiques. It contextualizes Chinese feminisms as plural, locally grounded, yet globally entangled practices. Findings reveal a strategic shift from early confrontational, highly visible street protests to a more strategic, pragmatic, and digitally mediated movement shaped by state repression, censorship, and renewed patriarchal norms. While feminist activists have fostered new feminist counterpublics and contributed to legal and cultural shifts, their feminist practices face scholarly critiques regarding elitism, overgeneralization, and the marginalization of rural, working-class, and minority women. Drawing on feminist standpoint theory, intersectionality, and traveling theory, this review examines how these critiques vary among domestic Chinese, Western-based, and transnational feminist collaborations, highlighting the situated nature of knowledge production and the importance of reflexive, context-sensitive scholarship. The study underscores Chinese feminists’ adaptive creativity despite persistent challenges and hostile environments. It offers insights into digital feminist resistance in authoritarian contexts and enriches global feminist theory from a non-Western perspective.

This article examines the relative absence of large-scale Palestinian political mobilization inside Israel following October 7, 2023, situating it within broader historical, political, and structural transformations rather than treating it as an isolated moment. It asks how the interplay between intensified political control and conditional economic integration under Israeli settler colonialism and neoliberalism over the past two decades has reshaped the conditions of political action for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of policy documents, public discourse, and socio-economic data, the article adopts a dialectical approach to examine five interrelated processes: a persistent condition of “in-betweenness” shaping the lived experience of Palestinians in Israel; macro-level shifts in Israeli policy marked by intensified political repression alongside expanding economic containment; the resulting fragility of the national political center and erosion of political agency, intersecting with political fragmentation and the rise of organized crime; the recalibration of Israeli policy following the May 2021 uprising, including expanded punitive measures; and the further escalation of these dynamics after October 7, generating a climate of heightened political intimidation and fear. By foregrounding these interconnected processes, the article explores how changing perceptions of political opportunity emerge, highlighting the ways in which political action is shaped by shifting constraints, structural tensions, and evolving forms of state-society relations.

Abstract Trans, nonbinary, and intersex persons are—and have always been—an integral part of humankind. However, these communities are under attack. We live in a time of growing state repression and the normalization of political violence against trans, nonbinary, and intersex persons throughout much of the world, and we have a responsibility to understand these conditions and consider their implications for science education. In this commentary, we briefly outline the growing state repression of trans, nonbinary, and intersex persons, illustrating this repression with examples primarily drawn from the U.S. context, while acknowledging similar forms of repression happening in many countries. We discuss the ways that scientific discourses and ideologies are being co‐opted to rationalize these attacks, explain the responsibility this creates for science educators, and examine the important work that has already been done to understand and dismantle oppression and to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of these communities within and beyond science education. Finally, we offer recommendations for specific actions that science educators and researchers can take to uphold the human rights of trans, nonbinary, and intersex persons and communities.

This article examines protests in a detention center in Melilla, Spain-a site where structural violence intersects with the everyday harms of confinement. Adopting a justice and dignity-centered perspective, we analyze grassroots forms of resistance emerging at the border. The study focuses on the protests of Tunisian migrants and explores the role of emotions under specific conditions of oppression. Grounded in theories of affective injustice and in dialogue with community psychology scholarship on detention and resistance, we expose the emotional harms produced by confinement and the affective capacities that enable detainees to manifest their agency. In particular, we highlight the transformative potential of restorative anger. When collectively recognized, anger created a cross-border community between Spain and Tunisia-one in which each act of resistance built upon the next, in a chain reaction that challenged the logic of nation-states and border regimes. These findings advance our understanding of how affective border harms operate, while demonstrating that emotions can mobilize communities that transcend borders and structural hierarchies. We conclude by emphasizing the emotional dynamics of detention and their capacity to foster justice and liberation, and reflect on community psychology's potential to generate critical knowledge on border detention.

How does the ability to weather insecurity give some an upper-hand over others? This paper examines the interrelationship between housing and labour market precarity among middle class young professionals. Drawing on interviews with residents of co-living schemes-for-profit shared housing where tenants are on temporary rental contracts - it explores how residential precarity is strategically leveraged in pursuit of tumultuous careers in the knowledge economy. I propose the concept of privileged precarity in order to interrogate this dynamic and the contradictory subjectivities emerging therefrom. Whereas precarity is experienced by working class and marginalised households as a state of oppression, we see how the privileged can harness it as an asset and resource. In particular, the precarious tenure relations of co-living enabled participants to synchronise their lives with the rhythms of hyper-competitive and insecure careers in the tech sector - quickly pivoting to new economic opportunities and interacting with work on the terms of its contingent availability. By way of conclusion, the paper calls attention to the socially stratifying potentials of privileged precarities, and reflects on the applicability of the concept to other social domains and relations of inequality.

In early 1960s Southern Rhodesia, a secretive underground of male nationalist youth envisioned a revolutionary army and pressed their political leaders to act. How they came to do so is a dramatic and largely neglected story of youthful political imagination, state violence and transnational military mobility, told in memoir and oral history. Many of the nationalist youth of this moment had first forged dreams of freedom as students in rural mission schools where they encountered astonishing stories of revolution and African independence. They concluded that educated, young leaders could transform the world and they energetically experimented with means of doing so before themselves joining the nationalist youth in townships. There they were confronted with a violent, intransigent settler state that forced them to reimagine routes to freedom. Evading this state produced the ‘militarised mobilities’ that took these young men into circuits of internationalist solidarity where they began to imagine the making of an army and the waging of war. Unusually among nascent liberation armies, they left Rhodesia as part of tightly organised nationalist youth networks intent on receiving military training and returned to these same networks as saboteurs and soldiers. Although their vision of warfare was not realised in these early years, it was the harsh lessons, personal relationships and eclectic revolutionary dreams of this moment that laid the foundations for the Zimbabwe African People’s Union’s liberation army.

This article examines the problem of the role of the State Security Committee (KGB) in organizing arrests and conducting investigative actions against Ukrainian dissidents during the wave of repressions of 1965 – 1966. The study is devoted to the currently relevant problem of rethinking the mechanisms of functioning of the Soviet repressive system in the post-Stalin decades. The idea is substantiated that the arrests of 1965 – 1966 were not a spontaneous reaction to manifestations of dissent, but were the result of purposeful operational development and strategic planning. The question of the correlation of the initiative of the republican state security bodies and the directives of the union center continues to be debatable, which is also reflected in the article. The study is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the organizational, legal and propaganda aspects of the KGB's activities during the specified period. The purpose of the article is to analyze the study of the forms and methods of implementing the repressive campaign, as well as to clarify the mechanisms for coordinating operational and investigative measures. The article reveals the processes of preparing and conducting mass searches, seizing self-published materials, and qualifying charges under articles of the criminal legislation of the Ukrainian SSR. Particular attention is paid to the practices of moral and psychological pressure, the organization of “preventive” measures, and public condemnation campaigns that accompanied the investigation. The article summarizes new material on the topic under study, introduces into scientific circulation individual documents from the declassified KGB archives that expand the understanding of the scale of the operation. The idea is substantiated that it was during this period that the model for subsequent repressive campaigns of the 1970s was laid. The author concludes that the activities of the KGB in 1965 – 1966 combined operational, judicial, and information and propaganda tools of influence on the Ukrainian dissident movement. The article examines the key stages of the campaign’s deployment and summarizes the practical experience of the special service’s functioning in conditions of ideological confrontation. The article summarizes some of the results of studying the role of the KGB in the system of Soviet political repressions and outlines the prospects for further research. This view will be of interest to specialists in the field of the history of Ukraine in the second half of the 20th century, the history of special services, and researchers of the dissident movement.

ABSTRACT The global extractive mining industry has undergone significant expansion over recent decades, triggering severe ecological and social impacts that threaten vulnerable communities. Amid these challenges, environmental non‐governmental organizations (ENGOs) play an increasingly vital role in advocating for equitable and sustainable mining governance. However, existing research on ENGO advocacy remains fragmented across disciplines, necessitating a systematic review to identify patterns of strategies, constraints, and outcomes of NGO activism in diverse mining regions globally. This study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) following the PRISMA 2020 protocol, with searches in Scopus and Web of Science yielding 143 articles, screened and resulting in 39 publications meeting the inclusion criteria (published ≥2015, English language, focused on environmental NGOs in mining). The reviewed articles were predominantly qualitative (30; 77%), with quantitative (4; 10%) and mixed methods (5; 13%) approaches comprising the remainder. Articles were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and analyzed thematically using NVivo 14. The findings identify six key advocacy strategies emphasizing digital campaigns and community collaboration, reflecting a transformation toward hybrid environmental activism. Simultaneously, NGOs confront persistent structural barriers operating across macro, meso, and micro levels, including state repression, corporate dominance, and community co‐optation. Nevertheless, advocacy efforts have produced five significant achievements: governance reform, community empowerment, regulatory change, socio‐ecological impacts, and enhanced public accountability. Community empowerment emerges as the most prominent impact, underscoring that affected communities exercise autonomous collective agency amplified—rather than created—by NGO intervention. This study proposes a hybrid environmental activism framework grounded in environmental justice principles that integrates social movement theory with environmental governance perspectives, and recommends further research on gender dimensions, intergenerational justice, and socio‐ecological resilience in mining contexts. This systematic review synthesizes global evidence on environmental NGO advocacy in mining regions, revealing hybrid activism that merges digital campaigns, legal strategies, and community collaboration. Despite multilayered structural barriers, such advocacy advances governance reform, community empowerment, and transparency through a hybrid framework.

Amidst Yemen's protracted war and siege, this quantitative study reshapes our understanding of conflict's impact on university students' media awareness. Based on the hypothesis that these harsh conditions have eroded their cognitive defenses, the research employed a survey of 150 students, using statistical analysis (SPSS.24) to map awareness of media risks. The findings reveal a shocking cognitive gap, with 34% showing a complete absence of awareness, statistically correlated with age (χ²=8.4, p=0.038), reflecting the erosion of learning opportunities. A complex crisis of trust emerged: while a majority (65%) supported strict regulatory legislation (χ²=14.2, p=0.001), a third opposed it, fearing its transformation into a tool of political repression. At the heart of this dilemma, "integrating media literacy into curricula" emerged as the most favored solution (45%). The study concludes that the siege has extended beyond material destruction to fundamentally reshape the youth's cognitive landscape. This necessitates balanced educational and legislative policies that build intellectual immunity and protect the public sphere, as an essential condition for social cohesion and a post-conflict future.

Since October 2023, public expressions of solidarity with Palestine in Germany have been subject to extensive political and institutional repression. While such repression of pro-Palestinian sentiments is not extraordinary across Western contexts, Germany’s response is distinctively grounded in its doctrine of Staatsräson which claims that the lessons of the Holocaust mandate unconditional political support for Israel. Reading this moment as a conjuncture in Stuart Hall’s sense, our intervention examines how remembrance culture, racialisation and decolonial struggle intersect to redefine the moral boundaries of legitimate protest and belonging in contemporary Germany. Combining Hall’s conjunctural analysis with Lamont’s work on moral and symbolic boundaries and Fassin’s notion of moral economy, we show how the imperative of historical responsibility engenders a contemporary regime of moral governance of the German public sphere. We argue that this leads to a conditionalisation of empathy that renders expressions of solidarity with Palestinians morally suspect unless articulated within a state-sanctioned grammar of remembrance. Ultimately we demonstrate that Germany’s contemporary national identity is shaped by the selective recognition of suffering and the marginalisation of dissenting solidarities, in effect reproducing colonial hierarchies of life and loss.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the critical yet understudied role of Herasat, Iran’s security offices embedded in state and semi-state institutions, in sustaining the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian regime. Functioning as a panopticon-like apparatus, Herasat systematically monitors and controls state employees, enforces ideological conformity, and suppresses dissent. While substantial research exists on Iran’s coercive entities, such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Basij militia, and police, Herasat’s pervasive integration across government, education, and industry sectors remains largely overlooked. Using a historical institutional framework and qualitative methods, this study traces the evolution of Herasat, explores its operational mechanisms, and analyzes the apparatus’s contributions to political repression and regime survival in Iran. The paper further sheds light on Herasat’s unique role in Iran’s broader security architecture, offering insights into the institutional dynamics of authoritarian resilience and the obstacles faced by dissidents under extensive surveillance.

executive summary: This article explores the impact of militarization in India-controlled Kashmir on security in the region and assesses the implications of stop-and-frisk practices for Kashmiri youths' attitudes toward violence and nonviolence. main argument Militarization, particularly through practices like stop and frisk, can be counterproductive to peace and security by increasing support for violent resistance and diminishing the perceived legitimacy of nonviolent alternatives. The case of Indian-administered Kashmir—one of the most densely militarized regions in the world—shows that sustained military presence and everyday encounters with armed forces can deepen alienation rather than pacify dissent. Original survey and interview data collected in Srinagar suggests that these interactions not only may fail to suppress defiance but may actively legitimize violence as a more effective strategy for resistance. Ultimately, there is evidence that militarization, instead of bringing stability, can perpetuate a cycle of repression and backlash, fueling the very unrest it aims to quell. policy implications • Excessive reliance on practices such as stop and frisk in contested regions can backfire; security forces should adopt community-based approaches that build trust rather than fuel resentment. • Policies should promote political dialogue and nonmilitarized forms of conflict resolution, particularly with populations most affected by state repression. • Programs that support education, employment, and civic participation among youth can serve as alternatives to radicalization and help de-escalate conflict over time. • Achieving sustainable peace in Kashmir requires policy efforts that address actors whose entrenched interests hinder reform.

ABSTRACT Women in many cultures experience serious restrictions of their autonomy related to strict and unequal gender norms. It is by now well established that oppressive conditions can constrain autonomy and, to a lesser extent, that there can be autonomy in oppressive contexts. Much of the literature on autonomy under oppressive conditions is theoretical and tends to be abstracted from women’s lived realities. Drawing on life story interviews with 39 women with non-western migration backgrounds in the Netherlands who have experienced serious restrictions of their freedom, this article explores how women live with such harmful restrictions and, in some cases, how they leave these circumstances. We found that imagination is key to understanding autonomy in oppressive conditions. While some in relational autonomy have already pointed out the role of imaginative capacities, the ‘how’ is largely missing. We connect relational autonomy theory to Butler’s work on subjectivity, and show that when the women we interviewed resign themselves to oppressive conditions they experience as harmful, it is because their entire being is shaped in and through their families’ definitions of their subjectivity. However, when cracks appear in the normative frameworks through which they have come into being, this helps them to rearticulate new ways of being for themselves. Yet, this comes at a cost: they have to lose who they are to get there. Not only do these insights enrich our understanding of autonomy and oppression, but they are also relevant for developing adequate support measures for the women in question.

ABSTRACT This article examines the formation and operation of Myanmar's Interim Ethics Review Board (IERB), which was established in November 2023 by displaced academics involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement against the 2021 military coup. Operating within a highly repressive, conflict‐ridden environment, the IERB exemplifies a locally‐led and context‐specific model for ethical oversight, which was designed to address challenges created by a context of extreme authoritarianism and political instability. Using qualitative case study methods and autoethnography, the article analyses how IERB members navigate security threats, political persecution and ethical dilemmas. In so doing, the analysis identifies four key trade‐offs—anonymity versus transparency, legitimacy versus independence, efficiency versus volunteerism and scientific rigour versus flexible and humanised approaches—that shape ethical decision‐making in this context of authoritarianism and conflict, and that are not typically acknowledged in literature on institutionalised ethics mechanisms. The article then describes how, to navigate these trade‐offs, the IERB has developed an innovative approach grounded in ‘scientific resistance’ and based on key foundations of trust‐based, localised and humanised research ethics. This model emphasises principles of anonymity, independence, volunteerism and flexible and human‐centred practises; and it acknowledges that trade‐offs can be necessary to uphold ethical integrity amidst repression and conflict.

ABSTRACT The 1970s Indonesia, marked by Suharto’s autocratic New Order Regime, entailed a critical moment in the reimagination of Islamic education by a generation of Neo-modernist Muslim intellectuals. The aim of this article is to examine how these individuals, working in a repressive political context and in a traditionalist religious milieu, applied notions of democracy, pluralism, and critical thinking in their educational thinking. We argue that political repression restricted their ability to develop critical understandings of democracy, pluralism, and critical inquiry. However, despite such constraints, they established their interpretations of those concepts independently of the prescriptions of the state. Rather than framing Islamic education as either resistance or cooperation with authoritarianism, or their conceptualisations of education as a de-politicised version of Western counterparts, this article shows how their work reflected a complex fusionism where tradition became a resource for pluralism and critical thought, offering an educational and theological and political rearticulation of freedom and responsibility