| Deadline: January 15, 2026 | Journal of Resistance Studies | Spring 2027 Issue |
In the global context of increasing authoritarianism and social exclusion, there is an urgent need to renew theoretical references and share practical knowledge from contexts where forms of resistance and practises of hope take place in everyday life. These practices are shaped by spatial and temporal conditions and are closely tied to individual positionality and offer powerful insights into how individuals and communities challenge existing structures and cultivate hope and justice.
The act of resistance in an everyday setting and the resulting practise of hope to improve social conditions are not yet fully explored. Theoretical work on everyday resistance (Johansson and Vinthagen 2020) and hope (Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen 2021) has noted the gap in the sharing of lived experiences and the everyday practises between people who engage in resistance and hope in everyday life. Resistance is understood as an active practise of nonviolence aimed at transforming negative conditions into a desired state of peace and social justice (Stahler-Sholk 2021). These everyday acts of resistance offer a valuable source of knowledge about confronting oppressive and exploitative structures and experiences of violence, exclusion, harassment, persecution, and discrimination.
The temporal and spatial dimensions of these practices reflect aspirations for better personal and social conditions. In these aspirations lies the great potential of articulating hope as political agency. Focusing on the micro level reveals how individual positionality relates to and interacts with power structures. Thus, it is relevant to ask how personal actions can subvert these structures in everyday life and immediate environment (Johansson and Vinthagen 2020).
This special issue invites contributions that reflect a diversity of voices, contexts, methodological and theoretical approaches to explore how everyday resistance and hope intersect, particularly in relation to positionality, space and time. The aim of the special issue is to deepen our understanding of how individuals and communities navigate the dynamics of resistance and hope in their everyday. We welcome both theoretical and practice-based contributions that draw from diverse empirical contexts. By bringing these perspectives together, this special issue seeks to analyse and theorise the interplay between resistance and hope and to explore how these practices challenge oppressive and discriminatory structures.
We welcome submissions that critically engage with the following themes:
- Everyday resistance in different social contexts
- Practices & Politics of hope
- Hope as political agency and resource for social transformation
- Resistance and hope in relation to space and time
- Limitations of everyday resistance and hope
- Artistic expressions of resistance and hope
- Humour as a source of resistance and hope
- Embodied and affective resistance