Abstract
Recent years have seen a resurgence of protest and resistance movements worldwide, reminding deep interconnections between struggles for liberation beyond borders, histories and identities. While activists frequently frame these efforts through the lens of collective liberation, this lens remains absent from mainstream social psychology. In this article, we introduce collective liberation as a framework, concept and practice for social psychology. We critically examine the epistemological, methodological and conceptual constraints that have obscured it, and turn to activist expressions and theorizing to articulate three core components central to collective liberation: interlocked systems of oppression, interdependency of individuals and their freedoms, and shared responsibility for their liberation. We situate collective liberation alongside, yet distinct from, existing research constructs in collective action, resistance, allyship and solidarity, blurring the lines between allyship and resistance. Finally, we propose a research agenda that integrates collective liberation into social psychological theory and practice, offering new avenues for studying sustained activism and resistance, cross-movement solidarity and the psychological processes that support long-term social change.