Global Cultures of Contestation

Abstract

This book guides the reader through the many complications and contradictions that characterize popular contestation today, focusing on its socio-political, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions. The volume recognizes that the same media and creative strategies can be used to pursue very different causes, as the anti-gay marriage Manif Pour Tous movement in France makes clear. The contributors are scholars from the humanities and social sciences, who analyze protests in particular regions, including Egypt, Iran, Australia, France, Spain, Greece, and Hong Kong, and transnational protests such as the NSA-leaks and the mobilization of migrants and refugees. Not only the specificity of these protest movements is examined, but also their tendency to connect and influence each other, as well as the central, often ambiguous role global digital platforms play in this. This book guides the reader through the many complications and contradictions that characterize popular contestation today, focusing on its socio-political, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions. The volume recognizes that the same media and creative strategies can be used to pursue very different causes, as the anti-gay marriage Manif Pour Tous movement in France makes clear. The contributors are scholars from the humanities and social sciences, who analyze protests in particular regions, including Egypt, Iran, Australia, France, Spain, Greece, and Hong Kong, and transnational protests such as the NSA-leaks and the mobilization of migrants and refugees. Not only the specificity of these protest movements is examined, but also their tendency to connect and influence each other, as well as the central, often ambiguous role global digital platforms play in this. Table of contents : Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction: Global Cultures of Contestation (Esther Peeren, Robin Celikates, Jeroen de Kloet, Thomas Poell)....Pages 1-26 The Square and Beyond: Trajectories and Implications of the Square Occupations (Marlies Glasius, Armine Ishkanian)....Pages 27-48 Weak Resistance in Semi-Peripheries: The Emergence of Non-Heroic Counterpublics (Ewa Majewska)....Pages 49-68 Challenging the Nation-State’s Territorial Integrity through Contestation: Secessionist Rallies in Catalonia (Jaume Castan Pinos)....Pages 69-92 A Radical Reframing of Civil Disobedience: “Illegal” Migration and Whistleblowing (Natasha Basu, Bernardo Caycedo)....Pages 93-111 Biopolitical and Phenomenological Underpinnings of Embodied Contestation: Further Reflections on Creative Insurgency (Marwan M. Kraidy)....Pages 113-127 Whose Space Is It Anyway? Practices of Protest and Strategies of Authority in Egypt (Walid El Houri)....Pages 129-150 Umbrellas and Revolutions: The Aesthetics of the Hong Kong Protests (Jeroen de Kloet)....Pages 151-170 The Internet as a Global/Local Site of Contestation: The Case of Iran (Mahsa Alimardani, Stefania Milan)....Pages 171-192 Tactical Connecting and (Im-)Mobilizing in the French Boycott School Day Campaign and Anti-Gender Theory Movement (Jayson Harsin)....Pages 193-214 Disruption or Transformation? Australian Policymaking in the Face of Indigenous Contestation (Tanja Dreher, Lisa Waller, Kerry McCallum)....Pages 215-240 Erehwon: A Digital Platform for Empowering Sociopolitical Interventions in Public Space (Beatriz Cantinho, Mariza Dima)....Pages 241-262 Back Matter ....Pages 263-282