Social Movements as Producers and Receivers of Knowledge: The Case of “Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own”

Filip Balunović

doi:10.25038/am.v0i26.474

Authors

Filip Balunović

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i26.474

Keywords:

Don’t Let Belgrade D(d)own, municipalism, social movements, critical knowledge

Abstract

In this paper I am seeking to resolve a theoretical dilemma. The main argument is that the relationship between social movements and knowledge is a “two-way street”, in which knowledge both gets diffused from critical communities and gets produced by the social movements. In order to resolve this tension one should, I argue, make an analytical separation between different levels of abstraction of knowledge. The macro (conceptual) level is, according to my approach, to be understood as taken over from critical communities. The micro level as contextual intervention into macro conceptualization of reality, whereas the meso level is to be viewed as knowledge produced by social movements when conceptual and presumed / contextual knowledge gets combined. It is at the meso level, in other words, that we can see what applied theory looks like after being exposed to a given context. Knowledge occurring at this level represents the outcome of work done by what Jameson and Eyerman call “movement intellectuals” or what Antoni Gramsci calls “organic intellectuals”. This is how one may theoretically resolve the above-indicated tension and prevent excluding one approach at the expense of the other.

Article received: April 21, 2021; Article accepted: June 23, 2021; Published online: October 15, 2021; Original scholarly article

How to cite this article: Balunović, Filip. "Social Movements as Producers and Receivers of Knowledge: The Case of 'Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own'." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 26 (October 2021): 103-114. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i26.474

Author Biography

Filip Balunović

Filip Balunović
Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade
Serbia

Filip Balunović (1987, Belgrade) received a PhD from the department of Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade and received his MA degree in International Relations and European Studies from the European Institute in Nice. He received his second MA degree in Human Rights and Democracy from Universities of Sarajevo and Bologna. He is lecturing at the Department of Politics, at the Faculty of Media and Communication, at the Singidunum University in Belgrade. He is the researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade. Balunovic is the executive editor of the Serbian edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. He is author of the book “Freedom Notebooks” (Mediteran, 2014) (Serbian “Beleske sa slobode”).

References

Balunović, Filip. Pet fenomena privatizacije u Srbiji. In: Bilans stanja: Doprios analizi restauracije kapitalizma u Srbiji. Beograd: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2015.

Choudry, Aziz and Dip Kapoor. “Learning from the Ground Up: Global Perspectives on Social Movements and Knowledge Production.” In: Learning from the Ground Up: Global Perspectives on Social Movements and Knowledge Production, edited by Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor, 1–13. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230112650_1

Čukić, Iva. “Ne Da(vi)mo Beograd/Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own.” In: Spaces of Commoning: Urban Commons in the Ex-Yu Region, edited by Iva Čukić and Jovana Timotijević, 66–77. Belgrade: Ministry of Space / Institute for Urban Politics Belgrade, 2020.

Eyerman, Ron and Andrew Jamison. Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.

Fiket, Irena, Marjan Ivković, Gazela Pudar Draško, Jelena Vasiljević. “The Discourse of Anti-Instrumentalism: Exploring a Conceptual Model Through the Case Study of the We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own Initiative.” Partecipazione e conflitto. The Open Journal for Sociopolitical Studies 12, 3 (2019): 898–918. doi: 10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898

Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Theory. London: Verso, 1985.

Lazić, Mladen. Čekajući kapitalizam. Beograd: Službeni glasnik, 2011.

Rochon, Thomas. Culture Moves: Ideas, Activism, and Changing Values. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186719

Van Dijk, A. Teun. Discourse and Knowledge: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107775404

Veselinovic, Dobrica. Mesna zajednica – mesto ili zajednica? Danas, 2014. https://www.danas.rs/dijalog/licni-stavovi/mesna-zajednica-mesto-ili-zajednica/ Accessed on June 11, 2021.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i26.474 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i26.474