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 (with G. Gili) (2025) and Culture and Everyday Life in Rela(c)tion (with G. Russo) (2025).

Michele Sorice is Full Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Communication and Social Research (CoRiS), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. 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: The Public Role of Italian Sociology: Among Institutions, Universities and Social Engagement (The American Sociologist, 2024) (with L. Viviani) and Confini invisibili. Comunità liminali e pratiche di resistenza nella città neoliberista (2024) (with M.C. Antonucci and A. Volterrani).

Estrella Gualda is Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Huelva (Spain), where she served as Director of the Social Studies and Social Intervention Research Centre (1995–2026). She is a Full Member of the Academia Iberoamericana de La Rábida. Her current research focuses on social, political, economic and cultural issues, with emphasis on digital and computational sociology, including conspiracy theories and hate-related narratives, and advances in research methods, techniques, and software for the social sciences. She recently published: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models (LLMs) and Augmented Analytics vs Big Data and Data Science: New Avenues for Social Research (Revista CENTRA de Ciencias Sociales, 2026).