ABSTRACT This article examines the concept of international solidarity, emphasizing its significance in both historical and contemporary contexts. Notable movements such as Palestine solidarity movement, the global workers' movement and the Anti‐Apartheid Movement illustrate how individuals and communities across borders unite to challenge injustice. Despite its historical importance, international solidarity remains under‐researched. This article provides a critical synthesis of the literature and highlights the need for deeper engagement with its dynamics. It argues that (international) solidarity is a dynamic, multidimensional concept whose changing meanings across time, place, and politics shape collective action and social alliances. Moreover, it asserts that international solidarity should be understood not as a derivative outcome or an extension of domestic or transnational solidarity, but as a distinct, evolving, and politically charged sociological concept. The article begins by exploring the concept of solidarity, tracing definitions, key features, and historical development through disciplines such as sociology, politics, and philosophy, including insights from thinkers like Durkheim and Marx. It then distinguishes international from domestic solidarity, highlighting its characteristics including its transnational and cross border scope, as well as emphasis on interdependence and power dynamics. Finally, the article addresses challenges such as national interests and cultural differences while considering hope as a bridge for international solidarity, linking diverse movements and histories in a common struggle for justice.

Abstract Indian farmers have posed one of the biggest challenges to the right-wing government of Narendra Modi, who in 2014 gained the support of large numbers of peasants and agricultural workers. Failure to materialize his promises and the crackdown on farmers’ mobilizations led to creation of a strong and rather unified farmers’ movement in India, which gained momentum after three farm laws were passed by the parliament of India in September 2020. The new laws would mean more deregulation for the agricultural sector, which would deteriorate farmers’ living situation and undermine their food sovereignty. For the government this would be a step forward to encourage large-scale private sector investment in agriculture and consolidate land. This chapter contextualizes the emergence and development of this movement and demonstrates three significant organizational and ideological practices that shaped the cornerstone of the “politics of possibilities” developed by activists.

Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a young Kurdish woman who had travelled to Tehran to visit her family, died in the custody of the morality police on 16 September 2022 for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. Her death provoked outrage across the country. An image of her in the hospital where she lost her life, and a handwritten sign on her grave 'you have not died, your name will become a code', quickly went viral. Months of nationwide protests by hundreds of thousands followed her death. Thousands were arrested and injured. Hundreds were killed on the streets and a number of protesters were executed. This article discusses the emergence of the movement, its transformation, achievements and challenges.

"Revolutionary Life: The Everyday of the Arab Spring." Social Movement Studies, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2

Permaculture design seeks to create sustainable communities, and over time has established itself as a transnational community of practice. Based on original interviews with permaculture practitioners from around the world, and drawing on the three core elements of communities of practice – shared domain, communality and shared practices – as our analytical framework, this paper makes three arguments. First, the shared domain of permaculture as a body of knowledge, a system of ethics and set of practical design principles creates an overarching teleological regime that anchors the globally dispersed collective activities of permaculture practitioners. Second, communality in the international permaculture community is centred around the permaculture design course, national and international permaculture convergences, and organisations and demonstration sites that act as hubs for practitioner interaction, linked across national borders by social media networks. Third, shared practices in the permaculture community centre on relationship-building and local-level community organisation.

This chapter describes the interpenetration of Marxist and religious discourses in Iran. Focusing on the works of Ali Shariati in particular, Fadaee shows how he incorporated Marxist insights on the historical process and the fundamental structures of capitalist society into his thinking. At the same time, however, Shariati rounds on Marxism for its neglect of the question of culture, that is, for lacking an account of how humans make meaning. In contrast, the domination of everyday life and of thinking by the symbols and icons of capitalist consumerism (a semiotic soup made with Western ingredients), was effectively targeted by Islamic political actors. The power of their critique and its resonance with large numbers of people in Iran corresponds to a gap or silence in Marxist discourse. Fadaee shows that Shariati stitched the two systems together, combining an economic and social critique of capitalist exploitation with a progressive articulation of Shiism against Western cultural domination.

On 30 November 2018 tens of thousands of Indian farmers marched to Parliament and demanded a special session to discuss the deepening agrarian crisis. The protest march to Parliament was only the latest in a series of protest marches which had been organized by an umbrella group of over 200 farmers’ organizations from all over India. Moreover, for the first time, an alliance of different activist groups, political parties, trade unions and students had cohered to support the farmers and their cause. Despite its political, empirical and theoretical significance, research on the formation of alliances has gained scant attention in sociological research. Based on original research, this article suggests alliance building should be understood with reference to political opportunities, processes of meaning attribution and framing, and as a strategy, which facilitates worthiness, unity, numbers and commitment (WUNC displays, as outlined by Charles Tilly).

There is renewed interest in megaprojects worldwide. In contrast to high-modernist megaprojects that were discrete projects undertaken by centralized authorities, contemporary megaprojects are oft en decentralized and pursued by a range of stakeholders from governments as well as the private sector. They leverage cutting-edge technology to 'see' complex systems as legible and singular phenomena. As a result, they are more ambitious, more pervasive and they have the potential to reconfigure longstanding relationships that have animated social and ecological systems. The articles in this issue explore the novel features of contemporary megaprojects, they show how the proponents of contemporary megaprojects aspire to technologically enabled omnipresence, and they document the resistance that megaprojects have provoked.

This collection of essays responds to a growing resurgence of Marxist scholarship in the period since 2008. The Introduction describes why religion is a particular focus for Marxist scholarship in this conjuncture and sets out the rationale for this particular set of essays in terms of shared emphasis on the performative. Social actors operating under diverse contexts make use of Marxist and other ideas to pursue their interest in emancipation. The centrality of religion to these projects is a problem for Marxist theory, which predicts the decline of religious belief under modern conditions, and a challenge for Marxist practice, to which it has responded in various ways. The book is organised into two sections, the first on theory and the second a series of case studies that reflect the diversity of Marxism’s relationships with religion in the contemporary world.

In September 2015, Germany opened its doors to refugees arriving via the Balkan Route. The influx of refugees generated support and solidarity among individuals, civil society groups and political and cultural institutions and various social movements. In this article, I analyse the frames proffered by two pro-refugee groups based in Berlin and contrast them with the propagated media counter frames which ultimately dominated the public discourse. I demonstrate that despite an explicit intention and commitment to foster support for refugees, the pro-refugee groups’ choice of frames could have been more strategic if they would have not neglected media counter frames. I argue that although the literature’s focus on dynamics of movement and media frames has provided useful tools for analysing the relation between the two, engaging with media counter frames is as equally important, especially if we are concerned with questions around strategy and the outcomes of social mobilizations. Empirically, this article provides a unique insight into micro politics of pro-refugee mobilizations in Europe. Theoretically, it contributes to a better understanding of media and movement frames by emphasizing the significance of dynamic engagement with media counter frames for creation of progressive political alliances with the wider public.

Permaculture is an attempt to design and develop sustainable communities in harmony with natural ecosystems. It embraces solution-oriented approaches to contemporary social and environmental problems. Originating in Australia, permaculture was initially considered a design system but it has become a global social movement and it is practiced in different countries in various forms and at multiple scales. It is manifested in numerous networks of local practitioners, teachers, promoters, demonstration sites, organisations and magazines where various ideas and practices converge. Despite its popularization scant attention has been given to analysis of permaculture as a social movement. Moreover, the few academic writings which analyse permaculture as a social movement do not systematically engage with its manifestation and adaptation in the global South. The latter is the main contribution of this article. Based on original research this paper narrates the origins of the permaculture movement in India, and it pays close attention to its contextual adaptation by a diverse group of practitioners. It demonstrates that these diverse actors and their strategies have clear linkages to the independence movement; they are influenced by the incomplete project of Indian liberal democracy; they operate on the sphere of civil and political society; and they engage middle and lower classes in a formal and informal political nexus.

This paper argues that the (re)framing of the Kurdish movement from national liberation to radical democracy in Turkey has set the ground for a redefinition of strategies from ethnic rights to civil rights. In this sense, the Kurds have put forward a meta-political critique of society by going beyond ethnic claims. We show how, as the result of criticizing the neoliberal representative democracy and the capitalist state, the Kurdish liberation movement's strategies were transformed to advancing broader civil claims. Based on original research, we elaborate on three concrete expressions which have emerged as the result of this transformation: The Democratic Society Congress, the women's movement and the environmental movement. Finally, we explore the emancipatory potential of this shift for recognition of the rights of minorities in particular and for broader social change in general.

There is renewed interest in megaprojects worldwide. In contrast to high-modernist megaprojects that were discrete projects undertaken by centralized authorities, contemporary megaprojects are often decentralized and pursued by a range of stakeholders from governments as well as the private sector. They leverage cutting-edge technology to ‘see’ complex systems as legible and singular phenomena. As a result, they are more ambitious, more pervasive and they have the potential to reconfigure longstanding relationships that have animated social and ecological systems. The articles in this issue explore the novel features of contemporary megaprojects, they show how the proponents of contemporary megaprojects aspire to technologically enabled omnipresence, and they document the resistance that megaprojects have provoked.