Identity Place Knowledge : Social Movements Contesting Globalization

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction: the making and meaning of antiglobalization movements. 2. Identity: studying social movements. 3. Place: grounding globalization and resistance. 4. Knowledge: why movements matter. 5. The activist city in an era of free trade. 6. Remaking coalition politics. 7. Contesting the neoliberal city. 8. Knowledge and the impasse in left politics. 9. Social movements and countervailing power in a time of empire. References. Index.

"Identity, Place, Knowledge looks closely at the knowledge that arises from activist practice and its significance for enacting new, democratic politics. The result is a innovative approach to the study of social movements that combines "activist ethnography" with wide-ranging theoretical discussions in political economy, cultural studies, critical pedagogy and urban theory. This allows us to see how a local social movement interfaces with the global conjuncture of the anti-globalization movements, 9/11 and the resurgence of Empire." (jacket)