Between Streets and Screens
Digital Video Activism and the Right to the City- Authors:
- Publisher:
- 04.11.2025
Summary
A protestor beaten to the ground in Cape Town, indigenous activists threatened with eviction in Rio, teenagers shot dead by police officers on duty – How do we know about these incidents, which are otherwise rarely reported on? In the past decade, urban citizens recording videos as audiovisual testimony, thereby bearing witness to protests and police violence emerged as a phenomenon from cities across the globe. Who is filming these videos and why? Jacob Geuder explores how digital grassroots video activism came about and how it is shaping urban struggles. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre and focusing on Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro, this nuanced ethnographic study asks how urban movements use digital media to expose police violence, amplify marginalized voices, and challenge neoliberal urbanism. The book examines the unequal distribution of attention across digital platforms, the role of gatekeepers, and the risks faced by videographers documenting state violence.
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Bibliographic data
- Publication year
- 2025
- Publication date
- 04.11.2025
- ISBN-Print
- 978-3-7758-1437-9
- ISBN-Online
- 978-3-7489-5599-3
- Publisher
- v. Hase & Koehler 1797, Weilerswist-Metternich
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 336
- Product type
- Book Titles
Table of contents
- Preface Download chapter (PDF)
- Acknowledgment Download chapter (PDF)
- 1. Video Activism as Bottom-Up City MakingPages 15 - 26 Download chapter (PDF)
- 2.1 Manuel Castells and Liberal Narratives of Progress through Technology Download chapter (PDF)
- 2.2 Henri Lefebvre Theorizing Space Download chapter (PDF)
- 2.3 Interweaving the Digital Thread into the Urban Fabric Download chapter (PDF)
- 2.4 Digitalizing the Right to the City? Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.1 Research Design and Field Access Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.2 Conducting a Critical, Multi-Sited Ethnography Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.3 Field Access and Ethnographic Practice on the Ground Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.4 Data Collection Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.5 Data Analysis Download chapter (PDF)
- 3.6 Reflections on Position, Perspectives and Practices Download chapter (PDF)
- 4.1 Cape Town, the »mother city« Download chapter (PDF)
- 4.2 Rio de Janeiro, the »marvelous city« Download chapter (PDF)
- 4.3 Situating Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro in Comparison Download chapter (PDF)
- 5.1 Fragmented Media Practices and Intermediaries in Cape Town Download chapter (PDF)
- 5.2 Corporate Media Power and Collective Media Activism in Rio de Janeiro Download chapter (PDF)
- 5.3 From Traditional Media to Digital Video Activism Download chapter (PDF)
- 6.1 Journalists Videos – Reporting behind Police Lines Download chapter (PDF)
- 6.2 Witness Videos – The Explosion of Audio-Visual Documentation Download chapter (PDF)
- 6.2 Activist Videos – Autogestion in Representation Download chapter (PDF)
- 6.4 Emancipatory and Bottom-Up Video Productions Download chapter (PDF)
- 7.1 Producing Visibility: Factors and Forms Download chapter (PDF)
- 7.2 Gatekeepers in Video Distribution Download chapter (PDF)
- 7.3 Tactics and Strategies in the Production of Visibility Download chapter (PDF)
- 7.4 The Politics of Visibility Download chapter (PDF)
- 8.1 Violence and Urban Movements Download chapter (PDF)
- 8.2 Documenting Police Violence and the Threat for Videographers Download chapter (PDF)
- 8.3 Shooting-back with videos not bullets Download chapter (PDF)
- 8.4 Exposing injustice by documenting violence Download chapter (PDF)
- 9.1 Studying Bottom-Up Video Activism Download chapter (PDF)
- 9.2 Video Activism in Rio and Cape Town Download chapter (PDF)
- 9.3 Video Activist Practices In-Between Download chapter (PDF)
- 9.4 Utopian Practices of Video Activism Download chapter (PDF)
- List of AbbreviationsPages 268 - 268 Download chapter (PDF)
- List of FiguresPages 269 - 272 Download chapter (PDF)
- 10.1 Videography Download chapter (PDF)
- 10.2 List of Interviews Download chapter (PDF)
- 10.3 Bibliography Download chapter (PDF)
