Social Movements and Institutional Arenas: Engaging Institutions in Contested Governance

Abstract

While much scholarship conceptualizes institutions primarily as opportunity structures external to social movements, contemporary mobilization increasingly unfolds within, through, and against institutional arenas such as courts, parliaments, administrative bodies, and governance institutions. Across diverse contexts, activists do not merely target institutions but encounter them as contested political spaces that simultaneously enable, shape, and constrain collective action. This panel brings together papers that examine social movements’ engagements with institutional arenas across a range of empirical and analytical perspectives. From criminal prosecution of activists and defense strategies in court, to strategic litigation, venue shopping, parliamentary and bureaucratic advocacy, and the entry of activists into state and governance institutions, the contributions highlight the plurality of ways in which contention is institutionalized and governed. Taken together, the papers explore how activists navigate institutional constraints, how institutional actors respond to contentious claims, and how these interactions reshape governance, identities, and repertoires of action. Empirically, the panel spans cases from Europe and Latin America and addresses progressive as well as critical interventions across legal, political, cultural, and administrative venues. Conceptually, it advances dialogue between social movement theory, socio-legal studies, and governance scholarship by foregrounding institutions as arenas of ongoing political contestation rather than neutral frameworks or external constraints.

Title	Details
From Institutional Critique to Institutional Adaptation. Staking the Ground to Understand the Role of Institutions for Artistic Interventions	View Paper Details
Looking for How to Define Ourselves: Venue Shopping in Trans Activism	View Paper Details
Defending Civil Disobedience in Court? Development and Reception of Defense Strategies for Environmental Activist Defendants in France	View Paper Details
Charitable Food Provision Networks Upon Policy Interventions: a Paired Comparison of Italy and Japan	View Paper Details
When Discourse Opens Space: Elite Rhetoric, Protest Dynamics, and the Making of Political Opportunities	View Paper Details