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Research The Groningen Research Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG) Research Research centres Research Center for the Americas

Grassroots Politics

This research group examines modes of political engagement and ethical leadership beyond mainstream politics in the Americas. While institutional, party, and electoral politics are immensely important in the Americas, scholars in this theme group are interested in questions of citizens’ engagement with political issues from outside those structures. What options do citizens have when they feel their moral and ethical concerns are being neglected by their elected representatives? We examine the strengths and weaknesses of a grassroots, participatory engagement with democracy, using insights from social movement theorists to explain the conditions in which citizens mobilize outside the mainstream, the strategies and tactics they use, and their relative success and failure in achieving their goals. A particular focus is on how Americans throughout the hemisphere experience politics beyond electoral campaigns, party politics, or as mediated by 24-hour news networks.

Dr Tim Jelfs - Amid the Debris: Action, Space and Occupation in post-9/11 U.S. Culture and Politics”
Dr Marietta Messmer - “The Zapatista Movement and Redefinitions of Democracy”

Last modified:24 January 2024 09.27 a.m.