Architecture and Protest

In this episode we discuss the role played by architecture and the built environment in relation to political protest movements. Whether at the Battle of Cable Street, Chartist demonstrations in the 19th century, protests against racist police violence in the 1980s or Extinction Rebellion, protests always take place in specific architectural environments that shape and determine the course of political action, however, we often underestimate the agency of these protest movements in shaping the built environment through their actions.

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Fig 1: Chartist Protest on Kennington Common, 1848

Contributors:

Adam Elliott-Cooper is a researcher based at the University of Greenwich, who works on histories of racism and policing in Britain. His first monograph, Black Resistance to British Policing, was published by Manchester University Press in May 2021. He is also co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (Pluto Press, 2021).

Katrina Navickas is a Reader in History at the University of Hertfordshire, researching and teaching the history of protest and collective action, especially in relation to contested spaces and places in Britain from the 18th century to today. Her book Protest and the Politics of Space and Place, 1789-1848 was published by Manchester University Press in 2015.

Hannah Awcock is a researcher based at the University of Edinburgh who is interested in the social, cultural, and historical geographies of resistance, publishing on subjects from the 1780 Gordon Riots to climate protests at COP26.

Morgan Trowland is a Civil Engineer and member of the protest group Extinction Rebellion.

Your hosts were Matthew Lloyd Roberts and Dr Jessica Kelly, and this project was devised with Neal Shasore. This podcast is produced by Front Ear Podcasts.