Summary: | The thesis offers an analysis of the Prague Food Not Bombs collective using the optics of the newest social movements as defined by Richard Day. Based both on theory and qualitative research, it enquires whether and how the group resists individualization, commodification, and excessive consumption in society. Using her experience of several years of field work, semi-structured and informal interviews, and her field notes, the author describes the collective in question, maps out its mechanisms and internal organization, illustrates the attitudes and tactics of the activists, and exposes the troubles and hurdles they face. She surveys the activists' attitudes to such concepts of the newest social movements as direct grassroot action, solidarity, decentralization, anti-authoritarianism, consensus, and pre-figurative politics, to see if the activists employ them in their resistance strategy. In more general terms, the author attempts at a (so far missing) insight into the Prague collective as a social resistance group and a chapter of the worldwide Food Not Bombs movement. Key words Food Not Bombs, newest social movements, individualisation, commodification, consumption, protest
|