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First 'Intergalactic' Resistance Studies Conference

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

June 18-21, 2026 

Fluid and Emerging Collective Resistance: Mapping the Terrain with Political Activist Ethnography

Sarah Murru
Majken Jul Sørensen
Naïké Garny
Sandra Andersson
Year of publication: 2025

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Abstract

Resistance studies has traditionally focused on distinct ‘moments’ of resistance, such as riots, revolutions, or everyday practices of hidden resistance. In this article, we adopt a queer perspective to explore resistance beyond these ‘moments’ and consider how scholars can incorporate the ‘fluid" and ‘in-between’ aspects of resistance in their analysis. Our particular interest lies in conceptualizing emerging collective resistance that may potentially evolve into something akin to a social movement. To investigate this, we bring our fluid understanding of resistance into conversation with institutional ethnography (IE), specifically its subfield of political activist ethnography (PAE). Among its contributions, PAE offers a mapping tool that can assist movements in various ways, for instance in identifying allies. We examine how this mapping can also be valuable in the context of emerging collective resistance. Understanding emerging collective resistance is pertinent globally, but our focus here is on welfare societies. We closely consider the potential roles of professionals and frontline workers, such as social workers, teachers, doctors, and parole officers, in developing emerging collective resistance together with their students, clients, and patients. This is especially relevant if they strive to engage in constructive resistance and create alternatives outside or at the border of dominant structures.

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