Global Cultures of Contestation

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.

1. Introduction; Robin Celikates, Jeroen de Kloet, Esther Peeren & Thomas Poell.- 2. Biopolitical, Phenomenological and Transgressive Underpinnings of Embodied Contestation;Marwan Kraidy.- 3. The Square and Beyond; Marlies Glasius & Armine Ishkanian.- 4. Protest Counterpublics and the Issue of Change; Ewa Majewska.- 5. Civil Disobedience Reframed: Borders, Secrets and New Actors; Natasha Basu & Bernardo Caycedo.- 6. From Disruption to Hegemony: Protest Tactics and Strategies of Oppression in Egypt; Walid el Houri.- 7. Challenging the Territorial Dimension of the Nation-State: Secessionist Rallies in Catalonia; Jaume Castan Pinos.- 8. Umbrellas and Revolutions: The Aesthetics of the Hong Kong Protests; Jeroen de Kloet.- 9. Transitory Digital Organizing, Mobilizing and Precarious Political Cohesion: The "Boycott School" and Manif Pour Tous Movements; Jayson Harsin.- 10. Internet as a Global/Local Site of Contestation: The Case of Iran; Mahsa Alimardani & Stefania Milan.- 11. Disruption or Transformation? Indigenous Voices Contesting Policy in the Digital Age; Tanja Dreher, Kerry McCallum & Lisa Walle.- 12. Erehwon: A Practical Exploration of Digital Tools for Empowering Socio-Political Interventions in Public Space; Beatriz Cantinho & Mariza Dima.