Crisis and Critique2016

Innovations in media inevitably have a profound impact on methods and forms of protest. Drawing on the work of key theorists such as Walter Benjamin and Raymond Williams, Crisis and Critique looks specifically at changes in media practices within the context of major historic economic crises. Anne Kaun uses richly detailed case studies from three different economic crises-- the unemployed workers' movement during the Great Depression, the rent strike movement of the early 1970s, and the Occupy Wall Street protests following the recession of 2008-- in order to provide an in-depth analysis of the cultural, economic, and social consequences of media technologies and their role in shaping resistance to capitalism. At a time when scholars and commentators are increasingly recognizing the immense impact of media and communications technology on society, Kaun provides a necessary historical contextualization of this crucial dynamic, while offering the first book to explicitly examine the relationship between media studies and economic activism.