This volume explores the shifts in how civil disobedience has come to be theorized, defined, understood, and practised in contemporary politics. As social activism takes increasingly global forms, the goals of individuals and groups who view themselves as disobedient activists today can be defined in broader cultural terms than before, and their relationship to law and violence can be ambiguous.
Civil disobedience may no longer be entirely nonviolent, its purposes no longer necessarily serve progressive or emancipatory agendas. Its manifestations often blur the lines established in “classic”, philosophically justified, and self-regulatory forms as epitomised in mass nonviolent protests of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and theories of Arendt, Rawls and Dworkin. How civil disobedience operates has changed over the years, and this volume unpacks its many contemporary lives. It discusses new theoretical and political dilemmas and paradoxes through empirical cases and practical examples from Europe, the United States, and South Asia, which enables a “mirroring” perspective for the challenges and complexities of civil disobedience in different parts of the world.
Bringing together innovative and introspective perspectives on people and protests in contemporary political contexts, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and philosophers of political science, international relations theory, political philosophy, peace and conflict studies, sociology, and cultural studies.
Author(s): Tapio Nykänen, Tiina Seppälä, Petri Koikkalainen
Series: Ethics, Human Rights, and Global Political Thought
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 235
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on contributors
Chapter 1: Introduction: Civil disobedience from Nepal to Norway
References
Part I: Civil disobedience then and now
Chapter 2: The concept and practices of civil disobedience
Some notes on democratic theory and civil disobedience
On justifications of civil disobedience: political judgement and the finiteness of time
The tensions and paradoxes of civil disobedience
For the future
Notes
References
Chapter 3: Experiments with civil disobedience during Norwegian environmental struggles, 1970–2000
Introduction
Roots of nonviolent action and CD in Norway
Four cases illustrate the strategic development of CD
Mardøla – small-scale civil disobedience
Introduction and organisation
The CD component
Discussion
Alta – large-scale civil disobedience
Introduction and organisation
The CD component
Discussion
Innerdalen – constructive CD
Introduction and organisation
Discussion
FAG – deterrent CD
Introduction and organisation
The civil disobedience component
Local constructive work
Making large-scale CD probable
Discussion
Discussion of the four cases: developing a culture of CD
Notes
References
Documentary movies
Other sources
Johansen’s personal archive
Chapter 4: Civil disobedience and artistic protests: The Áltá and Deatnu disputes and the development of Sámi resistance
The Áltá controversy: chains, art and hunger strikes
The Ellos Deatnu! movement: civil disobedience or artistic protests?
Fishing without a licence and judicial review
Civil disobedience and artistic protesting
Notes
Research material
References
Chapter 5: Drugs, disobedience, and democracy: Civil disobedience and drug policy
Seeds of civil disobedience
Harm reduction and public health civil disobedience
Justifiable civil disobedience in a democracy
Marching against the war on cannabis (users)
Conclusion
References
Part II: Alternative insights and extensions of civil disobedience
Chapter 6: Open-source disobedience: Rise of civic hacktivism in Taiwan
Introduction
Research question and the concept of civil disobedience
History
g0v (gov-zero)
Sunflower Movement
Digital Minister
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Masked struggle: Uncivil disobedience on the streets of Finland
Introduction: Soldiers of Odin and Loldiers of Odin
Vigilantism is not civil but uncivil disobedience
SOO and the threat of violence
Loldiers of Odin and crossing the lines
Masks of disobedience
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
Chapter 8: Is there an alternative tradition of civil disobedience in Europe?
Introduction
Civil disobedience as a political tool in Western political thought
Civil disobedience as a political tool in Europe
Integral federalism and civil disobedience in European political thought
Is there an alternative tradition of civil disobedience in Europe?
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
Chapter 9: Different forms of dissent in anti-deportation activism in Finland: From refugee protests to civil disobedience
Introduction
Producing illegality and deportability
Anti-deportation activism in Finland
The Aino Pennanen case of civil disobedience
Then, why not more civil disobedience?
Conclusion
Notes
References
Chapter 10: Dissenting civil society, hunger strikes, and the transitional justice process in Nepal
Introduction
Context: the background of the conflict
Civil disobedience and hunger strikes in Nepal
Conflict victims and the Transitional Justice movement
Nonviolent resistance for justice and truth: the fast-unto-death hunger strike of Nanda Prasad Adhikari
Dissenting civil society as the backbone of democracy
Conclusion
Notes
References
Part III: Defending civility in civil disobedience
Chapter 11: Academic freedom, resisting intellectuals, and the idea of university in South Asia
Introduction
Forms of resistance
University protests in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India
The name-of-the-leader
Academic responses
Pedagogy and political activism
Notes
References
Chapter 12: Understanding whistleblowing: Civil disobedience or uncivil action?
Introduction
Whistleblowing as civil disobedience?
Rule-of-law justification
Communicative justification
Whistleblowing as uncivil disobedience
What understanding of civility does civil disobedience have?
Is whistleblowing civil disobedience?
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
