Veranstaltungsprogramm

Youth protest and activism led to the overthrowing of the autocratic government in Bangladesh in 2024. Youth activism is not a new phenomenon, youth, especially students’ groups and their movements, have played an important political role throughout the history of Bangladesh. The historical context is doubtless important to understand the protests which started in July 2024 against public sector job quotas and evolved within days into a mass public movement. After weeks of unrest, hundreds of deaths and thousands injured, an interim government led by Muhammad Yunus was formed, including two male leaders from the movement appointed as advisers, until a new government will be elected. In this presentation we will try to discuss and show who these young people were who organized the protest and what role networking between different youth activist groups focusing on different issues groups played. Based on empirical data collected in the context of a research project on climate youth activism in Bangladesh we will scrutinize the motivation of young activists. By collecting additional data, we will further discuss whether a shift, demanded by many of the young protester and activists, towards sustained youth involvement in democratic processes can be observed and who is representing the young protester, the movement and their newly founded political parties. It is assumed that gender as well as class do play an important role regarding a possible professionalization and involvement of the young activists.

In July-August 2024, a student-led quota reform movement evolved into a mass uprising –popularly known as the “July Uprising” – that eventually toppled the authoritarian Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime, which had ruled Bangladesh for 15 years with an iron fist. A wide range of utopian visions emerged during and immediately after the uprising, including the dream for a free, democratic, and inclusive country. However, such visions soon started to fade, and the ordinary citizens started to become disillusioned with the uprising, as the socio-political-economic instabilities and uncertainties around the country’s future became apparent. During this transformative episode of the country, the issues and concerns of the minority communities remained largely on the margins. Against this backdrop, we examine the perspectives and future-oriented practices of Indigenous youths from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT)—a borderland region marked by state repression, violent conflict and sustained collective socio-political struggles—centering on the uprising and post-uprising reformation processes. First, we explore the future visions expressed by Indigenous youths during and after the uprising. Second, we investigate what the uprising meant to them by highlighting their perspectives on both the uprising and the reformation processes initiated by the post-uprising regime, particularly in light of their socio-political-economic visions. Third, we examine the creative strategies that Indigenous youths employed to express and include their issues, concerns and visions in the national political debates and reformation processes. We conclude that, despite the ongoing debates and processes of transformation in the country, the marginalized socio-political-economic positioning of Indigenous Peoples remains largely unchanged. Nevertheless, Indigenous youth activists continue their struggle for the inclusion of their concerns and visions for Indigenous Peoples, while practising a form of “critical hope”.

In October 2019, a social uprising in Chile, the so-called estallido social, marked the beginning of the deepest crisis in the country since the democratic transition in 1990. Following the increase in metro fares by thirty Chilean pesos (the equivalent of around €0.03), social protests from various social, political and cultural sectors began to mobilise for a democratic, egalitarian, and ecological transition, claiming that what was at stake was not thirty pesos, but thirty years of neoliberalism, constitutionalised during the dictatorship. By linking their protest to the institutionalisation and deepening of the neoliberal model of society, the nationwide uprising has succeeded in doing what was not possible in thirty years of post-dictatorial democracy: giving impulse to an anti-neoliberal, democratic transition through a (failed) constitutional reform.

While different social sectors based their participation and support for the protests on their rejection of thirty years of neoliberal democracy, a very active Mapuche youth in the urban centres of the country as well as Mapuche communities and organisations in the countryside, situated their participation in the estallido within 300 years of resistance against coloniality. In this sense, the social uprising in Chile not only exposed the crisis of neoliberalism and the legacy of dictatorial autocracy in Latin America, but can rather be seen as a phenomenon of the “deep crisis of the global coloniality of power” (Quijano 2014c: 852).

In this contribution I want to address and highlight the role of Mapuche mobilization within the (failed) attempt of an anti-neoliberal, democratic transition in Chile from 2019 onwards, situating it within the larger context of the Mapuche’s struggle for autonomy and decolonisation during democratic transitions in the country.

This study examines how contemporary ʿulamāʾ in Iran are actively challenging Islamism by questioning its interpretation of Islam, particularly in response to the state’s recent socio-political policies. While dissent against political Islam and Ayatollah Khomeini's vision of velayat-e faqih has existed in Shia seminaries since the Revolution, it remained confined to intellectual debate and pragmatic compromise until the protests following Mahsa Amini's death in 2022. These protests, symbolised by acts such as ‘turban tossing’ and burning headscarves, directly challenged the state's claim to legitimacy, which was rooted in Islam, and embodied the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement. In response, some prominent members of the ʿulamāʾ have become more outspoken in their opposition, criticising the state's actions as a betrayal of Islamic principles. These voices, once suppressed, are now resonating beyond the seminary and into the broader socio-political sphere, creating a shift in clerical engagement with religious and political discourse.

This research applies post-Islamism as an analytical framework to explore how the ʿulamāʾ challenge the legitimacy of the Islamist regime by offering alternative religious discourses and practices that constitute a counter-hegemonic response to state-driven Islamism. The research examines two primary streams within the seminary: traditional orthodox ʿulamāʾ, who advocate for the depoliticisation of Islam, and reformist ʿulamāʾ, who seek to reconcile Islamic jurisprudence with modern values such as democracy and pluralism.

By combining qualitative methods such as interviews, document analysis, and case studies, this study focuses on the alternative interpretations of Islamic social theory advanced by these groups, their critique of the Islamist regime, and the implications of their counter-hegemonic efforts. This research seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the transformation of clerical authority in Iran and its influence on shaping new religious and political trajectories

Historically, Indian universities have been at the forefront of resisting the authoritarian structure. Universities and the intellectual class have played a significant role in shaping the discourse of socio-political movements, from colonial to post-colonial regimes. In continuation of this legacy of resistance, contemporary Indian universities are in the process of dissenting against authoritarian regimes, due to the strong control exercised by the right-wing majoritarian government. However, the modalities of resistance have adopted 'reading' as a method of resistance within university spaces. By ethnographic mapping of study circles at Delhi University, this paper contributes to the existing theorisation of student movements on university campuses. It also attempts to map the historical trajectory of intellectual resistance to argue that study circles, particularly those led by left and anti-caste oriented student groups, are emerging as new sites of resistance. These formations are transforming the traditional nature of protest by embedding dissent within everyday academic and dialogic practices. This paper also focuses on how study circles change the contours of student resistance and other social movements historically, and how the modus operandi of organising reading-based protests differs from that of traditional student protests.