Ciara McCorley and Rachel Ibreck were among the organisers of a workshop on ‘Social Movements and Political Change in Africa: Shaping Technologies for Change’, funded by the Irish Social Sciences Platform, which brought international participants from Kenya, South Africa, France, Sweden, Italy and the US to the university on 14-15 June 2012. We thank the ISSP for the generous funding, which led to a successful and stimulating workshop. Participants commented positively on the rare opportunity it provided for in depth discussion of their work and are now collaborating to produce a journal special issue.