Territoriality and Performance in Contemporary Protest Movements

This paper explores the relationship between protest movements, public space and issues of territoriality. Territoriality refers to the institutional framing of territory andauthority, namely the state has authority and is able to govern a territorial unit defined by agreed borders.I seek to examine the impact of protest movements on the exclusive territorial authority of the state. Protest movements traditionally mobilize in opposition to a regime, political leadership, or a law, but also to support the implementation and diffusion of ‘post material’ goods such as equality, rights and justice. Sometimes, the state is the visible manifestation of protestor’s struggles and serves as both site and target of protests. While protests movements invariably leave national territory basically unaltered, they are having pronounced effects on the exclusive territoriality of the national state. Protest movements have emerged in the last five years across the globe for a number of reasons but these protest movements, from Istanbul to Sao Paulo, from Cairo to New York and from Ukraine to Thailand share a central feature. They made their presence known by challenging the state’s dominance of the public sphere by inhabiting public spaces, at times occupying public parks in urban settings. Importantly, protestors change the meaning of the public space through their protest performance. This, I argue, has the potential to challenge the state’s territoriality by opening up issues of authority and governance for deliberation amongst and across a disaffected public.