Organisers:
Mete Sefa Uysal (University of Exeter)
Sara Vestergren (University of Reading)
Yasemin Gülsüm Acar (University of St. Andrews)

The EASP Small Group Meeting “Crowds and Leadership: Towards Integration and Innovation for Crowd Psychology, Collective Action, and Leadership-Followership Research” was held at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, on 27–28 June 2025. The meeting brought together experts in three research areas—collective action, leadership, and crowd psychology—to discuss three key issues across the two-day event:

1) The integration of research and theory across leadership and followership, crowd psychology, collective action, social identity, power, repression, and social influence.
2) Methodological and conceptual challenges and limitations in the current state of the art, as well as future directions.
3) Global cases in which leaders and crowds play pivotal roles in community building, social change, and group processes.

The meeting was attended by 17 researchers from ten countries and at different career stages, including ten early-career researchers (PhD students and postdocs). Rather than following a traditional conference format, the event combined 10-minute blitz talks with the World Café method to enhance interaction and engagement among participants. The World Café is a flexible and participatory format for hosting large-group dialogue and discussion.

The program consisted of four thematic sessions that integrated these two main elements. Each session began with blitz talks (3–4 talks plus discussion; 60 minutes) and was followed by a World Café discussion (90 minutes). Each World Café comprised three rounds of small-group discussions (60 minutes) and a concluding whole-group discussion (30 minutes). To guide the small-group discussions, three main questions were prepared for each session. Participants rotated between tables and questions in groups of 5–6 researchers, spending 15–20 minutes per question. This structure enabled all participants to engage with multiple questions, generate diverse insights, and contribute to collective conclusions in the final whole-group discussion. The sessions and guiding questions were as follows:

• Session 1. Using the Past to Mobilise the Future
o How do leaders navigate internal disagreements or fractures within movements?
o How do leaders evoke or shape collective memory?
o How do different interpretations of the past lead to different visions for the future?

• Session 2. Identity Construction and Leadership Influence
o How do leaders maintain legitimacy in contexts of vulnerability, exile, or threat?
o What are the risks and benefits of centralising leadership around a symbolic figure?
o How do contextual shifts (authoritarianism, displacement, privilege) affect leadership strategies?

• Session 3. Leaders in Different Types of Crowds
o What kinds of leadership emerge in devalued or marginalised contexts?
o Are there overlooked or ‘quiet’ forms of influence that do not resemble traditional leadership?
o When do followers challenge or withdraw from leaders, and why?

• Session 4. Grassroots Leaders and Leaderless Movements
o How do grassroots actors navigate repression, legitimacy, and moral ambiguity?
o In what ways do local or diverse contexts (political, cultural, environmental) shape leaderless organising?
o What are the risks and rewards of rejecting traditional leadership structures?

All discussion questions were developed to build on the blitz presentations, ensuring continuity and depth across sessions. The discussions were recorded as part of the research project (approved by the University of Exeter’s Ethics Committee, with informed consent obtained from all participants) and transcribed for further analysis. These data will inform a theoretical review article in which all participants will be able to be named as co-authors, currently in preparation. The event concluded with a keynote address delivered by Prof. Alex Haslam (University of Queensland).