The transnationalisation of illiberal far-right parties and social movements is increasingly evident in Europe today. While there is a growing body of research on different types of regressive illiberal political actors (for example, anti-immigration parties, anti-gender organisations) and their cross-border political mobilisation, research has tended to focus on a ‘division of labour’, pertaining to either political parties or social movements. Applying the concepts of ‘transnationalisation’ and ‘diffusion’ as used in collective action research, this article seeks to bring these strands of analysis together in a common analytical framework to understand the transnationalisation of different types of illiberal far-right actors (including both political parties and non-party organisations) in terms of organisational networks, identity frames, and protest events. All aspects of the framework will be shown through the cases of the anti-gender movement in Europe, the European ‘counter-movement’ (against the populist far right), as well as the wokeism frame.
This article advances understandings of how social media was used both as a space and as a catalyst of political mobilisation by youth-led movements in Africa to advance their democratic demands. It examines youth-led movements in three countries: the Sudan protests from 2018 to 2019, the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria in 2020, and the #FreeSenegal protests spanning 2021 to 2024. These movements highlighted significant concerns regarding governance, economic disparity, human rights, and democracy. While African youth continue to be sidelined from formal politics, their online protests and street protests did not just counter autocratic tendencies by the state but also reflected their political imaginaries. Their political expressions indicate adherence to democratic tenets such as participation and accountability.
