Power, politics and popular mobilisation: GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack No. 40

This reading pack provide an introduction to the main issues and debates

Abstract

Paying attention to contemporary popular uprisings allows us to take the pulse of the street; homing in on people’s grievances and desires, how they conflict and temporarily converge, and how they counter or correspond with formal discourse. Popular mobilisation is a political process whose primary locus is outside formal spaces: it is often low level – even underground – and only sometimes tumultuous. Contentious politics builds on the streets, in markets and along corridors; in sitting rooms, meeting halls and religious spaces; it is online and offline; and it is local and global. A mix of ideas and action, it is fermented in exchanges of talk and image and sharpened by arguments, demonstrations and public performances.

Citation

Scott-Villiers, P. (2016). Power, politics and popular mobilisation. GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack no. 40. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham 3pp

Power, politics and popular mobilisation; GSDRC Professional Development Reading Pack No. 40

Published 1 May 2016