Awards

• Winner of Winner, the 2016 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology.

Overview

Bastards of Utopia, the companion to a feature documentary film of the same name, explores the experiences and political imagination of young radical activists in the former Yugoslavia, participants in what they call alterglobalization or ""globalization from below."" Ethnographer Maple Razsa follows individual activists from the transnational protests against globalization of the early 2000s through the Occupy encampments. His portrayal of activism is both empathetic and unflinching-an engaged, elegant meditation on the struggle to re-imagine leftist politics and the power of a country's youth. More information on the film can be found at www.der.org/films/bastards-of-utopia.html.

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9780253015839

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Reviews

The book s cast of characters proves outspoken and sometimes violent, willing to don gas masks and wield Molotov cocktails during standoffs with authorities. In this manner, Razsa brings a personal note to his academic treatment of politics, protest, transnational movements, and globalization. The book cannot be read in isolation from the 'remixable documentary' which Rasza shot in tandem with writing the book. Now available online, the documentary shows street life in Zagreb, protests in Greece, and everyday scenes in the homes of the protestors. This multimedia aspect is the work s best feature, opening up the flesh-and-blood, gravel-and-teargas world of grassroots opposition to globalization. This book will prove a boon to anyone interested in understanding the diverse world of contemporary protest, as variously made manifest in the Occupy Movement, the Arab Spring, and Ferguson. Publishers Weekly

The book's cast of characters proves outspoken and sometimes violent, willing to don gas masks and wield Molotov cocktails during standoffs with authorities. In this manner, Razsa brings a personal note to his academic treatment of politics, protest, transnational movements, and globalization... This book will prove a boon to anyone interested in understanding the diverse world of contemporary protest, as variously made manifest in the Occupy Movement, the Arab Spring, and Ferguson. -Publishers Weekly An innovative narrative ethnography of postsocialism, radical activism, and the alterglobalization/Occupy movements... [G]reatly expands the scope and purview of our knowledge of alterglobalization activism, most accounts of which focus on North America and Western Europe... [W]ritten in a clear and compelling style that brings the reader into the thick of the action. -Jeffrey Juris, author of Networking Futures: the Movements against Corporate Globalization [A] sophisticated analysis... [T]akes the reader deep into the world of radical politics in a globalized postsocialist context. -Marianne Maeckelberg, author of The Will of the Many: How the Alterglobalisation Movement is Changing the Face of Democracy [E]xplores the possibilities, limits, and most importantly lived experience of radical activism after the fall of Yugoslav socialism... [C]ouldn't be more timely for scholars and undergraduate and graduate students interested in progressive politics, social movements, youth, and anti-corporate globalization activism. -Jessica Greenberg, author of After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia Dramatic proof that the struggle for liberty is irrepressible. -Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, on the companion film, reviewing a previous edition or volume For those seeking evidence of twenty-first century experiments in both constructive rebellion and 'concrete utopia,' Razsa and Velez's documentary will prove a seminal film. -Richard Porton, from Cineaste review of the companion film, reviewing a previous edition or volume

[A] sophisticated analysis.... [T]akes the reader deep into the world of radical politics in a globalized postsocialist context. Marianne Maeckelberg, author of The Will of the Many: How the Alterglobalisation Movement is Changing the Face of Democracy

[G]reatly expands the scope and purview of our knowledge of alterglobalization activism, most accounts of which focus on North America and Western Europe... [W]ritten in a clear and compelling style that brings the reader into the thick of the action. NOrth, author of Networking Futures: the Movements against Corporate Globalization

[G]reatly expands the scope and purview of our knowledge of alterglobalization activism, most accounts of which focus on North America and Western Europe... [W]ritten in a clear and compelling style that brings the reader into the thick of the action. Jeffrey Juris, author of Networking Futures: the Movements against Corporate Globalization

Author Information

Maple Razsa is Associate Professor of Global Studies at Colby College. A documentary filmmaker, his work includes Bastards of Utopia (2010) and Occupation: A Film about the Harvard Living Wage Sit-In (2002; both with Pacho Velez).

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