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Resistant Matters: Tents, Tear Gas and the "Other Media" of Occupy

Authors: Feigenbaum, A.

Journal: Communication and Critical/ Cultural Studies

Volume: 11

Issue: 1

Pages: 15-24

eISSN: 1479-4233

ISSN: 1479-1420

DOI: 10.1080/14791420.2013.828383

Abstract:

From tents to tear gas, objects and architectures of resistance speak to us across the transnational Occupy Movement. More than background scenery or mere props for action, these objects have their own stories to tell about how they mediate and communicate political struggle. Informed by the revitalisation of materialism and object-oriented analyses, this paper draws together affect theory, "post-ANT" scholarship and social movement studies to explore particular nonhuman elements of resistance as "other media." Beyond those practices already seen to be part of the communications ecology of protest (alternative media, demonstrations, speeches, performative actions), I argue that other technological infrastructures and interfaces make and mediate political communication at sites of resistance in ways that are significant but often overlooked in existing scholarship. © 2013 National Communication Association.

Source: Scopus

Preferred by: Anna Feigenbaum