Examines how radical bookstores and similar spaces serve as
launching pads for social movements How does social change happen?
It requires an identified problem, an impassioned and committed
group, a catalyst, and a plan. In this deeply researched
consideration of seventy-seven stores and establishments, Kimberley
Kinder argues that activists also need autonomous space for
organizing, and that these spaces are made, not found. She explores
the remarkably enduring presence of radical bookstores in America
and how they provide infrastructure for organizing-gathering
places, retail offerings that draw new people into what she calls
"counterspaces." Kinder focuses on brick-and-mortar venues where
owners approach their businesses primarily as social movement
tools. These may be bookstores, infoshops, libraries, knowledge
cafes, community centers, publishing collectives, thrift stores, or
art installations. They are run by activist-entrepreneurs who
create centers for organizing and selling books to pay the rent.
These spaces allow radical and contentious ideas to be explored and
percolate through to actual social movements, and serve as
crucibles for activists to challenge capitalism, imperialism, white
privilege, patriarchy, and homophobia. They also exist within a
central paradox: participating in the marketplace creates tensions,
contradictions, and shortfalls. Activist retail does not end
capitalism; collective ownership does not enable a retreat from
civic requirements like zoning; and donations, no matter how
generous, do not offset the enormous power of corporations and
governments. In this timely and relevant book, Kinder presents a
necessary, novel, and apt analysis of the role these retail spaces
play in radical organizing, one that demonstrates how such durable
hubs manage to persist, often for decades, between the spikes of
public protest.
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