Research on protest and social movements

Call for donations: For an independent, self-organized research on protest and social movements! 

Independent, self-organized research costs money…  We want to ensure the funding of the infrastructure of the Institute for Protest- und Social Movement Studies (ipb). For this, we need your support!

What is at stake?

Protests are everywhere – from the neighborhood initiative against infrastructure projects to uprisings in authoritarian regimes and from right-wing rallies to graffitied walls. Despite the obvious significance of protests and social movements for democracy, research on this topic is in poor shape. Stereotypes and short-sighted views are widespread when it comes to public debates on matters of protest. More often than not this problem can be connected to a lack of cumulative knowledge and the inability to make sense of emerging events. The Institute for Protest and Social Movement Research (ipb) wants to fill this gap.

We approach research on protests as a public science. To do this, we organize ourselves in a network of over one hundred researchers and engage in public debates – e.g. in the Movement Talks, at our annual meetings, via the media and the open-access ipb-working papers.

Together, we collaborate in short-term research projects such as demonstration surveys (among others at the Pegida-demonstrations and the protests against TTIP) as well as in long-term projects such as the collaborative project “Mapping #NoG20”, with which we want to increase knowledge about the escalation of violence at the Hamburg G20-summit. As an independent research facility, we are not accountable to any client and are therefore able follow scientific standards in consideration of public responsibility.

Why donate?

The ipb works differently than other scientific institutions. Much of the work we do is unpaid. In order to coordinate the increasing amount of voluntary work and eventually convert it into paid projects we need to operate a coordination office. Thus far, the institute is mainly financed by the contributions of its members. However, this sole source of funding is no longer sufficient to cover the running costs of our increasing activities. This fundraising campaign has been initiated to ensure the ipb’s central organizational infrastructure (an office space and a “mini-job”) and to guarantee the security of the independent research projects it hosts for the next two years. This allows us to find more sustainable funding. For this, 7.500 Euro are needed.

We consider decentralized funding a particularly appropriate way of financing our work since it safeguards our accountability to activists and civil society actors as well as the broader public and the scientific community.

How can I donate?

The ipb is backed by the non-profit Association for Protest and Movement Research e.V. Donations made to the association can be claimed for tax purposes in Germany. A donation receipt will be sent to you for that purpose if requested. We further welcome all recurring donations because they improve long term planning. Even a single Euro per month can help us achieve our donation goal.

To set up a recurrent direct debit donation, please send us an e-mail with the subject line “donations for independent movement research” along with your bank account information and the desired withdraw interval (monthly or annually) to info@protestinstitut.eu.

To make a one-time or regular donation via bank transfer, please include the purpose “donation for independent movement research”. The beneficiary is:

Verein für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung e.V.
IBAN: DE90 4306 0967 1147 0403 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS
Bank: GLS Gemeinschaftsbank 

One-time donations can also be made quickly and easily via Paypal (see below). The specification of the e-mail address in the first step is needed for sending the donation confirmation. If you don’t need any confirmation, fake addresses are possible.

Of course you are also invited to become a member or a sponsoring memberof the association and help shape the work of the institute. Detailed information on how to join us can be found on the respective section of our Website.

Thank you for your support!

The campaign image
We are using the collage by courtesy of our colleague Beth Gardner. Thanks a lot!