Chinese Resistance

The Resistance Studies Magazine is calling for papers for issue 4/08 with a thematic focus on Chinese Resistance.

Guest Editors: Wei Liu wie.liu(at)gmail.com and Jorgen Johansen johansen.jorgen(at)gmail.com

We will consider:

Theoretical and empirical articles on power, resistance and social change in Chinese history and ongoing actions and campaigns with a Chinese connection.

We have a special interest on the struggle in Tibet and the protest and counter-protests around the Olympic Games.

Articles on Internet, electronic resistance and struggle against censorship in China.

Reviews of scholarly articles and books.

Deadline for manuscripts: October 20.

For further information, please see our Submission guidelines on

Expected to be published in December 1.

Resistance Studies Magazine nr 3

Hmm, as a member of the editorial board I feel that I should have been better at spreading the word about this. Even though the magazine has been well recieved.

The third issue of the Resistance Studies Magazine is out now. You may read it immediately following this link. It has been a great pleasure to edit the five articles, and they are really worth reading. Here is a short summary of the articles from the editorial column:

  • Drawing on a theoretical combination of James Scott’s conception of everyday resistance and Erwin Goffman’s symbolic interactionism, Carol Jo Evans develops an interesting case study of resistance within a North American Appalachian community.
  • Shane Gunderson discusses how resistance movements may gain momentum, as “popular intellectuals” facilitate and combine ideological work with political initiative. Gunderson shows, through a case-study, that structuring resistance in a more strategic fashion, through sequential actions, will increase the possibility of social change.
  • Femke Kaulingfreks writes about the May 2008 riots in Copenhagen, and how such events, when taken seriously, seem to grow politics from the middle, thus shaping grounds for important political agency. What falls outside of normalisation, is not necessary disruptive in a counter-productive way, but may reveal inequalities and open up debates.
  • Thomas Riegler analyses the ?lm The Battle of Algiers and how it has been caught up in debates on whether it has in?uenced resistance like an instruction manual in asymmetric warfare and guerrilla tactics, or not.
  • Finally, Adrian Bua deals with the problems of pluralism and democracy, and proposes how class analysis can contribute to a more sustainable alternative called pluralist socialism.

Please download and read the articles, and watch out for a CFP for the 2008#4 Special Issue.