Mediating embodied protest: Performative body in social protests in the Internet age in China

Lin, Zhongxuan

doi:10.1177/0163443718818356

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Our study echoes Soja's (1996) insight that people's long-term and fixed imaginations about the functions of public spaces greatly restrict spatial practices. Contrary to scholars who regard space as an existing physical and symbolic resource that activists could strategically employ (Cao, 2017;Daphi, 2014;Lin, 2018;Sewell, 2001), we argue that most alternative spatial practices will be undermined, co-opted, or even erased by authorityimposed spatial structures. We should not exaggerate the spatial agency of social movements in changing, resisting, or subverting the deep, latent, and normalizing capacity of power holders in shaping narratives to neutralize the spatial agency of social movements.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Space as the ideological state apparatus (ISA): the invisible fetter on social movements in China

2020

Media, Culture & Society

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Contrary to existing literature analyzing how public spaces are strategic mobilization resources for activists, we focus on the inconspicuous constraints placed by the state on public spaces that limit their utility as mobilization resources. Employing the spatial dimensions of social movement theory and Althusser’s state power theory analyze an activism case in Guangzhou, China, we argue that through everyday spatial governance by the state, public spaces in China are also forms of ideological state apparatuses that latently disrupt activists’ attempts to engage in contentious spatial practices to gain resources through media coverage. We further propose the concept of ‘spatial inertia’, which are durable, routine, and diversified spatial meaning-making practices mediated through media coverage that affect the success of social movements. This paper complements social movement scholarship by examining how the state, through latent processes exercised using public spaces as ideological state apparatuses, competes with and subverts activists’ efforts to use these spaces as strategic resources for collective mobilization, especially in authoritarian contexts.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 86%

Space as the ideological state apparatus (ISA): the invisible fetter on social movements in China

2020

Media, Culture & Society

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“…Yet, this study argues that the facelessness of the soldiers also served the purposes of the resistance movement since, through the daily use of mobile phones and social media, faces have become 'a new battleground' (Mann, 2019); thus, revealing or hiding one's face is a form of political action. Since the human face is a new site of politics in conflict situations driven by the use of social media and since the protesters themselves may use their bodies as well as the emotional, visual and spatial aspects of them (Butler, 2011;Lin, 2018), the facelessness of the soldiers allows more room for the protesters to 'reveal' their own faces, i.e. to show emotion through their bodily and facial expressions -expressions that are perceived as more authentic because elements of the truth effect contribute to the representation of 'reality' and help construct an emotional juxtaposition to the faceless power of authority, thereby emphasizing their humanitarian struggle.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this way, the importance of pictures is especially significant for 'resource-poor protesters' (Lin, 2018) who are being repressed by the government. Using their own bodies, protesters may perform a spectacle for purposes of self-expression and gain media coverage for their causes by performing dramatic instances of civic action (Bob, 2005;Krastev, 2014) that have different types of societal impact, especially in terms of reproducing ideology by challenging prevailing cultural hegemony, communicating social knowledge by manifesting ordinary life and modelling citizenship through emotional engagement, as noted using the five functions of Hariman and Lucaites (2007).…”

Section: O N C L U S I O Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Faceless government: civic action in media photographs during the Venezuelan anti-governmental protests of 2017

Salojärvi

2019

Visual Communication

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Visual media representations of protests are a part of politics in general. A protest is about creating a mediated political event with its own performative bodily and emotional aspects, and cultural memory, each of which affects a sense of citizenship. This article discusses how protest photographs serve as resources for political struggle by examining the visual media stream during the 2017 anti-governmental protests in Venezuela. The data consist of (social) media content and prominent photographs. The selected photographs are then discussed using five functions of iconic photographs proposed in Hariman and Lucaites’ (2007) book, No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy, with the argument being that the context of the pictures should also be carefully considered when analysing specific photographs because it provides essential information about them. Since the pictures represented daily life and likewise had a special ‘truth effect’ and transmitted affect, they supported the opposition’s and anti-governmental protesters’ discourse on the government as a faceless enemy. This also gave room to the protesters to construct through performativity an emotional juxtaposition to the faceless power and, in this way, emphasize their humanitarian struggle. In particular, the article contributes to how visual representations function in terms of performing citizenship and the role of media photography within the context of an authoritarian government.

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“…On this stage, it is possible to realize that social inequality plays out in alternative ways. Therefore, images ‘are no longer only the medium by which we communicate our political activities, but have also become an end in themselves: the very stuff that politics is made of’ (Bottici, 2014: 106; Lin, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Power to See: Visualizing Invisible Disabilities in China

Lin

Liu

2021

Visual Communication

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Situated in a Chinese context, this study explores how people with disabilities struggle to be re-envisioned in contemporary China. In particular, this visual essay uses the Disabled Women’s Album as a case study to illustrate how the deployment of their visual images can provide a place for disabled women to fight for the power of visibility in a Chinese context, including the right to be seen and the right to look. On one hand, the visual images of the disabled women establishes a realm in which actors, actions and ideas can be viewed, including the right to be seen by the public, as an alternative to the possibility of disappearing in Chinese society, the right to visual self-representation and the right to equal conditions. On the other hand, the fight for people with disabilities to achieve the power to see also increases opportunities for people without disabilities to exercise their right to look, including recognizing the diversity of our society and realizing the existence of more possibilities in life. In this process, images are no longer just a medium by which we communicate our political activities but have also become an end in themselves.

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Mediating embodied protest: Performative body in social protests in the Internet age in China

Cited by 6 publications

References 59 publications

Space as the ideological state apparatus (ISA): the invisible fetter on social movements in China

Space as the ideological state apparatus (ISA): the invisible fetter on social movements in China

Faceless government: civic action in media photographs during the Venezuelan anti-governmental protests of 2017

The Power to See: Visualizing Invisible Disabilities in China

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