De-Pathologizing Resistance
In a time of renewed interest in insurrectionary movements, urban protest, and anti-austerity indignation, the idea of resistance is regaining its relevance in social theory. De-Pathologizing Resistance re-examines resistance as a concept that can aid social analysis, highlighting the dangers of pathologising resistance as illogical and abnormal, or exoticising it in romanticised but patronising terms. Taking a de-pathologising and de-exoticising perspective, this book brings together insights from older and newer studies, the intellectual biographies of its contributing authors, and case studies of resistance in diverse settings, such as Egypt, Greece, Israel, and Mexico. From feminist studies to plaza occupations and anti-systemic uprisings, there is an emerging need to connect the analysis of contemporary protest movements under a broader theoretical re-examination. The idea of resistance—with all of its contradictions and its dynamism—provides such a challenging opportunity. This book was originally published as a special issue of History and Anthropology.
Dimitrios Theodossopoulos is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Kent. He has conducted research in Panama and Greece, focusing on processes of resistance, exoticisation, authenticity, tourism, environmentalism, and the politics of cultural representation and protest. He is author of Troubles with Turtles (2003), and Exoticisation Undressed (2016); and editor of When Greeks Think about Turks (2007), United in Discontent (2010), Great Expectations (2011), De-Pathologising Resistance (2015) and Against Exoticism (2016).