Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Communities of Resistance

In an era defined by social upheaval and rapid digital transformation, this Handbook offers a compelling exploration of how communities are reshaping the cultural, economic, and political fabric of contemporary life. It argues that today’s social and digital spaces have evolved into a new kind of public “agora”—not simply arenas for critique, but dynamic sites where citizens collectively reinvent the foundations of democratic life.

At the heart of the Handbook is the concept of the “community of resistance”: groups of individuals who, facing crisis or unsettling change, come together to protect and reinforce their social bonds, identities, and institutions. Through these collective practices, they forge new forms of participatory citizenship and grassroots activism that challenge traditional power structures.

Blending theory, case studies, and critical analysis, the Handbook reveals how these bottom‑up initiatives are increasingly shaping political agendas and seeking institutional recognition. It illuminates a vibrant field of democratic experimentation—one in which everyday people are turning resistance into policy, transforming activism into legitimacy, and reimagining what it means to participate in public life. It will appeal to students and scholars in the social sciences, particularly to those interested in community, the digital transformation of society, social movements, and political resistance.

Emiliana Mangone is Full Professor of Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes at the Department of Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno (Italy). Her main research interests are in the field of cultural and institutional systems, with particular attention to the social representations, relational processes, knowledge and narrative as key elements to the human act, in migration studies, and as well as the study of the thought of Pitirim A. Sorokin. She recently published Towards a Sociology of Hope: Looking Beyond (2025) and (with G. Russo), Culture and Everyday Life in Rela(c)tion (2025).

Michele Sorice is Full Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Communication and Social Research (CoRiS), Sapienza University of Rome. His main research activities are in the field of critical sociology and critical media studies (communication and civic engagement, digital platforms and media, media and democracy, democratic innovation and participatory processes, political communication, neoliberalism and depoliticisation, digital activism and social movements). He recently published: (with L. Viviani), The Public Role of Italian Sociology: Among Institutions, Universities and Social Engagement (The American Sociologist, 2024) and (with M.C. Antonucci & A. Volterrani), Confini invisibili. Comunità liminali e pratiche di resistenza nella città neoliberista (2024).

Estrella Gualda is Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Huelva (Spain) at the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Public Health where is Director of the Social Studies and Social Intervention Research Centre. She has a particular interest in transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to social, political, economic and cultural issues, advances in research methods, techniques and software for social and applied sciences, sociological and other social science theories. She recently published: (Ed.), Teorías de la conspiración discursos de odio en línea en la sociedad de las plataformas. Comparación de pautas en las narrativas y redes sociales sobre COVID-19, inmigrantes, refugiados, estudios de género y personas LGTBIQ+ (2024) and (with A. Pocecco & E. Mangone, Eds), Collective Memory Narratives in Contemporary Culture (2023).