Street Rebellion (Paperback)

In a style that bridges the divide between academia and activism, Street Rebellion develops a broader and more accurate understanding of how people struggle for liberation. 

We are living in a time of uprisings that routinely involve physical confrontation—burning vehicles, barricades, vandalism, and scuffles between protesters and authorities. Yet the Left has struggled to incorporate rioting into theories of change, remaining stuck in recurring debates over violence and nonviolence. Civil resistance studies have popularized the term “strategic nonviolence,” spreading the notion that violence is wholly counter-productive. Street Rebellion scrutinizes recent research and develops a broad and grounded portrait of the relationship between strategic nonviolence and rioting in the struggle for liberation.

Benjamin S. Case is an organizer, researcher, and writer with more than two decades experience in community, labor, and political organizing. He holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh and a Masters in Public Administration from NYU. Case is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Work and Democracy, a fellow at the Resistance Studies Initiative, and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Sociology at UMass Amherst. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.