Protest and Urban Development: Resistance in Aspiring Global Cities

• In Event: Social Movements in Transregional Perspective

Abstract

This paper will present the theory chapter and an overview of the results of my book manuscript, which asks: When are residents able to organize resistance and generate significant and sustained mobilization against the risk of displacement? And further, when is their mobilization able to affect policy and win residents influence in redevelopment plans? The main theoretical contribution is to show that successful organizers increasingly rely on a specific approach that is both understudied and remarkably effective: they deploy what I identify and call “experiential tools,” that is, activities and events designed to attract participants by offering defining and transformative experiences with the goal of making the protest site the place to be. A theoretically-grounded selection led to research in ten global cities and resulted in 29 campaigns taking place in the period 2003-2015.

Author

• Eleonora Pasotti, University of California, Santa Cruz