Performing authenticities : cultural forms and their functions in the Reclaim the Streets -protest
In this thesis I study the role of culture in the context of social movements. I argue that the role
of concrete cultural forms in protest movements’ action has undergone a rather small interest
in the Finnish study of social movements. I examine culture in social movements by looking at
the “cultural turn” in social sciences, the rise of “new social movements” and through the
theorizing of Pierre Bourdieu, Sarah Thornton and Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison. I
conceptualize culture as both the concrete cultural praxis (e.g. music, art, dancing) and as a
semiotic and cognitive system behind all action.
As an empirical case study, I adopt a cultural perspective towards one protest
movement, the Finnish Reclaim the Streets –movement, which I consider as a cultural and
expressive form of collective action. The Reclaim the Streets -demonstrations are political
carnivals, acts of non-violent civil disobedience. The idea is to block a city street from car
traffic for couple of hours or one day. A party is held on the street. The idea behind the protest
is a critique of private traffic and of global capitalism. Using qualitative methods I examine
the role of concrete cultural forms, such as music, visual art and bodily habitus in the Reclaim
the Streets –protest. My empirical data consists of 5 theme interviews with the protestors,
analysis of flyers, posters and www-pages produced by the activists (micro-media) and an
ethnographical participatory observation with one activist group in organizing a Reclaim the
Streets –event, and attending 3 Reclaim the Streets –protests in 2 different Finnish cities. I
analyze this data qualitatively by looking up themes according to my research questions.
The results of my thesis show that the cultural forms that the protestors are using have
important functions in the protest. I divide these functions to pragmatic and symbolic
functions. The pragmatic functions are related to the protestors’ subcultural capital, their
ability to utilize subcultural resources and cultural meanings in order to recruit sympathizers
and make the protest event work. On a symbolic level, according to my theoretical
interpretation the cultural forms are representing a counter-cultural authenticity which opposes
a constructed commercial mainstream. I theorize that this performed countercultural
authenticity is an important aspect in producing the movement’s cohesion and cognitive praxis
in Eyerman and Jamison’s terms.
...
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