Lexington Books Spatial Resistance: Literary and Digital Challenges to Neoliberalism

Spatial Resistance: Literary and Digital Challenges to Neoliberalism utilizes various literary and digital artifacts to show the potential and possibility of changing the ways we consider the spaces we inhabit. As many spaces become increasingly privatized and policed, it is necessary to contemplate ways in which corporate and state-controlled spaces can not only be subverted but fundamentally changed to embrace the diverse lived experiences of all peoples. Through an analysis of fictional and virtual spaces, readers will be able to identify new ways to institute spatial change in everyday spatial lives in an effort to promote more democratic and equal experiences. While this book uses primarily the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari to engender change, it also provides practical examples to amend, change, or update the actions to suit particular needs and spaces. This book shows that radical politics and the possibility of significant change can reside in just about any object or narrative; it is the responsibility of the individual to take up the task of creating social change premised on equality, liberty, and solidarity. Review In Spatial Resistance, Christian Beck outlines the ways that contemporary "societies of control" have organized and delimited the spaces we inhabit. Beck then reveals the ways that fiction may open up alternative spaces for liberty within which can emerge a radical politics suited to our historical moment.--Robert T. Tally Jr., Associate Professor of English, Texas State University, USA Written by a scholar of medieval literature who exhibits remarkable intellectual versatility, this book contains novel ideas that will travel well to disciplines such as international relations and comparative politics. Beck's conceptualization of alternate spaces for resistance in the context of the digital realm and the air will be of keen interest to students of social movements and democratization, while his discussion of drones and alternate modes of governance in liberated areas of Syria challenge dominant ways of thinking about the nation-state and sovereignty. A truly remarkable journey through time, space, and alternate spaces.--Mietek Boduszyński, Pomona College Neoliberalism is not only an economic project but a particular configuration of social space, based on control, regulation, and surveillance. In this brilliant book, Beck shows how the hegemony of the neoliberal project can be challenged by the mapping of alternative and more autonomous spaces emerging in the interstices of everyday life. Drawing on literature, cultural studies, graffiti art, and hacking, the author highlights the importance of spatiality to any politics of resistance.--Saul Newman, Professor of Political Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London About the Author Christian Beck is lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Central Florida.