Constructed Situations: A New History of the Situationist.

The Situationist International has been an inspiration for generations of revolutionary activists and artists. This is no less the case today, with new waves of anti-capitalist protest deploying political strategies of aesthetic disruption pioneered by the Situationists. But how are we to understand their influence rigourously?

This book is an attempt to answer this question through investigating the idea from which the Situationists took their name: the constructed situation. Beginning with a deep philosophical genealogy, Stracey methodically examines the artist's development and realisations through a constellation of extraordinary case studies. Finally, on this basis, she considers the Situationist's legacy afresh.

No book has attempted this before. The result is a radically new approach to the Situationist International. The outcome of many years of dedicated research, Constructed Situations consolidates Stracey's groundbreaking studies on the Situationist International and finally exposes their framework, which she was only able to formulate in the final years of her life.

Frances Stracey (1963-2009) was Senior Lecturer in the History of Art Department, University College London, UK, and organising committee member for the 'Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture' seminar, London.