The Conference: Time to Take Part, Cluj-Napoca, 7–8 May 2026
I presented my paper, ‘Digital Mobilisation and Social Change in Post-Pandemic Societies: Ethnographic Perspectives on Protest, Collaboration, and Algorithmic Navigation’ at the Time to Take Part conference, which was hosted by Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Italy, Romania, Hungary and Spain, the paper presented four key arguments: political socialisation as a biographical process; participatory washing versus unintended civic agency; AI as an absent presence; and agency as emergence, loss and reinvention. Empirical cases included Osakidetza, Scuole Senza Permesso, digital activism in Italy and reflections from activists in Hungary and Romania. The empirical cases were deliberately chosen to reflect the diversity of Edgeryders’ methodological approach, as the material was collected by different actors within the project: fellows, community journalists, and ethnographers. This diversity of perspectives and methods is, in itself, a distinctive feature of how Edgeryders conducts participatory research.
The conference featured two keynote lectures: Alice Mattoni (University of Bologna) on Day 1 and Jennifer Earl (University of Delaware) on Day 2, whose talk ‘Have We Been Down This Road Before? AI and Movement Influence’ was particularly relevant to the project’s focus on digital participation and algorithmic navigation.
It is worth noting that I was the only INTERFACED representative presenting in a separate panel, alongside presenters primarily from local universities. While the experience was valuable, it meant that the visibility of Edgeryders and the INTERFACED project within the broader conference was more limited than it could have been, particularly given that other consortium members were presenting together in a dedicated panel. A more integrated placement within the consortium would have allowed for greater visibility and more meaningful exchange between INTERFACED partners and the wider conference audience.
During my presentation, I introduced the Edgeryders platform to the conference audience and encouraged participants to explore it. I created a QR code that links directly to a relevant discussion thread, which should make it easier for people to access. Participants still need to sign up, so the QR code was designed to take them directly to a specific prompt or conversation rather than to the homepage.
INTERFACED Project Workshop
The workshop addressed a set of questions on civic participation that I had prepared and partially answered during the session. My key contributions were:
On methodological challenges: A key challenge is that we risk studying marginalised actors from the margins, treating their agency as exceptional rather than acknowledging that it is produced by structural factors. Agency is not a personal quality; it is either enabled or withheld by structural factors. As researchers, we also need to reflect on our own biases: activism research tends to focus on progressive forms of action, but right-wing movements also mobilise and contest authority. Furthermore, all of this is highly dynamic - what constitutes participation is constantly changing. This is precisely why ethnography matters.
On less visible forms of participation: Everyday forms of civic engagement are not immediately recognisable as political: a conversation at breakfast, helping someone find a pomegranate, choosing Signal over WhatsApp or participating in a diaspora movement via Zoom, for example. The challenge is that these forms of engagement are often invisible and not identified as activism. Sometimes, participation is not a choice, but a necessity: people engage because injustice is visible and tangible in their daily lives. This response is often solidarity: small, informal and sometimes invisible. But it is political.
On the political significance of non-obvious political actions: Political participation acts as a boundary object; its meaning varies for different stakeholders, but it is precisely at the intersection of these different meanings that political action becomes possible.
On informal communities: The discussion touched on the question of where civic participation actually takes place, beyond formal channels. Examples from the consortium included football clubs and politicised women’s groups. I would argue that these are better understood as part of a broader category of cultural organisations, namely, spaces that include religious groups, artistic communities, and neighbourhood initiatives, where political socialisation often occurs informally and invisibly. While these sites are analytically important, they have not yet been explored in depth for the project.
On next steps: I am particularly interested in exploring health and education reform movements, such as Osakidetza and Scuole Senza Permesso, further to understand how unexpected forms of agency emerge within them. I am also interested in civic tech spaces, the intersection of art and activism, organisations like Reporter ohne Grenzen, and how these spaces connect translocally. These themes could also offer opportunities for cross-cutting and comparative analysis within INTERFACED - connecting findings across countries and partners to identify shared patterns and divergences in how civic participation emerges in these contexts.
Networking and Leads
The conference and extended stay generated several concrete leads for future research:
- Toma Burean (Babeș-Bolyai University, INTERFACED Consortium Partner): email contact established during the Civil Society Roundtable
- Funky Citizens (Romanian NGO active in civic participation): email contact established; active participant in the Civil Society Roundtable
- Melania Leșe (TakePart Organisation, Dissemination Coordinator): to be contacted to obtain the full list of Civil Society Roundtable participants and explore potential interviews with civil society actors
Extended Stay: Sibiu, 10–11 May 2026
Following the conference, I extended my stay for research and community outreach purposes, spending time in Sibiu with my local contact and gatekeeper Greta. Gréta Tímea Biro is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the FERBOPO project, where she anthropologically examines the relationship between the state, the church, and body politics in Romania. Her current research focus explores how women in contemporary Cluj-Napoca engage with alternative spiritual and esoteric practices outside institutional religion as a means of navigating care, vulnerability, and moral authority, with particular attention to embodiment, gender-based violence, and informal support networks in contexts of limited institutional protection. Her work offers a complementary perspective to INTERFACED, particularly around civic participation, institutional trust, and informal community structures. There may be opportunities to share or develop her research through the Edgeryders platform in future.
Through Greta’s network, I was able to initiate contact with Anca Maria Mândru, a researcher whose expertise includes Eastern Europe, modern Europe, Russia/Soviet Union, comparative socialisms and nationalisms, cultural history and the history of science, highly relevant for contextualising civic participation in post-socialist Romania.
Greta also recommended the Făgăraș Research Institute (FRI) as a potential partner institution. The institute works on democracy and democratisation, civil society, human rights, community development, and Central and Eastern Europe. Particularly relevant departments include Society, Crisis and Resilience; FRI Community Archive; FRI Media Lab; and the School for Sustainable Development.
Follow-up: Readings on civic participation in Romania (recommended by Greta)
- Civic Engagement Landscape Romania 2024. Research Center for Civil Society, Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), funded by the Romanian American Foundation. Available at: www.civicresearch.center
- The Non-Governmental Sector: Profile, Trends, Challenges. Romania 2024.
- Margarit, D. & Rammelt, H. (2020). The Revitalization of Social and Civic Participation in Eastern Europe? Industrial Conflict and Popular Protests in Romania. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics, 6(4): 93–109. DOI: 10.17356/ieejsp.v6i4.701
- Radu, B.V. & Haruța, C. (2025). Citizen Participation after the Fall of Communism in Romania: Evolving Perceptions and Practices in Local Decision-Making and Governance. DOI: 10.24193/tras.75E.6