The authors' previous work suggested to conceptualise these enactments of solidarity as
instances of 'subversive humanitarianism': a form of moral humanitarianism which acquires
a political character because of its opposition to the social and political climate in which it
unfolds. In this chapter, we describe how, over time, these civil initiatives have tried to
balance between maintaining their subversive character and solidifying into more
professional organisations. Drawing largely on the case of the Brussels-based Citizen …

In the late summer of 2015, hundreds of thousands of Europeans supported the newly
arrived refugees. 1 They brought food, clothes, medicines and tents to camps that often
emerged spontaneously in public space, and where both the state and professional NGOs
remained remarkably absent. From a scholarly perspective, these “moment [s] of
solidarity”(Johnson 2012, 109) seemed to be a clear-cut case of “contentious
politics”(Tarrow 2011, 3; McAdam et al 2001; Ataç et al 2016; Rygiel 2011): a series of …