The Circulation of Anti-Austerity Protest

Bart Cammaerts is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK.

In this book a set of theoretical and methodological resources are presented to study the way in which protest, resistance and social movement discourses circulate through society and looks at the role of media and of communication in this process. Empirically, the focus of this book is on the UK's anti-austerity movement. 'The Circuit of Protest', as developed in this volume, is comprised of an analysis of the discourses of the anti-austerity movement and their corresponding movement frames, and the self-mediation practices geared at communicating these. The mainstream media representations and the reception of the movement discourses and frames by non-activist citizens are also studied. It is concluded that studying a movement through the prism of mediation provides a nuanced assessment in terms of failures and successes of the UK's anti-austerity movement. The book is of relevance to students and researchers of politics, social movements, as well as media and communication, but alsoto activists.

Reconnects with a politics of redistribution as well as demands for democratic reform, which has been superseded in recent decades by a politics of recognition

1. Introduction.- 2.Situating the Circulation of Protest.- 3. The Production of Anti-Austerity Discourses and Frames. 4.The Self-Mediation Practices of the Anti-Austerity Movement.- 5. The Media Representation of the Anti-Austerity Movement.- 6. The Reception of Anti-Austerity Discourses and Frames.- 7. Conclusion - Regulating the Circuit.