Editorial 

by Christopher Kullenberg & Jakob Lehne

What is Resistance Studies?

In a complex and globalised world the issue of power and resistance needs to be raised continually. Resistance, as a practice aimed at inequalities, whatever they may be, is not a marginal phenomenon, even though it may vary in size and shape dramatically. On the 15th of February 2003  millions of people around the world hit the streets in a manifestation against the war in Iraq. The protest was coordinated from ‘below’, by grass-root movements displaying their ability to form transnational networks. But how could the protest evolve like this in the first place? This cannot be understood as merely mass behaviour, but rather, the research agenda of Resistance studies would be looking into how social networks are shaped, how conflict and pragmatic consensus are negotiated, and what kinds of dispersive mechanisms operating to reduce the complexity along a multiplicity of actors, synchronizing them into one of the largest demonstrations in history.

However, we do not need to turn to the obvious examples in western cities, nor do we need the proximity of the local. Recent developments in Burma have shed light on how the local and the global are interconnected. A crucial element for the monks to gain international support depended on the control of information technologies. The authoritarian regime, which regulates most of the Burmese Internet cafes and also owns the telecommunication companies, is actively trying to prevent information from entering or leaving the country. During the escalation of the protests in late September 2007 all Internet access was stopped by the regime, which physically blocked the only cable connecting to the global servers, in order to prevent Burmese journalists and activist from communicating with the rest of the world. This is one of the examples where small-scale and heterogenous breeding grounds of resistance are produced simultaneously as centralised networks of power are shaped and reshaped. By following the strategies of power and resistance in action, we may learn a lot about the importance of technology, information and the role of the international community.

A third level, which is elaborated by Jeffrey Shantz in this first volume of the Resistance studies magazine, is the very small scale organisation, which may appear spontaneously or strategical. Abandoned buildings may be squatted by people who wish to build alternative social relations, production may be practised in a gift-based economy in a small community, or during disasters where social relations may emerge only to disappear soon afterwards.

These short illustrations, being only samples of historical and geographical events, raise numerous theoretical problems: How are local practices of resistance related to global processes? How are they communicated in the age of new digital media? Can resistance be liberating, or are all acts of resistance in turn leading to renewed power take-overs establishing different oppressive structures? Is resistance always strategic, or could it be unintentional? Also normative questions should be reflected upon, such as: To what extent should resistance embody democratic processes? Is armed resistance (ever) justified? If the outcome of resistance is uncertain, should we pursue it even if it means risking harmful consequences? 

Asking these questions about the nature of resistance is perhaps the only way of answering the overarching question: “What is Resistance Studies about?” Due to the multifaceted reality of social relations (understood in the widest of senses), there can be no a priori rules of method confined to disciplinary boundaries.  

The mission of the Resistance Studies Magazine

The current publication emerged from intensified discussions within the Resistance Studies Network during 2007, which were embodied in local seminars at Gothenburg University, where also an international work-shop was held on the 6th of June, which inaugurated the network officially. Mona Lilja and Stellan Vinthagen, the initial founders of the network, write in a mission statement:

"As power-relations effectively are maintained, challenged and resisted, while the interaction amongst people globally increases, there is a renewed need for research that pinpoints issues of social change, resistance and power. Yet resistance strategies, mobilisations and methods are normally not what interest scholars of social science. Traditionally social science focus on understanding world order, nation state systems, capitalism or other established power structures, while research on the transformation of power is a lot less established /../ To our knowledge there do not exist any research centre – even less a department – dedicated to the study of resistance to power and its social change."

The Resistance Studies Magazine aims at taking this task seriously and to fill the knowledge-gap outlined above. Thus, in order to summarise the initial goals of the magazine, we could advance by the following five guidelines:

 To focus on the under-researched practice of resistance. There are already numerous models describing power, but quite few who deal with the contingent and difficult problematics of resistance.

 To promote theoretical an empirical research from all disciplines. Even though most contributions will come from the humanities and the social sciences, we welcome articles from all fields.

 To intervene in a global public debate with a strong emphasis on openness and contemporary events. The magazine will be an open access journal available for free download, and we will try to bring in analyses of current events, even though they may be problematic due to the unstable outcome of ongoing resistance practices.

 To bridge the gap between academia and people working in the field, without reducing the one to the other. The articles of this very first issue already show that activist groups can be very theoretical, and through history we know that academics have always been related to the field-work of political engagement. By building bridges we encourage thoughts and reflections about these plastic identities.

 To provide high quality magazine articles, which are blindly peer-reviewed.

The first issue

This first issue does at least partially fulfil the five guidelines above. The first three theoretical articles definitely challenge our understanding of the concept of resistance. They also give examples from how resistance is being practised, from the case of Adbusters to anarchists in the making. We are also reminded about the heterogeneity of social relations emerging in the intersections of power and resistance by a historical article describing how the Orissa tribals organised against the colonial rule in India.

The article by Karl Palmås discusses the possible rupture in the strategies of activist groups, where the abstract mechanism of the motor is replaced by another abstract mechanism - the computer model. Palmås draws from contemporary debates in philosophy and sociology, as well as from recent societal and economical developments. In his case study of the Adbusters movement, he notices a shift in how the practice of resistance is modelled. Instead of "jamming" or "blocking" capitalism, Adbusters have turned to a computer-like model where capitalism is "hacked" or "re-written" just like software. This, in turn, leads to a new agenda for resistance, an agenda which works by making new arrangements instead of blocking the old ones. Palmås' text introduces an interesting perspective on resistance and social change, which instructs us to look at the abstract mechanisms and models, both in order to understand resistance as such, but also to understand power.

Tim Gough's Resistance: Under what Grace is another theoretical article on how to understand the concept of resistance. He invokes the paradoxical nature of resistance, and its relationship towards the existing prevailing order. When an order is opposed and changed, and resistance triumphs, it immediately turns into a new order, which in turn may be resisted. Since this paradoxical logic is always at work, we must displace the question of a beginning and an end in terms of our common-sense understanding of the concept of time. Instead of separating resistance and order, Gough suggests an "awareness which in the context this cunning and simultaneity becomes the act of a being which, in its difference, makes that difference an issue for it; this folded characteristic being the very possibility of resistance".

Jeffrey Shantz too challenges the grand theories of revolution, and instead discusses how anarchist futures are made right now. He draws his examples from the “anarchist transfer culture”, which is attempting at building sustainable communities within the context of the old society. Instead of purely speculative social analysis, the desirable society must be made, and the only way of doing that is to learn the practices. The capitalist relations between consumers and producers, for example, can be overturned, at least on a small scale, by developing gift-economies. We have seen this trend on a large scale in computer software and copyleft media. However, this model is also applicable in building alternative forms of welfare based on mutual aid and autonomous networks, which could endure the trends of the market or the budget of the State. The concept of resistance, then, turns into something readily available in everyday life, not merely reacting against obvious structures of power, but primarily with a potential positive task of building new arrangements. This is why, Shantz argues, the anarchist futures need to be understood in a present tense, since they are already in the making right now.

Patit Paban Mishra rounds up this issue with the historical case of the Orissa tribals in India, which resisted the 1874 revenue settlement imposed by the colonial rule. The settlement led to poverty and misery for the tribal society. However, in heterogeneous constellations the struggle continued up until 1946, displaying the ever-changing dynamic of oppression and resistance.   

Finally, the editors would like to thank the members of the editorial board for their valuable and excellent work, and everybody else who contributed to the making of this magazine. Thank you all!