Documenting and describing the emerging “performative democracy,” the first new art form of the twenty-first century. Today political protest often takes the form of spontaneous, noninstitutional, mass action. Mass protests during the Arab Spring showed that established systems of power—in that case, the reciprocal support among Arab dictators and Western democracies—can be interrupted, at least for a short moment in history. These new activist movements often use online media to spread their message. Mass demonstrations from Tahrir Square in Cairo to Taksim Square in Istanbul show the power of networked communication to fuel “performative democracy”—at the center of which stands the global citizen. Art is emerging as a public space in which the individual can claim the promises of constitutional and state democracy. Activism may be the first new art form of the twenty-first century. global aCtIVISm (the capitalized letters form the Latin word civis, emphasizing the power of citizens) describes and documents politically inspired art—global art practices that draw attention to grievances and demand the transformation of existing conditions through actions, demonstrations, and performances in public space. Essays by leading thinkers—including Noam Chomsky, Antonio Negri, Peter Sloterdijk, and Slavoj Žižek—consider the emerging role of the citizen in the new performative democracy. The essays are followed by images of art objects, illustrations, documents, and other material (first shown in an exhibition at ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe) as well as case studies by artists and activists. Essays by Can Altay, Sruti Bala and Veronika Zangl, Tatiana Bazzichelli, Olaf Bertram-Nothnagel, Angela Bonadies, Robin Celikates, Korhan Gümüs, Dietrich Heißenbüttel, Bruno Latour, Sarah Maske, Ugo Mattei, Graham Meikle, André Mesquita, Marcus Michaelsen, Walter D. Mignolo, MTL, Antonio Negri, Dimitris Papadopoulos, Vassilis Tsianos and Margarita Tsomou, Rita Raley, Arman and Arash T. Riahi, Martha Rosler, Peter Sloterdijk, Karl-Peter Sommermann, Guido Strack, Jackie Sumell, Zixue Tai, Tatiana Volkova, Christoph Wachter and Mathias Jud, Dan S. Wang and Sarah Augusta Lewison, Peter Weibel, Ahmad Zatari, Bo Zheng, Ragip Zik, Slavoj Žižek. Interviews with Ammar Abo Bakr and Ganzeer, Younes Belghazi and Hadeer Elmahdawy, Erdem Gündüz, Joulia Strauss

Over the last two decades there has been a sea change in the nature of activism, with groups increasingly networking, launching campaigns, petitioning and framing their demands at the international level. This study examines this development and explores the special role of the World Social Forum.

Once a largely dismissed problem, street harassment is now headline news and being addressed by many international agencies and governments worldwide. This book details how a growing number of individuals, small groups, international organizations, and government agencies worldwide are working to create safe public spaces. Everyone should be able to navigate through public spaces without facing harassment or the threat of sexual assault, yet that is a right that millions of people worldwide are routinely denied. In the United States alone, 65 percent of women and 25 percent of men experience street harassment. This book taps personal stories, research data, news stories, and information about global campaigns and grassroots action in dozens of countries to trace the growing social movement to recognize, address, and prevent street harassment. The author suggests what steps need to be taken next to help stop street harassment globally and invites readers to take action and be part of the solution. The book addresses specific and prominent incidents of street harassment such as the mass sexual assaults of women at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt; the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, India, in 2012; and the viral hidden-camera video produced by Hollaback!, an advocacy group dedicated to ending street harassment, that documents the catcalling and stalking that happens to a woman as she walks through New York City. It documents the explosion of studies, personal story sharing, grassroots campaigns, and media attention on street harassment since 2010 as well as Global Safe Cities efforts by international organizations like UN Women and ActionAid in countries on all six continents during that time period. Attention is also paid to the ongoing lack of enforcement of laws on street harassment by police and judges. The book concludes by looking forward at remedies for the problem: education among youth about street harassment and addressing issues of consent and respect.

The Chinese style of prostitution regulation

In Activists beyond Borders, Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists that coalesce and operate across national frontiers. Their targets may be international organizations or the policies of particular states. Historical examples of such transborder alliances include anti-slavery and woman suffrage campaigns. In the past two decades, transnational activism has had a significant impact in human rights, especially in Latin America, and advocacy networks have strongly influenced environmental politics as well. The authors also examine the emergence of an international campaign around violence against women.

Sociologists and political scientists from Europe and the US explore how global issues are transforming local and national activism and the interactions between local, national, and supranational movement organizations. In addition to describing recent events, they adapt concepts and hypotheses developed in the social movement literature of the pas

This book analyses the politics of the humanitarian disarmament community—a loose coalition of activist and advocacy groups, humanitarian agencies and diplomats—who have successfully achieved international treaties banning landmines, cluster munitions and nuclear weapons, as well as restricting the global arms trade. Two campaigns have won Nobel Peace Prizes. Disarmament has long been a dirty word in the international relations lexicon. But the success of the humanitarian disarmament agenda shows that people often choose to prohibit or limit certain violent technologies, for reasons of security, honour, ethics or humanitarianism. This edited volume showcases interdisciplinary research by scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the dynamics and impact of the new global activism on weapons. While some raise concerns that humanitarian disarmament may be piecemeal and depoliticizing, others see opportunities to breathe new life into moribund arms control policymaking. Foreword by 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams.

Friendship as Social Justice Activism brings together academics and activists to have essential conversations about friendship, love, and desire as kinetics for social justice movements. The contributors featured here come from across the globe and are all involved in diverse movements, including LGBTQ rights, intimate-partner violence, addiction recovery, housing, migrant, labor, and environmental activism. Each essay narrates how living and organizing within friendship circles offers new ways of dreaming and struggling for social justice. Recent scholarship in different disciplinary fields as well as activist literature have brought attention to the political possibilities within friendship. The essays, memoirs, poems, and artwork in Friendship as Social Justice Activism address these political possibilities within the context of gender, sexuality, and economic justice movements.

Women's Activism brings together twelve innovative contributions from feminist historians from around the world. They look at how women have always found ways to challenge or fight inequalities and hierarchies as individuals, in international women's organizations, as political leaders, and in global forums such as the United Nations. This book addresses women's internationalism and struggle for their rights in the international arena; it deals with racism and colonialism in Australia, India and Europe; women's movements and political activism in South Africa, Eastern Bengal (Bangladesh), the United Kingdom, Japan and France.

This book explores the diverse ways in which disability activism and advocacy are experienced and practised by people with disabilities and their allies. Contributors to the book explore the very different strategies and campaigns they have used to have their demands for respect, dignity and rights heard and acted upon by their communities, by national governments and the international community. The book, with its contemporary global focus, makes a significant contribution to the field of disability and social justice studies, particularly at a time of major social, political and cultural upheaval. Global Perspectives on Disability Activism and Advocacy offers a significant intervention within the field of disability at a time of major social upheaval where actors, advocates and activists are seeking to hold onto existing claims for rights, equality and disability justice.