المنتدى

Which are the main conceptual debates on politics from below? What is the explanatorypower of concepts such as ‘infrapolitics’, ‘low politics’, ‘politique par le bas’, ‘vernacular politics’? Is politics from below a residue, or does it challenge power dynamics?

How is politics entangled in presumably non-political phenomena (e.g. personal networks, solidarity ties)? To what extent do visible politics (e.g. party politics, state policies) rely on such informal networks, and to what extent are they autonomous from them?

How are public but also organisational (e.g. party, NGO) policies implemented in practice? How can we analyse the multiple social uses of institutions and public policies? To what extent does a look at street-level bureaucrats or activists change our understanding of policies or politics? Which kinds of negotiations and transactions do institutional and formal policies give birth to?

Which (new) areas are contested as a political domain (e.g. as spheres of public policy and contest)? Do political cleavages enter new spheres of practice (e.g. economy, professional organisations, education, lifestyle, reproduction)? How do different actors reframe issues or actions as being political or not?

What are the effects of these forms of politics from below – do they fuel resistance, accommodation or consolidate domination? How do we assess the subversive dimension of politics from below?