Bodies in Protest: Hunger Strikes and Angry Music
ISBN: 9789048528264
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Amsterdam University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Political Science ; Sociology;

Research on social movements has historically focused on the traditional weapons of the working class, especially labor strikes and street demonstrations-but everyday actions, such as eating or singing, which can also be turned into a means of protest, have yet to be fully explored. Originally published as La grève de la faim by Johanna Siméant and La musique en colère by Christophe Traïni, Bodies in Protest is an interdisciplinary and comparative history of these modes of action that reveals how hunger strikes and music ranging from gospel songs to rock anthems can efficiently convey political messages and mobilize the masses. Common to both approaches, the chapters show, is a direct appeal to the emotions and a reliance on the physical, concrete language of the human body.


Johanna Siméant is professor of political science at the University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne (CESSP), and has published La cause des sans-papiers (1998), Le travail humanitaire (2002), La grève de la faim (2009), Contester au Mali (2014) and edited books.James M. Jasper is a sociologist at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has each written a number of books on recent social movements, and is the co-editor of AUP's book series, Protest and Social Movements. Christophe Traïni is professor of political science at the Institute of Political Science in Aix-en-Provence. His publications include La musique en colère (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2008), La cause animale (Paris: PUF, 2011), and the edition of the reader Emotions ... mobilisation!(Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2009).
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