Ida Susser, "The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy: Taking to the Streets of Paris in the 21st Century" (Routledge, 2026)

About this episode

Ida Susser discusses her book on the Yellow Vests movement and its implications for democracy in contemporary society.

Written under the shadow of growing authoritarianism in the United States and Europe, this book is an effort to understand resistance movements of the twenty-first century. It foregrounds the Yellow Vests to present an accurate and timely picture of a protest movement that baffled analysts and blurred the boundaries of left and right. Comprehensively exploring the meaning of “les Gilets Jaunes triompheront” (the yellow vests will win), written on the Arc de Triomphe in 2018, The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy details how people of all ages, many from the provinces and the urban periphery, rushed through the Paris streets, breaking windows and braving tear gas, challenging the ruling class in extraordinary and unpredictable ways. Avoiding hierarchy and stable organization, and claiming a right to a territory or space that is between the private and the public, these protests imagined a different form of collectivity that is not commodified but established by the social practice of “commoning”—of momentarily linking protests in the streets and other spaces. An essential book for activists and researchers on contemporary protest movements, this book offers crucial insight…

People in this episode

Guest: Ida Susser

Topics covered

• protest movements
• democracy
• authoritarianism
• social movements
• collectivity
• resistance

Keywords

• Yellow Vests
• protests
• democracy
• social movements
• resistance
• Paris
• authoritarianism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Routledge

Books & works: The Yellow Vests and the Battle for Democracy

Places: Paris

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