The research group “Resistance and Legitimacy” investigates social practices and collective actions that challenge social, cultural and political power structures and hegemonies. In the focus are marginalized or defiant social groups in different political and cultural contexts that fight for their rights and strive to generate legitimacy for their conducts. This includes labor unions and women’s struggles for citizenship rights in Nepal, gender and sexual dissidence in Malaysia and Indonesia, Chinese citizens standing up for their right to a clean and healthy living environment, resistance related to the Nazi regime in Germany, and the resistance of esoteric practices in the contemporary Persian Gulf area. Across these different social groups and contexts, the researchers investigate how people conduct contentious actions, how their identities are shaped, and how this is linked with the social, political, and cultural power systems they are embedded in.
The following scholars are actively engaged in research under the Resistance and Legitimacy section:
