New protest history: Exploring the historical geographies and geographical histories of resistance through gender, practice, and materiality

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, the study of the history and historical geography of resistance has drawn on trends within the disciplines of history and geography to develop into a subfield known as “new protest history.” The geographical background and approach of many of the scholars in the field means that “new protest historical geography” would be a more accurate, if less eloquent, descriptor. This article defines new protest history and explores its contributions to understandings of the geographies of resistance using three key themes: gender, practice, and materiality. In the process, I identify three avenues for future research: intersectionality, taskscapes, and activist historical geography.

Thinking problem‐space in studies of revolt and archival methods

“…As discussed earlier, Scott's (2004) engagement with the Haitian Revolution is developed through close reading of The Black Jacobins . Awcock (2020) has signalled how engagements with non‐white, non‐Western theorists like James who have produced studies of Black resistance can enrich historical and geographical analyses of protest that have typically relied on Eurocentric authors such as Thompson (2013) and Hobsbawm (1959). Drawing on Scott's (2004, 2014) theorisation of problem‐space which is rooted in histories of Caribbean resistance to and overcoming of (neo)colonialism and (neo)imperialism and his drawing on theorists of the Black Radical Tradition (see Bogues, 2003; Robinson, 2000) can help move beyond such oversights.…”

Historical geographies of alternative, and non‐formal education: Learning from the histories of Black education

“…While this work is, in Alderman et al.’s case, indebted to scholarship in Black geographies, it also builds on a body of scholarship by historians and educationalists of US Civil Rights and African American history. This is significant because, as Awcock has noted in this journal section, being open to ‘the work of historians who take the spatial seriously’ (2020, p. 2) can offer great value to historical geographers keen to extend existing boundaries of geographical inquiry.…”

Colours of democracy: Trade union banners and the contested articulations of democratic spatial practices

“…To discuss the contested character of democratic spatial practices, this paper uses detailed discussion of the uses of trade union banners and by so doing contributes to work which has engaged with the material cultures of labour organising, protest, and politics (Griffin & McDonagh, 2018). As Hannah Awcock has observed, ‘material objects’ can be used ‘as a way of exploring themes and issues that are difficult to access through conventional textual archives’ (2020, n.p.). Work on the production and use of trade union banners in movements for Scottish reform has demonstrated this offers ways into engaging with the formation of democratic spatial practices and their contested and emergent materialities (Pentland et al, 2012; Tufts, 2006).…”