The politics of mobility: Some insights from the study of protest camps

Frenzel, Fabian

Abstract

Regimes of Camps and Camping. The political mobility of activist encampments
Political encampments have been part and parcel of the politics of New Social Movements in Europe over the last few decades. From the counter-cultural music festival circuits of the 1970s to the Peace Camps of the early 80s on to the anti-road and no-border camps of the 90s the encampments form a tradition build on shared aesthetics and new popular forms of leisured mobility. A recent surge in the occurrence of political campsites in Europe and across the world prompts a reflection on this form of mobility in the context of the new mobilities regime.
Drawing on data from activist encampments around Anti-G8 protests in the UK and Germany and the Camps for Climate Action in the UK this chapter discusses protests camps in the context of the formation of new mobilities regimes. While social movement research often reflects camps as merely instrumental forms of the organisation of protest, the understanding of protest camps as mobilities allows placing them in the context of a broader notion of camps and camping histories.

• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 3, 2011
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: New Mobilities Regimes in Art and Social Sciences
• ISBN: 9781409450924
• Keywords: politics, mobility, protest camps
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/941486
• Publisher URL: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637
• Contract Date: Nov 6, 2016