Den olydiga kroppens politik : en feministisk studie av förkroppsligat motstånd i utomparlamentariska vänsterrörelser

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the body as an agent of political change as well as embodied aspects of political resistance. It analyses the experience of activists of the extraparliamentary left through the lens of feminist theories on resistance and embodiment. The empirical material draws upon ethnographic field work carried out through a combination of five in-depth interviews and two focus group interviews. The material is analyzed through Barbara Sutton’s conceptualization of embodied resistance and Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology. This perspective is advanced by the collective dimension of resistance offered by Judith Butler’s performative theory of assembly and Mona Lilja’s combination this theory and Sara Ahmed’s affective economy. Except from developing phenomenology of resistance, the thesis offers a reading of extraparliamentary action as “queer politics” or an embodied way of questioning “politics as usual”. The motivation behind the respondents’ activism is construed in terms of longing for another potential future than the one offered by parliamentary politics. The study shows that the practice of showing up and appearing in the wrong place can be a powerful form of resistance. The experience of appearing together and of dealing with repression is reported to be a cohesive force uniting individual activists into a social movement or a “body of bodies”. This collective body needs continuous care in order to be resilient and in order to be able to embody the kind equality the activists wish to see in the future.