Towards a Beckian Approach to Social Movements: Between Surveillance and Subpolitical Counter-Power

By drawing upon concepts from Ulrich Beck’s work on risk, reflexivity, contestation, and subpolitical power, this article produces an understanding of social movement−based critiques of surveillance and argues for the promise of Beckian (conceptual) approaches in analyses of social movements’ power. While Beck argued, in his final book, that intensified surveillance constitutes a new epoch of the ‘risk society’, characterized by global digital freedom risks , little attention has been paid to how social movements contest such risks in ‘risk societies’. Responding to calls for research on these risks’ social consequences, thus filling this lacuna, this article advances our knowledge on Beck’s social theory and surveillance-related critiques by using the empirical example of football supporter movements and their surveillance-related contestations. As argued, this case example reveals civil society, movement field coalitions, and digital freedom risks’ emancipatory potential but historical significance.