The research project “Protest and Order: Democratic Theory, Contentious Politics, and the Changing Shape of Western Democracies” (POWDER), which is funded through an ERC Starting Grant, has just started with the recruitment of the first research associates. Led by Professor Dr. Christian Volk, the project investigates the interaction of social movements and the political order of Western democracies. Based on four empirical studies (protests of undocumented migrants, transnational alter-globalization movements, right-wing identitarian mobilisation, and new forms of anonymous online activism), the project seeks to understand the transformation of democratic orders and its influence on social movements.