Everyday Resistance: French Activism in the 21st Century

Description

This book studies those who, in various domains of life, are resisting the increasingly harsh day-to-day pressures of “late capitalism,” centering mainly on French examples. Far from the global euphoria of the sixties and seventies, everyday people are trying to loosen the grip of injustice in very concrete ways: people experiencing homelessness try to occupy and live in empty buildings; collectives of small farmers and consumers avoid long (and costly) commercial supply chains to defend their common interests; students and teachers organize to prevent the expulsion of undocumented migrants; and activists in the free software movement fight for the “common ownership” of software and of the Internet. Through civil disobedience in the midst of daily life, people are trying to resist, work against, and change laws that protect the interests of firms and corporations considered socially or ecologically unfair. Front Matter ....Pages i-viii Introduction: Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom? (Marc Jacquemain, Bruno Frère)....Pages 1-20 Undocumented Families and Political Communities: Parents Fighting Deportations (Damien de Blic, Claudette Lafaye)....Pages 21-44 From Indicting the Law to Conquering Rights: A Case-Study of Gay Movements in Switzerland, Spain and Belgium (Marta Roca i Escoda)....Pages 45-73 Fighting for Poor People’s Rights in the French Welfare State (Frédéric Viguier)....Pages 75-96 The Plural Logics of Anti-Capitalist Economic Movements (Éric Dacheux)....Pages 97-116 The Free Software Community: A Contemporary Space for Reconfiguring Struggles? (Gaël Depoorter)....Pages 117-143 Associations for the Preservation of Small-Scale Farming and Related Organisations (Fabrice Ripoll)....Pages 145-173 Ordinary Resistance to Masculine Domination in a Civil Disobedience Movement (Manuel Cervera-Marzal, Bruno Frère)....Pages 175-203 A Zone to Defend: The Utopian Territorial Experiment of Notre Dame Des Landes (Sylvaine Bulle)....Pages 205-228 “Politics Without Politics”: Affordances and Limitations of the Solidarity Economy’s Libertarian Socialist Grammar (Bruno Frère)....Pages 229-261 Is the “New Activism” Really New? (Lilian Mathieu)....Pages 263-280 Conclusion (Bruno Frère, Marc Jacquemain)....Pages 281-297 Back Matter ....Pages 299-307