Talking Politics
Protest Politics
‘Performing’ Protest: The Mass Media as Stage
Contemporary citizen activism, especially street protests and demonstrations, can hardly be imagined without the mass media to amplify and sustain its message as well as mobilize a following and encourage support. The attendance of news media at the site of protest campaigns also exerts a powerful influence on their overall functioning and management and particularly on the ‘performance’ of protestors. Continue reading
Violence – A Costly Strategy for the Poor
Whereas violence carries with it a deep and undeniable logic, I thought I would write about the flip side of this logic. Indeed, the paradopx of violent protest is that whislt disruptive demonstrations, including fiery roadblocks, rigid barricades and burning tyres, are triggered by genuine grievances and injustice and whereas the government’s seemingly ritualized inaction humiliates and … Continue reading
Why Jamaicans Protest (and Protest Violently)?
‘[Violence] is de only language those in power understan’…. The only means of compassion dem will show is when dem see flames and destruction’. This was the reasoning of a Rastafarian entertainer on what he sees as the necessity of violent protest. Recent protests across the world have exposed this problematic reality: despite the widespread … Continue reading
Challenges to Civil Society: Protest and Governance in Jamaica
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