240504 SE MM1 Social movements and protest in late capitalism (2024S)

This course explores different manifestations of protest and resistance, and different kinds of collective mobilisation, in order to reflect on the idea of social change. How does change happen? What/who makes it happen? Why do we tend to think of change in terms of a positive, desirable development? We will reflect on these and related questions drawing on a variety of ethnographic works: from grassroots, small-scale “rituals of rebellion” to transnational movements and global revolutionary agendas. Special attention will be paid to movements addressing the effects of climate change and environmental concerns.

The course is organized around the ideas central to anthropological thinking in order to show how various ethnographic works on resistance/rebellion/revolution contribute to theory-building, not only providing novel ways of looking at militancy or activism but contributing to anthropological theory more broadly. We will thus talk, among others, about: ideas of utopia and critique; individual and collective agency; political subjectivity and processes of militants’ “habitus” formation; understandings of justice, deservingness, common good; universality vs particularism; means and tools of resistance and revolution. We will also engage with methodological issues, for example interrogating why the analyses of “non-progressive” movements and protests remain scarce.

In proposing an anthropological perspective, this course invites you to think comparatively, situating discussed case-studies within the broader global context in order to highlight commonalities and distinctive characteristics; to think critically, engaging not only with the arguments advanced in the readings but also with the philosophical and geographic perspectives that inform authors’ approaches; and to think ethnographically, inquiring into the implications of discussed phenomena and large historical events on people’s everyday lives.