Our academic themes

Social Movements and Radical Global Politics

The Social Movements Network was established in 2014 bringing together emerging and established researchers working on different aspects of social movements, radical politics and protest.

We have over fifty members from across the University of Brighton as well as member from other universities in London and the South East. Our members come from sport, humanities, business, politics, sociology, media, law, geography, urban studies, criminology, international relations, and art.

Since 2014, we have hosted a monthly seminar series with an original paper being circulated and discussed in depth. Papers have been delivered on social media and protest, football fan mobilization, indigenous and peasant resistance, public space, migration, refugees, LGBTIQ activism, children rights, law and politics, covert police surveillance, Roma communities, amongst others. This seminar offers constructive critique to emerging and established scholars to develop their ideas, journal articles and research bid submissions.

We have convened a number of high profile conferences including one on social movements in 2016. This international conference brought together 70 delegates from over twenty countries. The two-day event had panels on protest movements and technology, the environment, gender, democracy, urban activism, migration, LGBTIQ, neo-liberalism, the state, transnationalism, tactics and repertoires, networks, rights, and challenges for social movement research. A wine reception was hosted by the journal ‘Social Movement Studies’.

Key note addresses were delivered by Emeritus Professor Jan Willem Duyvendak (University of Amsterdam) on collective action in social movements and the state. Professor Donatella Della Porta (Scuola Normale, Florence), the author of 65 books on protest, delivered her address on social movement studies, capitalism and political economy.

Jan Willem Duyvendak said: "The conference organized by the University of Brighton’s Social Movement Network was one of the most intellectually stimulating in the past years. Such a great mix of emerging and established scholars guarantees progress in our field."

For further information please contact Francesca Burke or Deanna Dadusc.

Critical Theory and Radical Politics

The Critical Theory and Radical Politics Research Group draw on contemporary critical theoretical work, with a broadly post-foundationalist perspective.

We explore how critical theories interact with and respond to radical politics and protest. The first decades of the 21st century saw novel forms of political, artistic and spatial resistance to global order. The populist movements of Southern Europe and Latin America, global protest movements, art activists, migrants who violate territorial borders and slum dwellers who remake global cities all intervene critically to disrupt and improve their worlds. This research group develops critical theory as a uniquely interdisciplinary response to contemporary forms of radical, and often apparently marginal, political, artistic and spatial interruptions. Over the past decade we have hosted many of the world's leading critical theorists including Ernesto Laclau and Wendy Brown. We welcome members with an interest in these areas of work.

For further information contact Clare Woodford.

Applied Philosophy

CAPPE’s approach is interdisciplinary, collaborative and concerned to contribute both within the academy and beyond it.

We focus on philosophy’s contribution to public and political debate around political and moral issues. Examples include: the ethics of insurance; torture; terror; war photography; medical practice and complicity. As well as initiating research topics ourselves, we are open to suggestions from others, whether academic, activist or both. For more information, please contact Bob Brecher.