Geoffrey Pleyers is an
F.R.S.–FNRS researcher and professor of
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
at
Université Catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...
, Belgium, where he chairs the research program "Social Movements in the Global Age". He is the author of the book "Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age".
He is the current president of the
International Sociological Association
The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociolo ...
(ISA) after being the vice-president for research (2018-2023) and president of the ISA Research Committee 47 "Social classes and social movements" (2014-2018).
Education
Geoffrey Pleyers holds a BA in sociology from the
University of Liege (2000) and a master's degree (2001) and a doctorate from the
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (2006).
Scholar associations
From 2014 to 2018, he chaired the Research Committee 47 "Social classes and social movements" of the
International Sociological Association
The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociolo ...
. During this period, he organizes conferences on social movements in different countries including Mexico, Romania, Hong Kong, France, Belgium and Palestine.
In July 2018, he was elected vice-president for Research of the International Sociological Association, for a four-year term.
In June 2023, he was elected president of the International Sociological Association, for a four-year term.
A global sociologist
Geoffrey Pleyers is a member of scientific committees of numbers of journals including the Revista Mexicana de Sociología, Sociológica, Bajo el Volcán (Puebla, México), Revista Colombiana de Sociología, Revista de Estudios Sociales (Colombia), Revista de Ciencias Sociales (Costa Rica), Temas Sociológicos (Chile), Revista de Academia Crítica (Chile), Agora/Débats Jeunesse (France), Observatorio: Journal of communication studies (Portugal), Metamorfosis. Revista sobre Adolescencia y Juventud (Spain), Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques (Belgium), Politique et société (Canada).
Along his career, Geoffrey Pleyers has held visiting appointments at the London School Economics, New York University, Graduate Centre City University of New York, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Academia de Humanismo Cristiano, FLACSO Ecuador.
Since 2015, Geoffrey Pleyers and Breno Bringel are the editors of the web journal "Open Movements: for a global and public sociology of social movements".
This joint project by the Research Committee 47 from the ISA and the website Open Democracy aims at providing critical and empirically based outlooks on social movements and new expressions of social and cultural transformations, the ones which make the media headlines and those which discreetly transform daily life and politics alike, at the local and global scales.
Research interests
His research interests include
social movements
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of Group ...
,
youth
Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...
,
food movements, and social movements in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
The underlying argument of his main book Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age (Cambridge, Polity, 2010) is that current social movements develop two parallel cultures of activism in their quest for social change. One focuses on a bottom-up approach, implementing changes at the local scale and giving a prominent place to experience, subjectivity, experimentation and the local scale. The second one, the "way of reason" is based on a citizen expertise and institutional regulation.
Selected publications
Books
*''Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age''. Cambridge:Polity Press, 2011
*
Movimientos sociales en el siglo XXI'' Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2018
*''Forums Sociaux Mondiaux et Défis de l'Altermondialisme''. Brussels: Academia, 2007,
Edited books
*
Chile en movimientos', with Karla Henríquez , Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2023.
*
Social Movements and Politics during COVID-19', with Breno Bringel, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022.
*
Alerta Global. Políticas y movimientos en tiempos de pandemia ', with Breno Bringel, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2020.
*
Protestas e indignación global. Los movimientos sociales en el nuevo orden mundial', with Breno Bringel, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2018.
*
México en movimientos. Resistencias y alternativas', with Manuel Garza, México: Porrúa, 2018.
*
Economie solidaire et mouvements sociaux', with JL Laville, E. Bucolo, Corragio, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 2017.
*
Subjectivation et désubjectivation ', with M. Boucher, Paris: Editions MSH, 2017.
*
Mouvements sociaux. Quand le sujet devient acteur', with B. Capitaine, Paris: Editions MSH, 2016.
*
Social movements in Central and Eastern Europe', with I. Sava, Bucharest, Press of the University of Bucharest, 2015.
*''La consommation critique'' Paris, Desclee de Brouwer, 2011.
*''Movimientos sociales. De lo local a lo global''. Co-edited with Sergio Zermeño & Francis Mestries. Barcelona: Anthropos & Mexico City: UAM.
Articles
*
Global Sociology: Four Transformations. First Address as President of the ISA ', Global Dialogue, vol. 13.3., 2023.
*
For a Global Sociology of Social Movements', Globalizations, 2023.
*
The Pandemic is a Battlefield. Social movements during the COVID-19 lockdown', Journal of Civil Society, 2020.
*
Ecology and the global age. A social movement perspective', in: Bringel & Dominguez eds., Global Modernity and Social Protests, London: Sage.
References
External links
Main publicationsISA Research Committee 47 "Social classes and social movements"Review of "Alter-Globalization" by Henrietta L. Moore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pleyers, Geoffrey
1978 births
Belgian sociologists
Living people