Rule and Resistance Beyond the Nation State

Rule and resis­tance can no longer be under­stood in natio­nal contexts only. They both have trans­nationa­lised over the last decades. The scholarly dis­course, however, still lags behind these develop­ments. While Inter­national Relations only sees institu­tional “governance”, social move­ment studies only see instan­ces of resis­tance. Both, however, lack the neces­sary vocabulary to describe the dynamic interplay between systems of rule and resis­tance. While we are governed by trans­national structures of rule, a syste­matic analysis of how this ope­rates and how it can be resisted remains to be deve­loped.

This book develops an under­standing of these power rela­tions through rich empi­rical case studies of different forms of rule-resistance relation­ships. Some resistant groups demand reforms of particular policies and institu­tions. Others attack institu­tions head-on. Yet other actors attempt to es­cape the rules they reject. Which forms of resis­tance can we expect under diffe­rent kinds of rule? How can we under­stand trans­national rule in the first place? The book gives new inspiring answers to these difficult ques­tions.