Abstract

Contemporary protest, often presented in media forms as a dramatic ritual played out in an iconic public space has provided a potent symbol of the widespread economic and social discontent that is a feature of European life under the rule of “austerity.” Yet, beneath this surface activity, which provides the headlines and images familiar from mainstream news coverage, lies a whole array of deeper structures, modes of behavior, and forms of human affiliation.

Contemporary Protest and the Legacy of Dissent offers a vibrant and insightful overview of modern protest movements, ideologies, and events. Written by academics and activists familiar with the strategies, values, and arguments of those groups and individuals responsible for shaping the modern landscape of protest, it reveals the inside story of a number of campaigns and events. It analyzes the various manifestations of dissent—on and offline, visible and obscure, progressive and reactionary—through the work of a number of commentators and dedicated “academic activists,” while reassessing the standard explanatory frameworks supplied by contemporary theorists. In doing so, it offers a coherent account of the range of academic and theoretical approaches to the study of protest and social movements.

Contributions by: David Bates, Mark Bergfeld, Vincent Campbell, Claire English, Ingrid M. Hoofd, Soeren Keil, Matthew Ogilvie, Stuart Price, Anandi Ramamurthy, Ruth Sanz Sabido, Lee Salter, Cassian Sparkes-Vian, and Thomas Swann.


Stuart Price is professor of media and political discourse, and chair of the Media Discourse Group, at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is the author of a number of monographs, including Worst-Case Scenario? Governance, mediation and the security regime (2011), and Brute Reality: power, discourse and the mediation of war (2010).

Ruth Sanz SabidoRuth Sanz Sabido is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, and Chair of the MeCCSA Social Movements Network.

The recent explosion of pro-democracy and anti-austerity protests from the bottom-up have revitalized ‘the political’ around the globe and have done so in a period when many occupying top-down perspectives had thought that hopes for a better future had historically run into the sands of neo-liberalism, repressive states and consumerism. This latest collection by Stuart Price and Ruth Sanz Sabido intelligently dissects the conditions and contingencies of protest in the contemporary era and provides new insights into the prospects and challenges confronting new social movements for change.
Simon Cottle, Professor of Media and Communications at the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University