Symbolic objects in contentious politics /edited by Benjamin Abrams and Peter Gardner.

Includes bibliographies and index.

When we observe protest marches, striking workers on picket lines, and insurgent movements in the world today, a litany of objects routinely fill our field of vision. Some such objects are ubiquitous the world over, like flags, banners, and placards. Others are situationally unique: Who could have anticipated the historical importance of a flower placed in the barrel of a gun, a flaming torch, a sea of umbrellas, a motorist's yellow vest, a feather headdress, an AK-47, or a knitted pink hat? This book explores the "stuff" at the heart of protests, revolutions, civil wars, and other contentious political events, with particular focus on those objects that have or acquire symbolic importance. In the context of "contentious politics" (disruptive political episodes where people try to change societies without going through institutions), certain objects can divide and unite social groups, tell stories, make declarations, spark controversy, and even trigger violent upheavals.This book draws together scholars from a variety of fields to discuss symbolic objects in contentious politics: their meanings, uses, functions, and social responses. In bringing these phenomena together, this book offers a serious, distinctive, and cohesive theoretical contribution that draws upon diverse scholarly work in order to form the building blocks for future inquiry in the field. The aim is not merely to "close the gap" in the literature, but to create space in the field for further and more fruitful inquiry.

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Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Introducing Symbolic Objects in Contentious PoliticsPeter Gardner and Benjamin Abrams -- Chapter 1 Contentious Politics and Symbolic Objects Peter Gardner and Benjamin Abrams -- THE CREATION OF SYMBOLIC OBJECTS -- Chapter 2 A Strategic Toolbox of Symbolic Objects: Material Artifacts, Visuality and Strategic Action in European Street Protest Arenas Bartosz Slosarski -- Chapter 3 The nation who mistook death for life: The materiality of martyrdom, Shia religiosity and contentious politics in Iran Younes Saramifar -- Chapter 4 Somewhere Over the Rainbow: The Symbolic Politics of In/visibility in Lebanese Queer Activism John Nagle -- Chapter 5 The Feathered Headdress: Settler Semiotics, U.S. National Myth, and the Legacy of Colonized Artifacts Sonja Dobroski -- THE POTENCY OF SYMBOLIC OBJECTS -- Chapter 6 The Symbolism of the Street in Portuguese ContentionGuya Accornero, Tiago Carvalho and Pedro Ramos Pinto -- Chapter 7 Signature, Performance, Contention Hunter Dukes -- Chapter 8 Policing bodies: The role of bodywork and symbolic objects in police violence during the Toronto G20 Valerie Zawilski -- Chapter 9 Bodies on fire: Self-immolation as spectacle in contentious politics Dennis Zuev -- THE LEGACY OF SYMBOLIC OBJECTS -- Chapter 10 El Che: The (im)possibilities of a political symbol Eric Selbin -- Chapter 11 Mekap -- A social history of the 'terrorist shoe' that fought ISIS Dilar Dirik -- Chapter 12 Biafran Objects and Contention in NigeriaScholastica Ngozi Atata and Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale -- Chapter 13 The mask as political symbol: On the ritualization of political protest through mask wearing BjOrn Thomassen and Lone Riisgaard -- CONCLUSION -- Advancing the Study of Objects in Contention Benjamin Abrams and Peter Gardner -- Contributors -- Index.