Transnational Social Movements: Popular Politics and Meaning-Making in Global Perspective

Module Title:  Transnational Social Movements: Popular Politics and Meaning-Making in Global Perspective

Module Leader: Dr Claire Crawford

Overview:

Across the world, people organise themselves into groups for the advancement of their common beliefs, ideals, and interests. These groups of people can be understood as transnational social movements, and are significant non-state actors in the processes and contestations of global politics. Through an examination of various transnational social movements, students will analyse how collective action outside traditional electoral politics contributes to the development of politics that cross national borders. The course engages with primary source material from social movements themselves such as protest literature, speeches, manifestos, documentaries, news media, and artworks. This will enable students to critique and understand the role of movements in the production of political concepts, identities, and strategies.

The course spans a range of key themes in international studies, including development, trade, sovereignty, gender, institutions, power, identity, and ideology. Students will explore how social movements challenge state- centric views of politics and influence global power dynamics, and in later weeks, will pay particular attention to the rise of digital technologies and their role in organising transnational movements. Examples will both engage with and traverse national borders, to explore how movements act as conduits of political ideas across histories and geographies.