In an era of democratic backsliding and rising majority nationalism, struggles over self-determination, autonomy, and secession have regained urgency. These conflicts vary widely across regions, yet scholarship remains fragmented. Normative debates and empirical studies often operate separately, while research on Western independence movements, de facto states, and non-Western insurgencies rarely intersect. Broader causal analyses and ground-level perspectives also remain disconnected, and links between authoritarian retrenchment and self-determination are underexplored. Movements balance territorial control with international recognition, while states defend unity. Minority groups frequently pursue autonomy short of independence, creating layered systems of shared rule and reshaping identities and belonging.
The study of self-determination and secession remains vibrant but fragmented, leaving important gaps in theory and practice. While there has been a proliferation of work across political science, international relations, political anthropology, political geography, and international law, these strands often remain siloed. Normative theorists debate the legitimacy of secession while empirical researchers track movements on the ground, but conversations between them are rare. Similarly, studies of Western democratic independence movements are seldom brought into dialogue with work on de facto states or separatist insurgencies elsewhere. This fragmentation limits the field’s capacity to explain why struggles emerge, how they evolve, and what outcomes they produce.
At the same time, the global context is shifting. Democratic backsliding, authoritarian retrenchment, and resurgent nationalism intensify pressures on minority groups, producing new forms of contestation. Movements today must navigate both domestic repression and international politics, balancing territorial effectiveness with recognition while often negotiating layered autonomy arrangements. These dynamics demand fresh theoretical and comparative insights that cut across regions, methods, and disciplinary traditions.
A Workshop dedicated to these themes is essential for consolidating scattered debates, fostering interdisciplinary exchange, and identifying common frameworks. It would provide a venue for scholars to bridge normative and empirical research, connect Western and non-Western cases, and explore the cultural, symbolic, and everyday dimensions of self-determination alongside institutional and geopolitical factors. By creating this dialogue, the Workshop can help advance a more integrated research agenda, better equipped to engage with urgent contemporary struggles over sovereignty and belonging.
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Griffiths, R. D., & Muro, D. (Eds.). (2020). Strategies of Secession and Counter-Secession. ECPR Press.
Klem, Bart (2024) Performing Sovereign Aspirations: Tamil Insurgency and Postwar Transition in Sri Lanka. Cambridge University Press.
Klem, Bart (2021) “‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands”, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology,
22(4): 255-275.
Mas, J.; Sanjaume-Calvet, M.; Serrano, I. 2025. “Mapping Regionalism and Secessionism: A New Dataset of Territorial Demands in the EU”. Ethnopolitics, 1–18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2025.2532317
Requejo, F.; Sanjaume-Calvet, M. (eds.). 2022. Defensive Federalism Protecting Territorial Minorities from the “Tyranny of the Majority”, Routledge.
Sanjaume-Calvet, M.; Daniels, Lesley-Ann. 2024. “An Inflection Point or Business as Usual? Secessionism as State Contestation in Ukraine”, Global Studies Quarterly, 4(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/isagsq/ksae030.
Sanjaume-Calvet, M., Harguindéguy, J. B., & Sánchez Sánchez, A. 2024. “Self-determination vs. state sovereignty. What are the determinants of agreed-upon independence referendums in liberal democracies?” Democratization, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2024.2331709.
1: How can theory and empirical research on secession better inform each other?
2: What insights do autonomy deals and independence cases provide?
3: How do cultural and symbolic narratives shape self-determination struggles?
4: How do federalism and minority protections affect secessionist tensions?
5: What role do international actors play in supporting or constraining claims?
| Title |
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| The Dialectics of Security Discourses: Policing, Gentrification, and the Contestation of Self-Determination in Ethno-nationally Contested Cities |
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| Shifting Translocational Positionalities in Contested States: Ukrainians in Transnistria and Georgians in Abkhazia before and after Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine |
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| Self-Determination Diplomacy and the Solidarity Universe |
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| Can Cameroon Learn from the Process That Saved Canada? |
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| Discursive opportunities, citizenship regime and the production of national identity in Quebec |
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| Getting close: some methodological intuitions to approach secessionist activists in exposed contexts |
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| Dynamics of Secessionist Mobilization in Autonomous Regions (DynaMo) |
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| Governing the Body in a Disunited Kingdom: Gender, Autonomy, and Constitutional Conflict in the UK |
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| Territorial Autonomy as Symbolic Homeland in the Kachin Conflict |
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| Defending Unity in a Time of Democratic Backsliding: The State as Counter-Secessionist Actor |
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| Centralization and democratic backsliding: a spark for secessionist movements? |
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| Trends of (Post)colonial Self-determination in a Context of Democratic Backsliding |
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| Human Rights as national identity and a step towards independence: The Scottish response to the UK Government’s attempt to erode the human rights framework. |
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