This book is an urgent and compelling account of the Occupy movements: from the M15 movement in Spain, to the wave of Occupations flooding across cities in American, Europe and Australia, to the harsh reality of evictions as corporations and governments attempted to reassert exclusive control over public space. Across a vast range of international examples over twenty authors analyse, explain and helps us understand the movement. These movements were a novel and noisy intervention into the recent capitalist crisis in developed economies, developing an exceptionally broad identity through a call to arms addressed to 'the 99%', and emphasizing the importance of public space in the creation and maintenance of opposition. The novelties of these movements, along with their radical positioning and the urgency of their claims all demand analysis. This book investigates the crucial questions of how and why this form of action spread so rapidly and so widely, how the inclusive discourse of 'the 99%' matched up to the reality of the practice. It is vital to understand not just the choice of tactics and the vitality of protest camps in public spaces, but also how the myriad of challenges and problems were negotiated. This book was published as a special issue of Social Movement Studies.

What ethical challenges are faced by researchers studying social and political movements? Should scholars integrate their personal politics and identities into their research? What role should activists have in shaping the purposes or processes of social scientific research? How do changing political contexts affect the ethical integrity of a research project over time?

These are some of the live issues of research ethics that face students and scholars whose research subjects are located in contentious political terrain. The contributors to this volume expose their own ethical thinking as they have met such challenges head on. Each explores real dilemmas of ethical practice on the ground as they carry out research on social movements across the globe. Authors examining pro-democracy activists in Malaysia, sanctions-breakers in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, environmental health organisations in North America and much else find that the narrow confines of Research Ethics Committees and Institutional Review Boards offer little guidance on the questions that really matter. They offer instead a demonstration of continual reflexivity that is both personal and political in its approach. This book opens up debate on research ethics, delineating key challenges and offering hopeful and practical ways forward for real-world, ethical social science.

This bookw as published as a special issue of Social Movement Studies."

Cyberprotest, available for the first time in paperback, is an exploration of contemporary radical internet activism in Britain. It investigates the context, tensions and outcomes of environmentalists' use of the internet. Examining a wide variety of groups - from radical direct action protesters to the political lobbying of Friends of the Earth - it allows activists to speak of their experiences, challenges and innovations, providing a unique insight into the workings of frontline activism. Internet use in all levels of activism - from long-running campaigns to short-term intense tactics - is analysed in the quest to determine the value of this much-hyped technology. The book documents the negotiations and achievements of environmentalists both in dealing with the tensions of using environmentally damaging technology and in avoiding surveillance and counter-strategies. It also examines how they use the internet in a participatory manner, to aid mobilisation and to add to their tactical repertoire. It reflects upon the implications of these uses for political campaigning and identifies emerging trends in the forms and processes of the environmental movement. This book will appeal to those interested in politics and the environment or who have a concern for the politics of the internet and activism. -- .

It is widely understood that good, affordable eco-housing needs to be at the heart of any attempt to mitigate or adapt to climate change. This is the first book to comprehensively explore eco-housing from a geographical, social and political perspective. It starts from the premise that we already know how to build good eco-houses and we already have the technology to retrofit existing housing. Despite this, relatively few eco-houses are being built. Featuring over thirty case studies of eco-housing in Britain, Spain, Thailand, Argentina and the United States, Eco-Homes examines the ways in which radical changes to our houses - such as making them more temporary, using natural materials, or relying on manual heating and ventilation systems - require changes in how we live. As such, it argues, it is not lack of technology or political will that is holding us back from responding to climate change, but deep-rooted cultural and social understandings of our way of life and what we expect our houses to do for us.