When we observe protest marches, striking workers on picket lines, and insurgent movements in the world today, a litany of objects routinely fill our field of vision. Some such objects are ubiquitous the world over, like flags, banners, and placards. Others are situationally unique: Who could have anticipated the historical importance of a flower placed in the barrel of a gun, a flaming torch, a sea of umbrellas, a motorist’s yellow vest, a feather headdress, an AK-47, or a knitted pink hat? This book explores the “stuff” at the heart of protests, revolutions, civil wars, and other contentious political events, with particular focus on those objects that have or acquire symbolic importance. In the context of “contentious politics” (disruptive political episodes where people try to change societies without going through institutions), certain objects can divide and unite social groups, tell stories, make declarations, spark controversy, and even trigger violent upheavals.
This book draws together scholars from a variety of fields to discuss symbolic objects in contentious politics: their meanings, uses, functions, and social responses. In bringing these phenomena together, this book offers a serious, distinctive, and cohesive theoretical contribution that draws upon diverse scholarly work in order to form the building blocks for future inquiry in the field. The aim is not merely to “close the gap” in the literature, but to create space in the field for further and more fruitful inquiry.
Author(s): Benjamin Abrams, Peter Robert Gardner
Edition: 1
Publisher: University Of Michigan Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF | Full TOC
Pages: 331
Tags: Political Science; Political Behavior And Public Opinion; Sociology
Cover
Half Title
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introducing Symbolic Objects in Contentious Politics | Peter Gardner and Benjamin Abrams
1. Contentious Politics and Symbolic Objects | Peter Gardner and Benjamin Abrams
The Creation of Symbolic Objects
2. A Strategic Toolbox of Symbolic Objects: Material Artifacts, Visuality, and Strategic Action in European Street-Protest Arenas | Bartosz Ślosarski
3. The Nation That (Mis)took Death for Life: The Materiality of Martyrdom, Shia Religiosity, and Contentious Politics in Iran | Younes Saramifar
4. Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The Symbolic Politics of In/visibility in Lebanese Queer Activism | John Nagle
5. The Feathered Headdress: Settler Semiotics, US National Myth, and the Legacy of Colonized Artifacts | Sonja Dobroski
The Potency of Symbolic Objects
6. The Symbolism of the Street in Portuguese Contention | Guya Accornero, Tiago Carvalho, and Pedro Ramos Pinto
7. Signature, Performance, Contention | Hunter Dukes
8. Policing Bodies: The Role of Bodywork and Symbolic Objects in Police Violence during the Toronto G20 | Valerie Zawilski
9. Bodies on Fire: Self-Immolation as Spectacle in Contentious Politics | Dennis Zuev
The Legacy of Symbolic Objects
10. El Che: The (Im)possibilities of a Political Symbol | Eric Selbin
11. Mekap—A Social History of the “Terrorist Shoe” That Fought ISIS | Dilar Dirik
12. Biafran Objects and Contention in Nigeria | Scholastica Ngozi Atata and Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale
13. The Mask as Political Symbol: On the Ritualization of Political Protest through Mask-Wearing | Bjørn Thomassen and Lone Riisgaard
Conclusion
Advancing the Study of Objects in Contention | Benjamin Abrams and Peter Gardner
Contributors
Index
