“I left Gabon in a wheelchair; I’ll come back on my two legs. People that have said I’m dead andMore…
All posts tagged democracy
Did the June 23 Movement Change Senegal?
During the Arab Spring, the key to toppling oppressive regimes was mass mobilization against leaders like Ben Ali and Mubarak,More…
Rediscovering Politics
Matthew Noah Smith and Todd Gitlin have written terrific reflections on Occupy—so good that, when I was first asked toMore…
In Wake of Unrest, Senegal Heads for Runoff
In a region plagued by conflict, Senegal has a history of robust democratic institutions, stability, and relative economic prosperity, attractingMore…
The Fukushima Disaster and Japan’s Occupy Movement
On October 15, 2011, Occupy Tokyo protests took place in three different districts: Hibiya, Shinjuku, and Roppongi. Before the ralliesMore…
Trashing the Script
In the spring of 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping toured southern China. This was the trip that furthered the opening of China’s state-run More…
Living Politically
Less than ten years ago, a day of international protests swept across the globe, involving millions of human beings for nearly a full 24 hours. It was a global protest against the United States starting a war against Iraq, and was, as far as we know, the first coordinated global protest against state-sponsored violence. A few years before that, at a World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999, a series of intense, angry protests against global economic injustice began. These actions occurred repeatedly over several years, and across several continents. As recently as the winter of 2011, there were enormous protests in Madison, Wisconsin against anti-union legislation. The protests were explicitly focused on class and inequalities, not just on wealth, but also on the discrepancy of power between the very rich and the rest.
Amorous Analogies: How #OWS Connects the Dots
In a social theory graduate seminar about a year ago, Peter Marcuse, a radical lawyer and urban planning prof, cameMore…






