Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics

308 Pages·2000·0.82 MB·English

by  Roland Bleiker

Popular Dissent, Human
Agency and Global
Politics
Roland Bleiker
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Popular dissent, such as street demonstrations and civil disobedi-
ence,hasbecomeincreasinglytransnationalinnatureandscope.As
a result, a local act of resistance can acquire almost immediately a
much larger, cross-territorial dimension. This book draws upon a
broad and innovative range of sources to scrutinise this central but
often neglected aspect of global politics. Through case studies that
spanfromRenaissanceperceptionsofhumanagencytothecollapse
oftheBerlinWall,theauthorexamineshowthetheoryandpractice
of popular dissent has emerged and evolved during the modern
period. Dissent, he argues, is more than just transnational. It has
becomeanimportant‘transversal’phenomenon:anarrayofdiverse
politicalpracticeswhichnotonlycrossnationalboundaries,butalso
challenge the spatial logic through which these boundaries frame
internationalrelations.
RolandBleikerisSeniorLecturerandCoordinatorofthePeaceand
Conflict Studies Program at the University of Queensland. He has
also taught at the Australian National University, Pusan National
University, and the University of Tampere. He is the author of a
numberofarticlesinscholarlyjournals.
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CAMBRIDGESTUDIESININTERNATIONALRELATIONS:70
POPULARDISSENT,HUMANAGENCYANDGLOBALPOLITICS
EditorialBoard
STEVESMITH(Managingeditor)
THOMASBIERSTEKER CHRISBROWN
ALEXDANCHEV ROSEMARYFOOT JOSEPHGRIECO
G.JOHNIKENBERRY MARGOTLIGHT ANDREWLINKLATER
MICHAELNICHOLSON CAROLINETHOMAS ROGERTOOZE
CambridgeStudiesinInternationalRelationsisajointinitiativeof
CambridgeUniversityPressandtheBritishInternationalStudies
Association(BISA).Theserieswillincludeawiderangeof
material,fromundergraduatetextbooksandsurveysto
research-basedmonographsandcollaborativevolumes.Theaimof
theseriesistopublishthebestnewscholarshipinInternational
StudiesfromEurope,NorthAmericaandtherestoftheworld.
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
70 RolandBleiker
Populardissent,humanagencyandglobalpolitics
69 BillMcSweeney
Security,identityandinterests
Asociologyofinternationalrelations
68 MollyCochran
Normativetheoryininternationalrelations
Apragmaticapproach
67 AlexanderWendt
Socialtheoryofinternationalpolitics
66 ThomasRisse,StephenC.RoppandKathrynSikkink(eds.)
Thepowerofhumanrights
Internationalnormsanddomesticchange
65 DanielW.Drezner
Thesanctionsparadox
Economicstatecraftandinternationalrelations
64 VivaOnaBartkus
Thedynamicofsecession
63 JohnA.Vasquez
Thepowerofpowerpolitics
Fromclassicalrealismtoneotraditionalism
62 EmanuelAdlerandMichaelBarnett(eds.)
Securitycommunities
61 CharlesJones
E.H.Carrandinternationalrelations
Adutytolie
60 JeffreyW.Knopf
Domesticsocietyandinternationalcooperation
TheimpactofprotestonUSarmscontrolpolicy
59 NicholasGreenwoodOnuf
Therepublicanlegacyininternationalthought
Serieslistcontinuesafterindex
Popular Dissent, Human
Agency and Global Politics
Roland Bleiker
PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING)
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia

http://www.cambridge.org

© Roland Bleiker 2000
This edition © Roland Bleiker 2003

First published in printed format 2000

A catalogue record for the original printed book is available
from the British Library and from the Library of Congress
Original ISBN 0 521 77099 8 hardback
Original ISBN 0 521 77829 8 paperback

ISBN 0 511 01715 4 virtual (netLibrary Edition)
MeinenElterninDankbarkeit
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Contents
Acknowledgements page xi
Prologue:Theorisingtransversaldissent 1
Introduction:Writinghumanagencyafterthe
deathofGod 23
PartI
Agenealogyofpopulardissent 51
1 RhetoricsofdissentinRenaissanceHumanism 53
2 Romanticismandthedisseminationofradical
resistance 74
3 Globallegaciesofpopulardissent 96
PartII
Readingandrereadingtransversalstruggles 117
4 Fromessentialisttodiscursiveconceptionof
power 120
Firstinterlude:Confrontingincommensurability 139
5 Of‘men’,‘women’anddiscursivedomination 146
6 Ofgreateventsandwhatmakesthemgreat 173
PartIII
Discursiveterrainsofdissent 185
7 Mappingeverydayglobalresistance 187
Secondinterlude:Towardsadiscursiveunderstanding
ofhumanagency 208
8 Resistanceattheedgeoflanguagegames 215
ix