The Practice of Freedom: Anarchism, Geography, and the Spirit of Revolt

The last two decades have seen a re-birth of practices and principles that connect with the ‘soul’ of left-libertarianism, although they may not explicitly engage with the anarchist tradition. From practices of mapping and land-use planning to local protests and transnational social movements, this book explores a variety of case studies that trace the influences of, and affinities between, anarchist and geographic practice. The chapters explore the vast possibilities of inventive, exploratory libertarian practices from contemporary and historic contexts around the globe. They examine the ways in which various spatial practices have been compatible with left-libertarian principles, and explore the extent to which anarchists, neo-anarchists and libertarian autonomists have animated these waves of protest and forms of resistance. In an age that is desperately in need of critical new directions, this volume shows that a serious (re)turn toward anarchist thought and practice can challenge and inspire geographers to travel beyond their traditional frontiers of geographical praxis.

Table of Contents:
Performing Anarchism, Practising Freedom, Pursuing Revolt, Richard J. White, Simon Springer, and Marcelo Lopes de Souza / 1. Anarchist Geographies in the Rural Global South, Navé Wald and Doug Hill / 2. Anarchist City? Sir Patrick Geddes’ 1925 Anarchist Housing-Based Plan for Tel Aviv, and the Housing Protests of 2011 and Beyond, Yael Allweil / 3. Contesting Imperial Geography: Reading Elisée Reclus in 1930s’ Hokkaido, Nadine Willems / 4. Organizing the APOCalypse: Ethnographic Reflections on an Anarchist People of Color Convergence in New Orleans, Louisiana, Patrick W. Huff / 5. Anarchism, Social Order and the City in Portugal between the End of the Nineteenth Century and the First Decades of the Twentieth Century, Diogo Duarte / 6. The Global Hiroba: Transnational Spaces in Tokyo’s Anti-nuclear Movement, Catherine Tsukasa Bender and Alexander Brown / 7. The Battle for the Common Space, from the Neoliberal Creative City to the Rebel City and Vice Versa: the Cases of Athens, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Izmir, Matina Kapsali and Charalampos Tsavdaroglou / 8. Spatial Anarchy in Gezi Park Protests; Urban Public Space as Instrument of Power and Resistance Towards an Alternative Social Order, Murat Cetin / 9. Banging on the Walls of Fortress Europe: Tactical Media, Anarchist Politics, and Border Thinking, James Ellison /10. Democracy, Agency and Radical Children’s Geographies, Toby Rollo / Index