Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production

Boycott and divestment are essential tools for activists around the globe. Today’s organizers target museums, universities, corporations, and governments to curtail unethical sources of profit, discriminatory practices, or human rights violations. They leverage cultural production -and challenge its institutional supports—helping transform situations in the name of social justice.

The refusal to participate in an oppressive system has long been one of the most powerful instruments in the organizer’s arsenal. Since the days of the 19th century Irish land wars, when Irish tenant farmers defied the actions of Captain Charles Boycott and English landlords, “boycott” has been a method that’s shown its effectiveness time and again. In the 20th century, it notably played central roles in the liberation of India and South Africa and the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.: the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is generally seen as a turning point in the movement against segregation.

Assuming Boycott is the essential reader for today’s creative leaders and cultural practitioners, and includes original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators and writers examine four key areas: the historical precedent of South Africa; the current cultural boycott of Israel; freedom of speech and self-censorship; and long-distance activism. Far from representing withdrawal or cynicism, boycott emerges as a special condition for discourse, artmaking and political engagement.

Contributiors
Nasser Abourahme
Ariella Azoulay
Tania Bruguera
Noura Erakat
Kareem Estefan
Mariam Ghani
Haig Aivazian
Nathan Gray
Ahmet Öğüt
Chelsea Haines
Sean Jacobs
Yazan Khalili
Carin Kuoni
Laura Raicovich
Svetlana Mintcheva
Naeem Mohaiemen
Hlonipha Mokoena
John Peffer
Joshua Simon
Ann Laura Stoler
Radhika Subramaniam
Eyal Weizman
Kareem Estefan
Frank B. Wilderson II

Editors
Kareem Estefan
Carin Kuoni
Laura Raicovich

Publishers
Vera List Center for Art and Politics
OR Books

Publication Date
2017

Size
5.5 x 8.25 inches 
268 pages

Binding
Soft-cover, perfect-bound

ISBN
978-1-682-19092-0