Towards democracy-driven governance? The role of social movements in democratic renewal

This workshop is linked to an edited book project led by the panel directors, contracted by Routledge for publication in 2022, towards democracy-driven governance? The role of social movements in democratic renewal. The edited collection explores the radicalisation of participatory governance witnessed in the past decade, driven by renewed social movement aspirations for democratisation, especially since the global financial crash of 2008, and in the context of austerity politics (Tormey, 2016). The democratising objectives of these movements percolated through to formal politics, at times translating into electoral victories of associated political parties and citizen platforms. A key challenge faced by these new forms of participatory governance was to institutionalise the values that inspired them, by mobilizing state bureaucracies to respond to their claims for reforms and rights whilst avoiding co-optation. The workshop, and the book it is linked to, will examine how these modes of governance fared, not least by analysing their interaction with established power regimes. We will reflect both on the opportunities opened by renewed attempts to reclaim the state and deepen the scope and reach of democratic innovations and on the obstacles facing these radical projects of social and political transformation. There is a need for this workshop to provide a space to reflect on original theoretical and empirical perspectives of different attempts, strategies and approaches used by social movements seeking to complement strategies of contention with engagement with the state, in order to transform societies through participatory democracy. Importantly, the convenors are editing a volume on the topic commissioned by Routledge. This workshop will help evaluate final contributions to the volume and reflect on overarching themes, the workshop will also be an opportunity to discuss future research on the relationship between social movements and grassroots politics and participatory governance, building on the rich case studies included in the book, from the paradigmatic case of Spain to understudied places such a Greenland.