Research centers

Research centers

CADIS – Centre d’Analyse et d’Intervention Sociologiques

École des Haute Édutes en Science Sociales
Founded in 1981 by Alaine Touraine, since the very beginning CADIS focused on the sociology of action and social movements. Today, the study of mobilizations intertwine with three main axis of research: social actors and historical changes, the emergence of new subjectivies in post-industrial societies, and the crisis of urban environments.

Center for the Study of Democracy

University of California Irvine
The centre develops research aiming at understanding democratic development and democratic processes, focusing amongst other topics on social movements and collective action in the United States and across the globe.

Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy

Goldsmith College
Established in 2007, the centre develop research at the interconnection of media, communication, politics and sociology, considering amongst other topics global social movements, advocacy organisations and new media.

Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements

University of Kent
Etablished in 1992, the centre focuses on contemporary forms of social and political movements and collective action, with some emphasis upon environmental movements.

Center for the Study of Social Movements

University of Notre Dame
Established in 2006, the center supports an interdisciplinary approach to the study of collective political challenges expressed via protest, collective violence, and other extra-institutional collective action.

Centro de Estudos Sociais

University of Coimbra
Established in 1978 the Center for Social Studies is a scientific institution devoted to research and advanced training in the area of the social sciences and humanities.

Governance, civil society and informal politics

London School of Economics
The research unit focuses on how ordinary people shape or try to shape the decisions that affect their lives with a particular focus on human security and civil society, including social movements and civic associations.

Cosmos – Centre on Social Movements Studies.

European University Institute
The research centre is part of the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute. It focuses on social movements as part of broader contentious politics. It promotes theoretically-driven empirical analyses on forms, dimensions, causes and impacts of social movements, in established democracies as well as authoritarian regimes. Particular attention is given to social movements as promoters of democratization processes.

CRAPUL – Centre de Recherche sur l’Action Politique

University of Lausanne
Established in 2002, the centre aims at promoting collective research on political action from the point of view of comparative political sociology.

Department of Sociology, University of California Santa Barbara

The department supports multi-level and multi-method approaches to social inquiry. For 30 years, the department has been at the forefront of research and graduate training in social movements, revolutions and social change.

Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh

The department fosters collaborative research between faculty and students and allows for specializations in sociological research, with a focus on social movements and politics and culture.

Forum for Civil Society and Social Movement Research

University of Gothenburg
Launched in 2011 to enhance the communication and collaboration of social movement scholars in the Nordic Countries, the Forum for Civil Society and Social Movement Research has its base at the Department of Sociology, with close ties to national and international research networks studying social movements.

Institute for Protest and Social Movement Studies

The institute is primarily a place for research. Its aim is to deliver and spread theoretically guided, empirically grounded and both scientifically and politically relevant knowledge in the field of protest and social movements. Along with its research activities, the institute also intends to become a center for research cooperation with other institutions at home and abroad.

Movement Media Research Action Project

MMRAP was founded in 1986 by the co-directors William Gamson and Charlotte Ryan to support marginalized constituencies’ understanding of and access to media. Based in Boston, MA, its mission is to strengthen progressive social movements working toward social justice and inclusive participatory democracy.

Observatori del Conflicte Social

University of Barcelona
The Social Conflict Observatory is linked to the research group Research on Social Conflict and Change. It aims at developing knowledge about the logics of social conflict and change. The dominant analytical approach is relational: relationships between individual are the basic social units of social inquiry; and it relies as well on a critically oriented positive sociology.

Politics and Protest Workshop

CUNY Graduate Center, New York City

Founded in 2008, this weekly meeting draws students and faculty to discuss research and theory in progress on any topics having to do with protest and politics. It is open to all visitors.

Panteion University, Department for Political Science and history, Athens
The Laboratory on Contentious Politics (previously ‘Contentious Politics Circle’) is an interdisciplinary network of scholars, researching, theorizing and writing about collective action and social movements and their constant interaction with state policies.