ABSTRACT
Civic spaces, particularly insurgent civic spaces, are usually found in cities.1
They are also most evident at certain moments – Boston in the 1770s, Paris at various times, the “people power” of Manila, the overthrow of Suharto in Jakarta, and Tiananmen Square in 1989. In the last several years international meetings have been key sites of insurgency for the global justice movement – the World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle and the Group of Eight (G8) meetings in Genoa are the most well-known examples. These demonstrations of global dissent are mischaracterized by a myth of violence; they can be described more accurately as convivial gatherings by erstwhile global citizens.2 However, trends in the security and location of international meetings, via the domination of urban space or the (dis)location of meetings to remote areas, are limiting possibilities for proximate protest.
