ABSTRACT
Acts of protest are among the most immediate ways in which spaces of urban politics are made manifest. Street marches, demonstrations, vigils and occupations turn everyday urban places into sites of politics by concentrating diffuse and often distant issues of power in condensed public spaces. This works both through direct confrontation at emblematic sites of authority (the protest at the parliament building, ministry, central bank or barracks), and by making visible and audible operations of power which take place elsewhere – in dispersed or remote sites of military conflict, economic exploitation or environmental destruction, or in the private spaces of the home. The discussion that follows considers the politics of urban protest in regard to gender issues, identities and relations. My interest is in urban mobilizations that focus directly on gender themes as well as those which address ‘other’ political concerns through the figuration of women’s bodies and the articulation of women’s voices. This is not to suggest that political protest is only gendered when it is led by women or centres on matters of concern to them. Rather the point is to explore how women’s mobilizations activate urban space in ways which make gender relations and identities visible, public and political.
