Alternative media activism: Anybody hearing the audience?

  by Pantelis Vatikiotis Research interest in alternative media has grown considerably over the last two decades in reference to the appropriation of digital technologies for activist purposes, but are we hearing the audience? The use of social media during uprisings sparked across the world in the emblematic year 2011 (Arab Spring, Indignados, Occupy Movement)…

Re-framing art activism? (New) research approaches to art and politics

by Paula Serafini   Art activism has been written about. A lot. Politics and art are a good match, and events, exhibitions and publications that address the artistic and the political have been en vogue for a while now. So why keep writing about this stuff? There are a few straightforward reasons: new practices emerging,…

Paying for the Revolution in Monopoly Money

by Julian Gottlieb In my last post for RA, I made the case for movements to be more strategically adaptive; to evolve, pivot on issues, and tinker with new tactics. This may seem a bit obvious; duh! movements have to change with the times and try new tactics when old ones decay in efficacy over…

The Productivity of Protest

by Laura Portwood-Stacer I’m writing this post a few days after the world learned that Donald Trump had won enough electoral votes to become the 45th president of the United States. In the hours following the announcement, those who had feared this outcome (even if they didn’t really expect it) rapidly transitioned from denial to…

The Return of Revolutionary Narratives and the Future of Revolution

by Guobin Yang Recently, the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association was held in Philadelphia. The theme of the meeting was “Great Transformations: Political Science and the Big Questions of Our Time.” This sounded like a call for the return of grand narratives. A return, because there was once a time for grand…

Digital Vigilantism as Critical Reinforcement of Law and Order

by Daniel Trottier A recent development in the area of digital media and social movements is the use of mediated visibility as a way to shame and deter targeted individuals. Recent examples include the global outrage Walter James Palmer faced after killing a lion in Zimbabwe, as well as groups in the United Kingdom and…

Social Movements and Media Technologies: Present Challenges and Future Developments Seminar Series (SoME Seminars)

The Social Movements and Media Technologies: Present Challenges and Future Developments Seminar Series (SoME Seminars) is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and jointly organised by the Centre for Global Media and Democracy (CGMD) at Goldsmiths University of London and the Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS), Institute of Humanities and Social…

The Populist Turn of the 2011 Protest Wave

by Paolo Gerbaudo For anybody with some experience in social movements and the radical Left, the movements of 2011 have come as a real shock; refreshing for some and disturbing for others. They have been like an earthquake, putting into question ideas, tenets, attitudes that had for long been established in protest movements. From the…

Social Media and the Future of the Labour Movement

by Lina Dencik The use of social media platforms for campaigning and protests in recent years has illustrated some important aspects about the possibilities as well as the challenges of digital activism in the contemporary global political economy. Although little attention has been paid to the role of unions and workers’ organisations in recent uprisings,…

Samosas for Social Change? Food Activism and Media Ecologies

by Eva Giraud The title of this blog is a tribute to local Nottingham collective Veggies Catering Campaign, who – along with Brighton’s Anarchist Teapot – are two of the UK’s most well-known ‘campaign caterers’. This post isn’t focused purely on Veggies, though, but a long-standing food-activism campaign that some of their members have been…