Whose Streets? Our Streets! The Making of a Protesting Public

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 4 examines the expressive and performative power of protest as it operates at different levels: at the level of visibility, at the level of agency and self-empowerment, and at the very basic level of group constitution. This chapter sheds light on the communicative mechanism of protest as a way to secure visibility and social standing for those who have been left out from the public sphere by forms of exclusion such as detention and imprisonment, or stigmatization and intimidation through legal and paralegal means (e.g., the persecution of undocumented workers or the stigmatization of LGBTQ + people). The author’s account of the expressive-performative function of protest draws from and critically engages with W. E. B. Du Bois’ expressivist theory of protest, Hannah Arendt’s account of the political and communicative significance of having a voice and what she calls “the right to have rights,” and Judith Butler’s performative theory of assembly and what she calls “the right to appear.”