Everyday resistance is about the many ways people undermine power and domination through their routine and everyday actions. Unlike open rebellions or demonstrations, it is typically hidden, not politically articulated, and often ingenious. But because of its disguised nature, it is often poorly understood as a form of politics and its potential underestimated.

Conceptualizing 'Everyday Resistance' presents an analytical framework and theoretical tools to understand the entanglements of everyday power and resistance. These are applied to diverse empirical cases including queer relationships in the context of heteronormativity, Palestinian daily life under military occupation, workplace behaviors under office surveillance, and the tactics of fat acceptance bloggers facing the war against obesity. Johansson and Vinthagen argue that everyday resistance is best understood by accounting for different repertoires of tactics, relations between actors and struggles around constructions of time and space. Through a critical dialogue with the work of James C. Scott, Michel de Certeau and Asef Bayat, they aim to reconstruct the field of resistance studies, expanding what counts as resistance and building systematic analysis.

Conceptualizing 'Everyday Resistance' offers researchers and students from different theoretical and empirical backgrounds an essential overview of the field and a creative framework that illuminates the potential of all people to transform society.

About the Author

Anna Johansson is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, Sweden. Her areas of research are mainly resistance studies, critical fat studies and gender studies.

Stellan Vinthagen is Professor and Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is also Co-Leader of the Resistance Studies Group at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and co-founder of the Resistance Studies Network, as well as Editor of the Journal of Resistance Studies. His research is focused on resistance, power, social movements, nonviolent action, conflict transformation and social change.

Reviews

"Resistance comes in many different forms. It is ultimately about forming assemblies, engaging in collective and/or individual protests and it involves everything from direct oppositions to delay tactics, refusals to collaborate to the creation of alternatives, et cetera. In addressing 'everyday resistance', this timely and well-written book helps us in filling a gap in our current understanding of resistance (practices) and, by extension, social change. In close dialogue with other important scholars in the field, this illuminating, interesting, inspiring and important book is a needed corrective to the existing literature that provides some coherence and congruity to the emerging field of Resistance Studies. I would recommend it to a wide readership, to anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of current (world) politics." - Mikael Baaz, Associate Professor of International Law and Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Gothenburg

Book Information
ISBN 9781138556553
Author Anna Johansson
Format Paperback
Page Count 212
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 308g