Disruptive Fridays #5 – Lockdown or Crackdown? – features Stellan Vinthagen (Professor of Sociology, Scholar-Activist, US/SE) and Mauro Mondello (Investigative Journalist, IT/DE). Moderated by Jonas Frankki (Disruption Network Lab, SE/DE).

On this May Day 2020 the streets worldwide will largely be vacant. How can citizens fight for their rights during the pandemic? Both Vinthagen and Mondello have long experience on the ground and in the field, Vinthagen as a researcher and non-violent activist, Mondello as an investigative journalist covering the Middle East. During the ongoing COVID19 Pandemic, Mauro Mondello is covering the developments in Hungary and Poland, where civil liberties are under threat from leaders who are using the crisis to further extend their powers. Stellan Vinthagen has spent decades combining non-violent activism and civil disobediance with sociological research, to further the understanding and develop theories on how non-violent resistance movements function.

The guests discuss what is happening at the moment in countries like Poland and Hungary, and discuss what effective activism and resistance might look like during lockdown.

Stellan Vinthagen (Professor of Sociology, Scholar-Activist, US/SE)
Stellan Vinthagen is inaugural endowed chair in the study of nonviolent direct action and civil resistance and professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is also a council member of War Resisters’ International, academic adviser to the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), co-founder of the Resistance Studies Network (www.resistancestudies.org) and editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies. Since 1980, he has been an educator, organiser and activist and has participated in more than thirty nonviolent civil disobedience actions, for which he has served in total more than one year in prison.

Mauro Mondello (Investigative Journalist, IT/DE)
Mauro Mondello is a freelance journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker based in Berlin. He works as a correspondent for la Repubblica, Avvenire, Radio Rai, Panorama, Rivista Studio, East, Zeit Magazine among others. In 2011 he followed the Arab Revolutions in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt. His documentaries include Stateless (2012), in collaboration with videomaker Nunzio Gringeri, a study of Tunisia’s Shousha refugee camp and Lampedusa in Berlin (2015), about the stories of the refugees’ protest camp in Berlin at Oranienplatz. He is the founder and editor in chief of Yanez Magazine.

Jonas Frankki (Disruption Network Lab, SE/DE)
Since 2014 Jonas Frankki designs and animates the visual identity of the Disruption Network Lab and each conference, and additionally researches speakers, networks and topics for future events. Jonas was born in Sweden, studied Marketing, International Relations, Political Science and Cultural Management in Gothenburg. Since 2012 he is also an Art Director at sinnwerkstatt, a Berlin media agency for sustainability. He is a member of the Disruption Network Lab e. V..

Photo Courtesy of the organisation