This article focuses on informal control strategies and their effects on community-based organizations in Quebec (Canada). These organizations, highly institutionalized and rarely considered as radical actors, have a long tradition of political action in Quebec, intervening as interest groups to present grievances to the government, as well as social actors protesting in the streets. Many control strategies hinder this essential part of associations' mandate. Interviews conducted in 2021 with 14 groups show that, despite these associations' relatively uncontroversial repertoire of action, more than twenty forms of control can be exercised over them. Implemented by multiple actors, these strategies affect individuals, groups, and their missions. These data shed light on what informal control strategies do to the political action of community-based organizations, while informing about control strategies by actors other than the police. Drawing on a sociology of social movements and repression, this article demonstrates the informality integrated into multiple repressive tactics, highlighting the importance of taking it into account when thinking about repression and control practices and their effects, especially on marginalized individuals and groups.
This article analyses recent climate contention in Italy through an original dataset of 186 protest events collected between 2022 and 2024 using Online Protest Event Analysis (OPEA). Drawing on social movement theory and the concept of waves of contention, it examines the temporal rhythms, repertorial transformations, and spatial configurations of contemporary climate mobilization. Findings reveal a cyclical and intermittent pattern of protest, marked by alternating phases of intensification, latency, and strategic recomposition. While demonstrative practices remain dominant, the period is characterized by the temporary strategic centrality of civil disobedience, driven primarily by Ultima Generazione, which selectively reconfigures protest repertoires without producing a generalized escalation of conflict. Spatially, climate contention is concentrated in the metropolitan centres of Northern and Central Italy, while more territorially embedded forms of environmental mobilization appear rooted in distinct place-based ecologies of contention. Overall, the Italian case is interpreted as a specific wave of contention nested within a broader cycle of environmental contention, shaped by tactical innovation, internal differentiation, and shifting political opportunities.
This article reviews the main issues surrounding repression as covered in the existing literature. The main theoretical issues addressed include the forms of repression, their actors, and their potential effects. This issue brings together research on cases of discreet, informal, hidden, or even invisible repression and control, which nonetheless have a decisive impact on the capacity for political action among groups and the individuals who comprise them. In doing so, this article highlights the scientific and social relevance of the special issue on the infrapolitics of repression, explored through the lived experiences of nonprofits and activist groups. This issue presents different conceptualizations that seek to move beyond the most obvious theorizations of repression, situating it beyond its most visible forms and the obvious actors.
In July 2024, students from several universities in Bangladesh turned out to the streets to reform job quotas in government services. The government used excessive force to stop protest, leading to widespread violence in the country. Soon after the government's brutal actions, many people, including college students, took to the streets to demand justice for barbaric acts. This study examined Bangladeshi college students' protest participation and willingness to participate in future social movements. A survey was conducted with 125 college students after the July 2024 protest. Descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. All statistical analyses were done using SPSS (version 26). Most respondents were male (72%), with an average age of 18.31 years. Only 12.8% had personal income, and 71.2% were in Grade 12. About 66% were from a Bengali medium background, and 61.6% were science students. The study found that 77.6% participated in protests physically, while 91.2% were active on social media. Additionally, 90.4% expressed willingness to participate in future social movements. Regression analysis showed that age, sex, medium of instruction, faculties, and state repression significantly influence participation in the protest physically. On the other hand, kinship sentiment and state repression demonstrated a correlation with online protest participation. The willingness to participate in future social movements was found to be associated with social media engagement and the perceived well-being of the nation. These findings are very useful for researchers and policymakers to challenge the existing notion that youths are reluctant or have limited interest in social issues, civic engagement, and participation.
