Practices of resistance in Zapatista politics
Date
2008-04-10T05:56:07Z
Authors
Joerger, Roman.
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Abstract
The Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico has captured global attention and generated a worldwide support network. As an example of innovative contentious political practice, the Zapatistas maintain an important position in the politics of resistance and collective action. Analyses of the Zapatistas generally focus on why the uprising took place. This thesis asks how certain practices enabled the Zapatistas' processes of mobilization and collective action. Following McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly's (2001) analysis of mechanisms that 'transform' given social settings into sites from which collective action emerges, this thesis examines three crucial practices embedded in complex contextual conditions that have altered relations for the Zapatistas. These practices are the accessing and mobilizing of local grassroots organization in Chiapas, framing, and the dissemination of their messages through information technologies, particularly the Internet. It is found that the Zapatistas' mobilization of collective action depended on the strategic employment of
combined preexisting elements.