Overview

This book discusses a broadly understood phenomenon of protest from several perspectives, including historical, cultural, social, political, environmental and semiotic. Through their analyses, the authors undertake to envision the possible evolution of the forms of contestation in the further decades of the 21st century, taking into account the specificity of the globalization processes. A multi-dimensional approach offered in this volume makes it possible to capture and identify new features of contemporary contestation and those that seem unchanged despite the passage of time and altering audiences. Examples from Europe (France, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland, Malta, Bulgaria, Poland, Belarus, Russia), America (USA, Mexico, Chile) and Far East (Hong Kong & China) are relevant case studies that show the faces of contestation, while reaching for new or modified rhetoric, symbolism, communication channels and the so-called modus operandi of protest initiators, active and passive participants, short- and long-distant observers. The book can be of value to a wide audience, particularly to the researchers studying contestation, social resistance, individual and collective disobedience, crisis management, and cultural/social dynamic of protests. It will also be of interested to experts and individuals from outside the academia like civil activists, practitioners and NGOs compelled by contemporary processes (tensions) occurring between the state, power, society and individuals--