Social Movement Scenes: Place‐Based Politics and Everyday Resistance

Abstract

Sociologists Darcy Leach and Sebastian Haunss coined the term “social movement scene” to refer to people “who share a common identity and a common set of subcultural or countercultural beliefs, values, norms” and the network of physical places they frequent. Leach and Haunss explain the numerous ways in which scenes can benefit social movements (e.g. as pools of mobilization or as places for cultural experimentation) and that scenes are places where resistance happens. I propose that thinking of a scene as a process is more useful than thinking of it as a stable context where political activity happens. Scenes are the products of urban protests, such as squatting; rituals, such as protest and music; and the activities of everyday life. Drawing on research from sociologists, geographers, historians, and cultural studies scholars, I discuss social movement scenes on both the political left and right in terms of their spatial, symbolic, and relational dimensions.

The existential spatiality of rebellion: Insubordination, counter‐conduct, and places

“…Everyday urbanism favoring public and infrastructural spatiality emphasizes the need to reinvent the ordinary places of the city (Beebeejaun, 2017;Dehaene & De Cauter, 2008;Hou, 2010). In contrast to this accent on the public character of the ordinary, the interpretive strategy disclosing the relevance of extraordinary places for urban struggles reveals the subversive potential of architecturally confined and socially closed places, too (Creasap, 2012;Ferreira, 2016;Hansen & Karpantschof, 2016;Krøijer & Sjørslev, 2011;Soja, 1996). These "other places" operating within the urban fabric can offer hiding places for disobedient subjects to develop solidarities oriented toward particular forms of counter-conduct (Davidson, 2011;Death, 2010).…”

Unapologetic Blackness in Action: Embodied Resistance and Social Movement Scenes in Black Celebrity Activism

“…More specifically, we find that just as race and racism are socially constructed, evolving across time and social locations, resistance to racism is also fluid. We ultimately argue that when Black celebrities employ distinct forms of unapologetic Blackness, they convert pop cultural spaces into social movement scenes (Creasap 2012; Leach and Haunss 2009). These findings provide nuance to understandings of everyday forms of resistance and make room for a more fluid conceptualization of activism which is imperative for the ongoing struggle for justice, given the multifaceted nature of oppression.…”

Shifting spaces of contention

“…Fernando Bosco (2001) argues that "place-based collective rituals" serve to maintain social network cohesion both spatially and symbolically. Places that are collectively identified as meaningful to the cause become symbols to build and maintain existing network connections (see also Leach;Haunss 2009;Creasap 2012). The concept of territory and public space is closely related to the Ultras and their activities.…”