This book explores the unsettling ties between colonialism, transnationalism, and anarchism. Anarchism as prefigurative politics has influenced several generations of activists and has expressed the most profound libertarian desire of Southern Mediterranean societies. The emergence of anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements and collective actions from Morocco to Palestine, Algeria, Tunis, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan has changed the focus of our attention in the last decade. How have these anarchist movements been formulated? What characteristics do they share with other libertarian experiences? Why are there hardly any studies on anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean? In turn, the book critically reviews the anti-authoritarian geographies in the South of the Mediterranean and reassesses the postcolonial status of these emancipatory projects. Colonialism, Transnationalism, and Anarchism in the South of the Mediterranean invites us to revisit the necessity of decolonizing anarchism, which is enunciated, in many cases, from a privileged epistemic position reproducing neocolonial power relations.

In this fascinating biography of the Indian revolutionary M. P. T. Acharya (1887–1954), Ole Birk Laursen uncovers the remarkable transnational networks, movements and activities of India’s most important anticolonial anarchist in the twentieth century. Driven by the urge for complete freedom from colonialism, authoritarianism, fascism and militarism, which are rooted in the idea and politics of the nation-state, Acharya fought for an international vision of socialism and freedom. During the tumultuous opening decades of the 1900s—marked by the globalisation of radical inter-revolutionary struggles, world wars, the rise of communism and fascism, and the growth of colonial independence movements—Acharya allied himself with pacifists, anarchists, radical socialists and anticolonial fighters in exile, championing a future free from any form of oppression, whether by colonial rulers or native masters. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, private correspondence and other primary sources, Laursen demonstrates that, among his contemporaries, Acharya’s turn to anarchism was unique and pioneering in the struggle for Indian independence. Anarchy or Chaos is the first comprehensive study of M. P. T. Acharya. It offers a new understanding of the global and entangled history of anarchism and anticolonialism in the first half of the twentieth century.

This volume describes the various movements and thinkers who wanted social change without state intervention. It covers cases in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. The first part discusses early egalitarian experiments and ideologies in Asia, Europe and the Islamic world, and then moves to early socialist thinkers in Britain, France, and Germany. The second part deals with the rise of the two main currents in socialist movements after 1848: anarchism in its multiple varieties, and Marxism. It also pays attention to organisational forms, including the International Working Men's Association (later called the First International); and it then follows the further development of anarchism and its 'proletarian' sibling, revolutionary syndicalism – its rise and decline from the 1870s until the 1940s on different continents. The volume concludes with critical essays on anarchist transnationalism and the recent revival of anarchism and syndicalism in several parts of the world.

Narratives of anarchist and syndicalist history during the era of the first globalization and imperialism (1870-1930) have overwhelmingly been constructed around a Western European tradition centered on discrete national cases. This parochial perspective typically ignores transnational connections and the contemporaneous existence of large and influential libertarian movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Yet anarchism and syndicalism, from their very inception at the First International, were conceived and developed as international movements. By focusing on the neglected cases of the colonial and postcolonial world, this volume underscores the worldwide dimension of these movements and their centrality in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. Drawing on in-depth historical analyses of the ideology, structure, and praxis of anarchism/syndicalism, it also provides fresh perspectives and lessons for those interested in understanding their resurgence today. Contributors are Luigi Biondi, Arif Dirlik, Anthony Gorman, Steven Hirsch, Dongyoun Hwang, Geoffroy de Laforcade, Emmet O'Connor, Kirk Shaffer, Aleksandr Shubin, Edilene Toledo, and Lucien van der Walt. With a foreword by Benedict Anderson.

Anarchists who supported the Cuban War for Independence in the 1890s launched a transnational network linking radical leftists from their revolutionary hub in Havana, Cuba to South Florida, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Panama Canal Zone, and beyond. Over three decades, anarchists migrated around the Caribbean and back and forth to the US, printed fiction and poetry promoting their projects, transferred money and information across political borders for a variety of causes, and attacked (verbally and physically) the expansion of US imperialism in the 'American Mediterranean'. In response, US security officials forged their own transnational anti-anarchist campaigns with officials across the Caribbean. In this sweeping new history, Kirwin R. Shaffer brings together research in anarchist politics, transnational networks, radical journalism and migration studies to illustrate how men and women throughout the Caribbean basin and beyond sought to shape a counter-globalization initiative to challenge the emergence of modern capitalism and US foreign policy whilst rejecting nationalist projects and Marxist state socialism.

The Routledge Handbook of Methodologies in Human Geography is the defining reference for academics and postgraduate students seeking an advanced understanding of the debates, methodological developments and methods transforming research in human geography. Divided into three sections, Part I reviews how the methods of contemporary human geography reflect the changing intellectual history of human geography and events both within human geography and society in general. In Part II, authors critically appraise key methodological and theoretical challenges and opportunities that are shaping contemporary research in various parts of human geography. Contemporary directions within the discipline are elaborated on by established and emerging researchers who are leading ontological debates and the adoption of innovative methods in geographic research. In Part III, authors explore cross-cutting methodological challenges and prompt questions about the values and goals underpinning geographical research work, such as: Who are we engaging in our research? Who is our research ‘for’? What are our relationships with communities? Contributors emphasize examples from their research and the research of others to reflect the fluid, emotional and pragmatic realities of research. This handbook captures key methodological developments and disciplinary influences emerging from the various sub-disciplines of human geography.

This book presents a transdisciplinary and transnational challenge to the enduring coloniality of political concepts, discussing the need to decolonise both their theoretical constructions as well as their substantive translations into practices. Despite the acclaimed 20th century decolonisation waves, coloniality still remains in subtle and obvious practices, in visible and invisible mechanisms of power, in the privileging of certain knowledges and the dismissing of others. Decolonising Political Concepts critically addresses the role political concepts play in the continuing legacies of colonialism and ongoing coloniality. This book, building on postcolonial and decolonial thinkers and ideas, demonstrates how concepts may be used as oppressing political and epistemological tools. By presenting efforts to decolonise political concepts, the book signals the potential for genuinely postcolonial academic and political contexts. Bringing together scholars from different disciplines and engaging with a wide array of geographical contexts, the chapters examine concepts such as agency, violence, freedom, or sovereignty. This book enables readers to critically engage with concepts used in political discourse and allows them to reflect on their impact and alternatives. It will appeal to graduate students and scholars from international relations, social sciences, or philosophy, as well as to socio-political actors engaged in decolonisation agendas.

Drawing on research funded by the European Commission, this book explores how religious diversity has been, and continues to be, represented in cultural contexts in Western Europe, particularly to teenagers: in textbooks, museums and exhibitions, popular youth culture including TV and online, as well as in political speech. Topics include the findings from focus group interviews with teenagers in schools across Europe, the representation of minority religions in museums, migration and youth subculture.

This biography charts the life and fascinating long militant career of the French anarchist journalist, editor, theorist, writer, campaigner and educator Jean Grave (1854-1939), from the run up to the 1871 Paris Commune to the eve of the Second World War. Through Grave, it explores the history of the French and international anarchist communist movement over seven decades: its “heroic period” (1880-1890s), shaken by terrorist violence and intense repression, the emergence of syndicalism, national and international solidarity campaigns, the divisions over the First World War, and post-war division and relegation. Through Grave, a “sedentary transnationalist,” the study investigates the networked and transnational organisation of the anarchist movement, addressing the paradox of Grave’s international influence alongside his deep rootedness in Paris by emphasizing the movement’s global print culture and staggering circulations.

Given the degree of popular fascination with Gnostic religions, it is surprising how few pay attention to the one such religion that has survived from antiquity until the present day: Mandaism. Mandaeans, who esteem John the Baptist as the most famous adherent to their religion, have in our time found themselves driven from their historic homelands by war and oppression. Today, they are a community in crisis, but they provide us with unparalleled access to a library of ancient Gnostic scriptures, as part of the living tradition that has sustained them across the centuries. Gnostic texts such as these have caught popular interest in recent times, as traditional assumptions about the original forms and cultural contexts of related religious traditions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, have been called into question. However, we can learn only so much from texts in isolation from their own contexts. Mandaean literature uniquely allows us not only to increase our knowledge about Gnosticism, and by extension all these other religions, but also to observe the relationship between Gnostic texts, rituals, beliefs, and living practices, both historically and in the present day.