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Accepted Paper:

Navigating protest in Sri Lanka and Lebanon: ‘marginalised’ communities’ visions of change  
Oliver Walton (University of Bath)

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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how groups representing ‘marginalised’ communities navigated mass protest movements in Sri Lanka (2022) and Lebanon (2019) and assesses how conditions of prolonged ‘crisis’ can both undermine existing mobilisation efforts and generate new forms of solidarity and resistance.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how groups representing ‘marginalised’ communities navigated mass protest movements in Sri Lanka (2022) and Lebanon (2019). In both countries, protests sought to transform political systems and had profound effects on the political landscape, leading to the resignation of the President (in Sri Lanka) and the Prime Minister (in Lebanon).

The paper draws on qualitative research conducted in 2024 to understand how groups representing ‘marginalised’ communities (including sexual minorities, women, and sexual and gender minorities) navigated the constraints imposed by prolonged and overlapping political and economic crises and war, while using periods of political opening to advance their agendas and forge new networks. As well as exploring how these groups navigated protest movements ‘in the moment’, the paper examines the longer-term trajectory and outcomes of these movements and how these outcomes are linked to broader shifts in the political settlement. Finally, the paper assesses how conditions of prolonged ‘crisis’ can both undermine existing mobilisation efforts and generate new forms of solidarity and resistance. In doing so, the paper reflects on the diverse ways in which these groups envision change and, in some cases, seek to move beyond dominant western frameworks.

Panel P39
Regime change or institutional change? Protest movements, elites, and emerging visions of politics and development in the global South
  Session 2