Assuming boycott : resistance, agency and cultural production / edited by Kareem Estefan, Carin Kuoni, and Laura Raicovich.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Estefan, Kareem, editor.

Kuoni, Carin, editor.

Raicovich, Laura, 1973- editor.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Boycotts.

Artists--Political activity.

Artists.

Physical Description:

284 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : OR Books, 2017.

Summary:

Boycott and divestment are essential tools for activists around the globe. Today's organizers target museums, universities, corporations, and governments to curtail unethical sources of profit, discriminatory practices, or human rights violations. They leverage cultural production - and challenge its institutional supports - helping transform situations in the name of social justice. The refusal to participate in an oppressive system has long been one of the most powerful weapons in the organizer's arsenal. Since the days of the 19th century Irish land wars, when Irish tenant farmers defied the actions of Captain Charles Boycott and English landlords, “boycott” has been a method that's shown its effectiveness time and again. In the 20th century, it notably played central roles in the liberation of India and South Africa and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.: the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is generally seen as a turning point in the movement against segregation. Assuming Boycott is the essential reader for today's creative leaders and cultural practitioners, including original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. Far from withdrawal or cynicism, boycott emerges as a productive tool of creative and productive engagement. Including essays by Nasser Abourahme, Ariella Azoulay, Tania Bruguera, Noura Erakat, Kareem Estefan, Mariam Ghani with Haig Aivazian, Nathan Gray and Ahmet Öğüt, Chelsea Haines, Sean Jacobs, Yazan Khalili, Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, Svetlana Mintcheva, Naeem Mohaiemen, Hlonipha Mokoena, John Peffer, Joshua Simon, Ann Laura Stoler, Radhika Subramaniam, Eyal Weizman and Kareem Estefan, and Frank B. Wilderson III.

Boycott and divestment are essential tools for activists around the globe. Today's organizers target museums, universities, corporations, and governments to curtail unethical sources of profit, discriminatory practices, or human rights violations. They leverage cultural production - and challenge its institutional supports - helping transform situations in the name of social justice. The refusal to participate in an oppressive system has long been one of the most powerful weapons in the organizer's arsenal. Since the days of the 19th century Irish land wars, when Irish tenant farmers defied the actions of Captain Charles Boycott and English landlords, (3z (Bboycott (3y (Bhas been a method that's shown its effectiveness time and again. In the 20th century, it notably played central roles in the liberation of India and South Africa and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.: the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is generally seen as a turning point in the movement against segregation. Assuming Boycott is the essential reader for today's creative leaders and cultural practitioners, including original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators and writers who examine the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. Far from withdrawal or cynicism, boycott emerges as a productive tool of creative and productive engagement. Including essays by Nasser Abourahme, Ariella Azoulay, Tania Bruguera, Noura Erakat, Kareem Estefan, Mariam Ghani with Haig Aivazian, Nathan Gray and Ahmet �O�g�ut, Chelsea Haines, Sean Jacobs, Yazan Khalili, Carin Kuoni and Laura Raicovich, Svetlana Mintcheva, Naeem Mohaiemen, Hlonipha Mokoena, John Peffer, Joshua Simon, Ann Laura Stoler, Radhika Subramaniam, Eyal Weizman and Kareem Estefan, and Frank B. Wilderson III.

Contents:

I. The cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa

The legacy of the cultural boycott against South Africa / Sean Jacobs

Art, resistance, and community in 1980s South Africa / John Peffer

Kwaito: the revolution was not televised; it announced itself in song / Hlonipha Mokoena

Incognegro: a memoir of exile and apartheid (excerpt) / Frank B. Wilderson III

II. BDS and the cultural boycott of Israel

"We," Palestinians and Jewish Israelis: the right not to be a perpetrator / Ariella Azoulay

The case for BDS and the path to co-resistance / Noura Erakat

Extending co-resistance / Eyal Weizman and Kareem Estefan

Boycott, decolonization, return: BDS and the limits of political solidarity / Nasser Abourahme

Neoliberal politics, protective edge, and BDS / Joshua Simon

The utopian conflict / Yazan Khalili

III. Who speaks? Who is silenced?

The shifting grounds of censorship and freedom of expression / Tania Bruguera

The loneliness of the long-distance campaign / Naeem Mohaiemen

Structures of power and the ethical limits of speech / Svetlana Mintcheva

By colonial design: or, Why we say we don't know enough / Ann Laura Stoler

IV. Dis/engagement from afar

The distant image / Chelsea Haines

52 weeks, and engaging in disengaging / Mariam Ghani with Haig Aivazian

Not walking away: participation and withdrawal in the 2014 Sydney biennale / Nathan Gray and Ahmet Öǧüt

Loose connections / Radhika Subramaniam.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-267) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781944869434

1944869433

9781682190920

1682190927

OCLC:

973292601

Publisher Number:

99982000656