Researching Resistance and Social Change: A Critical Approach to Theory and Practice

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Resistance has often been connected with anti-social attitudes, destructiveness, reactionary or revolutionary ideologies, unusual and sudden explosions of violence and emotional outbursts. This book goes beyond these conventions. Exploring various key questions, ranging from concept definitions of affect and temporality, to complex entanglements of various social dimensions and ethical questions, this accessible guide provides a robust theoretical and methodological framework for researching of resistance and social change. By drawing connections between resistance and politics, between performance and everyday strategies, and between the juridical and its counter-strategies, this book provides students with a transdisciplinary understanding of contemporary debates in this emerging field.

Reviews

This is an important book that fills a needed hole in our understandings of power and resistance. One of its strengths is the consistent focus on how resistance itself is productive of further resistance. I would recommend it to advanced undergraduate classes in globalization because often those classes only tell students about the oppressive and destructive aspects of global power relations; students come out of those classes depressed and cynical. This book is a needed corrective. Upper division political science and sociology classes on social change could use this book as required reading. -- Kathy Ferguson, Department of Political Science, University of Hawai'i
In an era of new authoritarianism and popular resistance it is hardly possible for this text to be timelier. Long overdue, this well-crafted text provides some coherence, most importantly a sophisticated theoretical integrity and congruity, to the (rather) far-flung field of what might be fruitfully understood as resistance studies. Indispensable, invigorating, and inspirational, this ambitious and engaging work limns out a field in progress, opening up a critical conversation about where we are going and how. At a time and place where resistance is bandied about with ample recognition but little attention to detail, this is a vital project. -- Eric Selbin, Professor of Political Science and Holder of the Lucy King Brown Chair, Southwestern University

Author Bio

Mikael Baaz is Associate Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies and a Senior Lecturer in International Law at the School of Business, Economics and Law, the University of Gothenburg. Mona Lilja is a Professor in Sociology at Karlstad University. Stellan Vinthagen is Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance and Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst.