par Murru, Sarah 
Référence (Karlstad, Sweden), Resistance and Social change
Publication Non publié, 2015
Référence (Karlstad, Sweden), Resistance and Social change
Publication Non publié, 2015
Publication dans des actes
| Résumé : | If we take the works of James C. Scott on everyday forms of resistance as a starting point, we can see that the study of “resistance" has developed tremendously over the past 30 years. During past decades, the transformation of the international context and the shift in the balance of powers with the introduction of global economy has had a tremendous effect on the ways and means used to challenge power and domination. Indeed, the world saw the emergence of forms of contestation that didn't qualify or enter in the frame set for the understanding of social movements or revolutions, as they were unorganized, sometimes spontaneous and without leadership. Roland Bleiker notes that “[i]n previous epochs, popular protests had a mostly local nature, that is, their dynamic was one that directly opposed ruler and ruled. By the late twentieth century the nature of dissent has changed fundamentally. The presence of mass media can transform a local act of resistance almost immediately into an event of global significance. Images of a protest march may flicker over television screens worldwide only hours after people have taken to the street. As a result, the protest soon takes on a much larger, trans-territorial dimension" (2004, 1). This has thus led to an increase in works on resistance. In particular, literature on “nonviolent resistance" and “global resistance" has really developed these past 15 years. Furthermore, attempts have been made to unite scholars working on resistance in order to develop a specific field of Resistance Studies. This has been done through the development of a Resistance Studies Network and an increase in conferences and events around the conceptualization of resistance. Recently, the “Resisting Theory" network was created in Sussex and the Endowed Chair in the Study of Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Resistance – very first initiative of this kind – was founded at UMass Amherst, Massachusetts. This saw the introduction of courses on the theory of resistance and more events around the subject. Finally, the very first interdisciplinary and peer-reviewed scientific Journal of Resistance Studies was founded with its first edition issuing in June 2015. In addition, this unprecedented development of Resistance Studies has highlighted the need to draw a unified theoretical and methodological framework, which would account for the diversity of forms of resistance (Scott, 1986, 1991; Bleiker, 2004; Vinthagen 2007; Vinthagen & Lilja, 2007; Johansson & Vinthagen, 2013, 2014). “Unified" is to be understood here as the construction of a research framework, which would allow catching resistance in its multiplicity and complexity. Therefore, in my communication, I call for a research framework inspired and informed by the feminist one, and I argue the latter can be adequately adapted to the study of resistance. Indeed, I shall first highlight the similarities between the emergence of Gender Studies and Resistance Studies as scientific disciplines. I will show that they both took on the task to unveil and rehabilitate similar marginalized groups of subjects which had been left out of scientific research. I shall then expose how the discipline of Gender Studies built a feminist framework for research by targeting biases in traditional positivist epistemologies and methodologies and undertaking a full deconstruction of normalized research scheme. Finally, based on the similar trajectories followed by both disciplines, I shall suggest concrete directions that could be undertaken and debated for the development of an epistemological and methodological framework for Resistance Studies that integrates the tools developed by the feminist framework in order to study the marginalized, oppressed, and subordinated. |
