Publisher's Synopsis
Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest is a scientific journal which aims to offer a novel contribution to the study of social protest. The journal intends to advance knowledge about a comprehensive range of collective actions, social movements and other forms of political and social contention. Its main purposes are to offer a multidisciplinary forum to scholars from different fields and to bridge the gap between them, within and across the social sciences and humanities. Social protest emerges from a complexity of phenomena. Different research traditions have developed dissimilar, and sometimes divergent, sets of analytical tools through which to explore social actions, social movements, social protest and other forms of contention. These differences are often paralleled by a priori epistemological endeavours and ontological claims about the nature of the object of study, the relevance of its proprieties, and the appropriate level of analysis. This special issue of Contention on FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES refrains from presenting feminist protest, or the feminist movement, as one unified, cohesive entity. Rather, it seeks to offer up a variety of feminist approaches to different areas of activism, research, critical thinking, and knowledge production. We embrace feminisms in the plural, not as a move towards unmoored relativism, but as affirmation that problems-and solutions-are never monolithic. Neither Beyoncé's feminism nor Bella Abzug's is the right one for every time and place, and only by embracing diversity within feminism can we hope to address the diverse types of gender-based oppression still present in the world. The authors in this volume have taken questions of gender very seriously, but have also committed to intersectional analysis: they have grounded their research practices and writing strategies in the specific contexts they examine, and situated themselves within that context. Their articles provide five concrete instances of engagement with feminist questions, in disciplines ranging from literary analysis to social sciences. Beyond emphasizing the need for a variety of strategies, the present collection of essays also exemplifies guidelines for action which can be built upon in the future. In other words, the scholarship presented here does not seek only to bring attention to different instances of gender inequality, but also to help us take the next step, by demonstrating individual approaches to tackling these complex problems. TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES // Ana Figueiredo (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences University of Coimbra) and Jorge Silva (SOCIUS/ ISEG, University of Lisbon), "The abortion referendum in Portugal: The influence of psychosocial variables in the voting intentions and behaviour of Portuguese youth" -- Ola Abdalkafor (English and Postcolonial Studies, University of Essex), "Silence against Political Rape: Arab Women's Subalternity during Political Struggles" -- Sophia Brown (School of English, University of Kent), "Blogging the Resistance: Testimony and Solidarity in Egyptian Women's Blogs" -- Sheila Malone (School of Theatre, Film and Television, University of California, Los Angeles), "Androgynous Punk as Postfeminist Signifying Strategy of Transgression within Subcultures: Punk Aesthetic As Gender De[con]struction in the Trilogy Film Series The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the Anime Series Kino's Journey" -- Hollie MacKenzie (School of Politics and International Relations University of Kent ) and Iain MacKenzie (School of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent), "A Labial Art-Politics" BOOK REVIEWS // Natália S. Perez: Derek Ryan (2013), Virginia Woolf and the Materiality of Theory: Sex, Animal, Life Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press -- Barbara Franchi: Clare Johnson (2013), Femininity, Time and Feminist Art, Basingstoke & New York, Palgrave Macmillan
