Online Expert Round Table on Social Movements as alternative arenas of Political Participation – Mobilising Citizens in the re-creation of Trust and Distrust organised in the framework of the Horizon 2020 Entrust Project on enlightened trust in governance.

The online Round table will discuss together with Governance actors, civil society and academics, findings from the EnTrust project Integrated Report on the role of social movements.

The report gathered information on the interaction and possible interplay between two recent and growing trends: citizens’ withdrawal from institutional political arenas and the rise of contemporary contentious politics manifested as increased participation of citizens in new social movement practices in the following countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Serbia, covering diverse mobilisations on democracy, environment, right to housing, rights of women and of minorities. The report provides better understanding of the social movements’ alternative visions of Europe – as a political and social space – and alternative ways of (re)building trust in its institutions. We also gathered insights into the way these social movements interrelate with more established mainstream civil society organisations (CSOs) and political parties and about their understanding of democracy.

The Expert round table will look into the relationship between mistrust in governance and collective mobilization through social movements, as well as on the effects of social movements on trust-building. The rise of new social movements that mistrust institutional politics, but develop “critical trust” through alternative conceptions of democracy and democratic spaces, in fact could be seen as an answer to the problem of the decline of political trust found in contemporary democracies.

Please find here the Agenda.

Please note registration is now closed.