Urban fallism: Monuments, iconoclasm and activism

Abstract

In March 2015, an activist movement ‘Rhodes must fall’ from the University of Cape Town initiated a new form of global socio-political protest, which spread in cities worldwide and was characterized by spatial practices of occupying, modifying and pulling down monuments in public space. Presenting key theoretic points of this special feature in City, this introduction explores the phenomenon of ‘urban fallism’–the ways in which the action of contesting, transforming and/or removing a monument from urban space operates as a means of political struggle and as a form of political engagement in urban contexts. It outlines and integrates the contributions to this special feature, which covers a range of historic and contemporary cases in different urban, geographic and socio-political contexts, including: post-colonialism in Africa and the Americas; post-communism and post-imperialism in Europe and Asia; and wars in the Middle East. Drawing on original research and analyses from the fields of archaeology, history, art history, heritage studies, architecture, urban design, and sociology, the papers in this special feature highlight how the fall of monuments operates as a tool for political resistance against marginalization, discrimination and exclusion, a catalyst for democracy and social justice, and a means of dealing with contested heritage. As such, contributions of this special feature speak about the urban politics of race and identity and raise questions about the role of collective memory in the struggle of opposing and/or marginalized social groups for their right to the city and their place and recognition in society.