Social Science and the Tactics of the Climate Movement

Date: Thursday 9 April

Location: BG2 0.8 (09:00-15:00) + BG2 0.2 (15:00-17:00).

Debates about climate justice have long focused on the movement’s goals and their feasibility. A new and urgent discussion now concerns the legitimacy and efficacy of increasingly disruptive climate tactics. As protests intensify, questions about strategy, ethics, and democratic order have come to the fore.

This workshop convenes empirical scholars and political theorists to assess how we should evaluate disruptive strategies, what evidence can measure their efficacy and political costs, and how they fit within broader debates about order, violence, and democracy. It asks whether climate movements simply contest the status quo—or seek to reconstitute democratic order itself.

Invited Speakers:

·       Fabian Dablander  (University of Amsterdam)

·       Feilyzi Ismael (SOAS London)

·       Sam Nadel (London School of Economics)

·       Clare Saunders (University of Exeter)

·       Laura Thomas-Walters (Yale University)

This event is supported by the Amsterdam Centre for Conflict Studies and is in collaboration with the Amsterdam Lab for Transformative Research and the Challenges to Democratic Representation Programme Group of the UvA’s Department of Political Science.