Call for Papers
International Interdisciplinary Workshop The Past and Present of Climate Activism Contestation, Democracy, and Change School of International Studies, University of Trento, 11-12 June 2026
The School of International Studies Environment Research Cluster is excited to host an international workshop within the European project RETOOL – Strengthening democratic governance for climate transitions. The workshop contributes to research on climate movements, democracy and change within the RETOOL project, and will explore the interactions between climate movements, democratic transformations, the politics of knowledge, and processes of political and social change. The aim of the workshop is to build our understandings of how contestation, politicisation and collective emotions have influenced, and continue to influence, climate and environmental policies and politics in Europe, and how these experiences can inform a climate democracy that allows us to forge responses to climate change and environmental degradation with stronger democratic processes and public participation in decision-making. A central question guides the workshop: what lessons can be drawn from social movements and activism, past and present, to reinforce democracy in climate governance?
The workshop aims to promote dialogue between historical, sociological, socio-legal and political science approaches, with a broad interdisciplinary orientation. We welcome both empirically grounded research and theoretical or conceptual contributions that connect historical analysis, political science and sociological debates over climate/environmental movements and politics. The aim is to explore the linkages between activism, climate justice and democratic innovation.
We invite proposals addressing these and other related themes, both in their historical evolution and in their contemporary dimension:
Democratic innovations and prefigurative practices in climate justice movements
- Experiments in participation, deliberation, and self-organisation within movements that struggle for distributive, procedural, recognitional, corrective, and transitional justice.
- Connections between activism and institutions: from citizens’ assemblies to hybrid forms of climate governance.
- The emotional and affective aspects of democratic involvement in CJM.
Conflict, politicisation, and contestation
- How social movements use different bodies of knowledge in problematising environmental and climate issues and technologies.
- How do environmental mobilisations and conflicts intersect with democratic change and innovation.
- Interactions and contestation between movements and scientific knowledge: how activism reshapes epistemic authority.
- The role of emotions and imagination in activism and democratic claims and practices.
Temporalities and scales of climate governance
- The tension between urgency and long-term perspectives: how movements address the challenge of rapid decisions and profound transformations.
- Multilevel dynamics: interactions between local, national, European, and global arenas.
- Continuity and change across moments of climate activism.
Submission guidelines
- Abstracts must be written in English, with a maximum length of 400 words, and should be accompanied by a short biographical note (max 150 words).
- Proposals should be sent by 9th January 2025 to alice.dalgobbo@unitn.it with the subject line ‘International workshop abstract’
- Notification of acceptance will be sent by 31 January 2026.
- The workshop will be held in English.
Practical information
The workshop will take place at the University of Trento, School of International Studies (via Tommaso Gar 14, Trento), on 11–12 June 2026.
There are no fees for workshop participation. The organisers will contribute to cover accommodation and meal costs. Participants are expected to cover their own travel costs.
A selection of papers may be considered for publication in a collective volume edited within the RETOOL project.
For more details, refer here
