Coordinators:
Henri Onodera (University of Helsinki)
Karim Maïche (University of Lapland)
Type of call:
Call for Participation
Presenters:
- Anna Salmivaara (Cambodia)
- Yahia Benyamina (Algeria)
- Usman Ashraf (Pakistan)
- Karim Maiche (global)?
- Venla Naapuri (South Africa)
- Kezia Kautto (Benin)
- Henri Onodera (Tunisia)
Description:
We are living through a period of deepening global inequalities, resurgent authoritarianism, environmental crises, and shrinking civic spaces. The 2020s have been marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, wars in Ukraine, Palestine and Persian Gulf, coups and political instability in several regions, and growing militarization. At the same time, geopolitical shifts and challenges to the liberal international order have accelerated the emergence of a more fragmented, conflictual, and complex world order. These developments have exposed the fragility of post-Second World War institutional arrangements, including the UN-based multilateral system.
Amid these transformations, many countries in the Global South are repositioning themselves and increasingly engaging with actors such as China and Russia as alternative sources of finance, development cooperation, and strategic partnership. For scholars, an important question is how these geopolitical shifts shape political participation, democratic practices, and civil society at the local level. How are civil society actors navigating the decline of liberal internationalism and the rise of alternative political and development paradigms? What new forms of civic engagement and disengagement are emerging? What ideas, values, and visions underpin struggles for more equitable futures?
This working group presents ongoing research from the Tactical Agency and Reimagining Democratic Participation in a Multiplex World: Southern Experiences (TACTS) project (Kone Foundation, 2025-2028). Drawing on case studies from Algeria, Benin, Cambodia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Tunisia, the papers examine changing civil society formations and local practices of civic engagement. Together, they explore the constraints and possibilities of democratic participation in an increasingly multiplex world.
We warmly welcome all conference participants to join the session and contribute to the discussion.
Contacts:
Henri Onodera, henri.onodera@helsinki.fi
Karim Maïche, karim.maiche@ulapland.fi