Lexington Books
Pages: 180
•
978-0-7391-6613-0 • Hardback • July 2011 • $111.00 • (£85.00)
978-0-7391-6923-0 • eBook • August 2011 • $105.50 • (£82.00)
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Chapter 1: Anarchism and Social Movement Theory
Chapter 3 Chapter 2: Black Blocs in Theory and Action
Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Anarchist Street Reclaiming
Chapter 5 Chapter 4: Marginalia: Freeganism and Anarchy
Chapter 6 Chapter 5: Heterotopias of Toronto: The Anarchist Free Space and Who's Emma?
Chapter 7 Chapter 6: Organizing Against Poverty
Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Do-It-Ourself Housing
Chapter 9 Chapter 8: Caging the Anarchist Beast: The Criminalization of Dissent
Chapter 10 Chapter 9: Organizing Anarchy: Directions and Debates
If you want to understand a world of practical anarchy beyond the headlines on angry, black-clad, and balaclava wearing youth derailing demonstrations by confronting police you must read this book. Jeff Shantz reveals a fascinating world of autonomous zones, direct action tactics, street reclaiming, squats, free schools and infoshops where anarchy becomes a creative and productive force through which people establish new solidarities. His description of do-it-yourself anarchism is not only a practical method of organizing social life beyond the state but it is also a practical method for reorienting theoretical production. By providing a rich and detailed panorama of such heterotopias Active Anarchy itself becomes a manual for activist citizens.
— Engin Isin, Professor of International Politics, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP)
Active Anarchy is a brilliantly written autoenthnological analysis of action-oriented research in early twenty-first century social struggles and movements. Uniquely situated, theoretically sophisticated, historically grounded, and empirically rigorous, this text provides an intellectually forceful account that critically reflects on a decade of contemporary anarchist practice. In an era where it is becoming increasingly clear that capitalism is the crisis, Dr. Shantz squarely places the social, economic, and political potentialities of a practical anarchism at the centre of contemporary scholarship, politics and praxis. His rare erudition and accessible style provides a distinguished analysis that delivers a breath of fresh air to stale misconceptions and misrepresentations of anarchist practice, theory, and politics that have dominated the academy and popular culture alike for far too long. The importance of this text thus cannot be overstated. Activists, students, scholars, and anyone interested in power and politics - and practical alternatives - will benefit from reading it. Dr. Shantz has set a very high standard for dialogue and debate on the place of anarchism in everyday life including the necessity of anarchist theory and method in the social sciences. The now unavoidable and inescapable presence of organized anarchist resistance in Western society alone makes this book required reading. Overall, Active Anarchy constitutes a significant and timely contribution that will undoubtedly become a lasting treatise in the history of critical social and political thought for many generations to come.
— Heidi Rimke, University of Winnipeg
Jeff Shantz's Active Anarchy gives anarchism its due as the do-it-yourself dynamic driving a new generation of social movements. As Shantz shows, these anarchic movements rock to a different sort of rhythm — a rhythm founded on the subterranean beat of Bakunin, Bey, Kropotkin, Goldman, and Debord, and attuned today to autonomy and anti-authoritarian invention. Taking the reader with him into the battles of black blocs, freegans, and Reclaim the Streets activists, Shantz provides a courageous, wide-ranging account of progressive social change in action.
— Jeff Ferrell, author of Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy