Introduction: Disenchanted Prophets: Social Movements between Dissent, Solidarity and Creativity

Social movement theory, with its Euro-American focus, struggles to capture the radicallydivergent imaginaries and claims that accompany current waves of protest. The SpecialFeature titled “The Many Faces of Protest: Rethinking Collective Action in a World ofDissent” examines select progressive protests and their transformative potential in timesof deep uncertainty. In so doing, it helps sociologists and others make sense of how therepertoires, domains of action, and prefigurative capacities of collective action are chang-ing around the world today.