by Julian Gottlieb A cadre of academics have reignited their hope and optimism about the future of political activism amidst a renaissance of social movement activity from the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street; from Mexico’s Ayotzinapa protests, to the #BlackLivesMatter mobilizations. Let there be no equivocation; these movements have captured the public imagination and…
Category: Research
“Far from the Official Lights of Facebook Walls and Pages”: Backstage Activism and the Enduring Significance of Internal Communicative Dynamics within Digital Social Movements
by Emiliano Treré In 2012, after one year as a lecturer in Mexico, an unexpected event changed both the face of the country and the direction of my research. During the national elections in May, the #YoSoy132 movement emerged as a new social actor asking for transparent ballots, denouncing the manipulation of the Televisa media…
Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent by Stuart Price and Ruth Sanz Sabido
-by Stuart Price and Ruth Sanz Sabido Our goal in editing Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent was to bring together the work of politically engaged individuals who could speak with authority, both about the inner life of social movements, and about the ways in which these movements are theorised and understood. The imposition…
Paths of “Empowerment” Swept under the Starry Rug
by Marina Fuser Patricia Arquette’s speech upon receiving the Oscar for best supporting actress (Boyhood) was met by an enthusiastic round of applause, sighs and tears of joy by an audience that is rather favourable to gender equity. Nevertheless, the reception of this discourse involved much suspicion and skepticism in Feminist circles due to the…
Articulating Dissent: Protest and the Public Sphere
by Pollyanna Ruiz The mainstream’s current lack of familiarity with the organisational strategies of coalition movements has resulted in a tendency to perceive different types of order as a threatening, potentially violent, lack of order. Partly as a result of this misrecognition, the communicative strategies of coalition movements have frequently been viewed as evidence of…
Decolonizing Coexistence: Beyond Hebdo
By Marina Fuser This was a disturbing weekend for humanity: from Paris to Nigeria, from Lebanon to São Paulo, we have experienced ultimate demonstrations of violence against people that, by all means, did NOT deserve such fate. While Brazilian military police chased, dropped tear gas bombs and shot rubber bullets against an unarmed crowd fighting…
Networked Critical Masses
by Dan Mercea I am going to start this opinion piece with an oft-heard claim: democratic participation is deteriorating to the point that many of us observing it have become cautious if not pessimistic in our assessment of the strength of democracy. Evidencing this bleak outlook would be the rise of runaway populism bearing little…
Consumption Today: Thoughts on the ‘Buy Nothing Day’
by Eleftheria Lekakis Consumption today overtakes our everyday spaces. Advertising penetrates our vistas. We are increasingly asked to rebrand ourselves, to go on the quest of a better future. We consume material and immaterial objects on a daily basis. Yet, our consumption pollutes our environment, both material and mental, argued Kalle Lasn in his book…
“We’re doing it slow” – Community Archives as Protest Spaces
by Anne Kaun (Södertörn University) Community archives as self-organized spaces storing and working with ephemera, posters, books, pins, fanzines and other material forms are crucial to protect the voices of the movements beyond mainstream History writing. Community archives have been of importance since social movements emerged in the USA especially since the civil rights movement…
“Yes! We Have Bananas”: The upcoming World Cup and issues of Racism in the football field
Marina Fuser is a doctoral researcher at the University of Sussex in Film Studies. She is currently at UC Berkeley, researching with Prof. Trinh Minh-a. Her research includes Feminism, Postcolonialism, Post-structuralism and cinematic experimentalisms. This week, Marina reflects on racism on and off the football field. The Brazilian football player Daniel Alves’ response to a…
‘Study Hard and Don’t Meddle in Politics’: Media Representation of Taiwan’s 318 Student Occupation
Emilia Chi-Jung Cheng is a research student in Film Studies at the University of Sussex. Her research deals with issues of historical representation, identity, and nationhood across contemporary transnational filmmaking practices across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Kwan-Fan Su is also a research student in Film Studies at the University of Sussex. His research deals with…
Coffee Activism
Eleftheria Lekakis is Lecturer in Global Communications in the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex. Eleftheria’s research focuses on aspects of global communication which stem from the intersection of politics, economy and culture. This week, Eleftheria Lekakis introduces her new book on Coffee Activism. There are contemporary crises in the…