CaC
Title of the Research Project:
Social Movement Organizations in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Origins, Structure and Networks
Main Goals of the Research Project:
- Describe the unique characteristics of social movement organizations in the region
- Provide an encompassing and comprehensive account of the scope and dimensions of SMOs that are active across Central Asia and the Caucasus
- Map their organizational forms and the populations engaged in them
- Determine the broader political, social and economic conditions under which SMOs in the region change, evolve, adapt and eventually decline
- Assess the relationship between the trajectories of specific social movements and protest cycles in the region.
Short Description of the Research Project
Social movement organizations (SMOs) constitute crucial building blocks of the mobilizing structures of a social movement. They have also played an important role in popular mobilizations in the political upheavals in Central Asia and the Caucasus during the last two decades. Despite this contribution, far too little attention has been paid to the role of social movement organizations in generating social protest movements in these two regions. Against this background, the research project aims to identify and map the variety of SMOs that co-exist within the social movements in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and to explore the relationship between the trajectories of specific social movement organizations and the protest cycles in these two regions.