Gender, Community-Based Resistance and Environmental Governance in Times of Polycrisis

Amid rising populism, eroding public trust, and the weakening of traditional multilateral institutions, communities and civil society actors are increasingly stepping into governance spaces once occupied by the state — from democratic backsliding to environmental crisis management. This panel examines gendered, community-based, and collaborative forms of resistance and innovation as responses to institutional retrenchment, engaging with the Congress's call to identify new categories and frameworks for understanding contemporary democratic and environmental governance.
We welcome contributions addressing themes such as feminist perspectives on local governance amid democratic uncertainty; women's and youth movements as agents of democratic renewal; the localization of global norms (e.g., the WPS agenda) in contexts of institutional weakness; civil society mobilization in land, resource, and territorial conflicts; collaborative environmental governance models bridging local communities, industry, and the state; and grassroots participatory practices as alternatives — or correctives — to formal democratic and multilateral representation.
The panel explores how gendered, community-based, and environmental resistance movements are redefining democratic participation from below, offering insights into which forms of governance renewal might prove most resilient in an increasingly uncertain global order.