Rebel Friendships Outsider Networks and Social Movements [Hardcover]

Rebel Friendships considers the interplay between individuals and their friendships with social movements. The intersections between individual and community, the ways we experiment with social change, explore, create, and reduce the harms of modern living are the work of social movements. Yet, the process is rarely simple. Through auto-ethnographic reflections of experiences with the Beats, ACT-UP, Occupy Wall Street, anti-consumer, queer rights, and non-polluting transportation movements Shepard explores the way friendship infuses social movements with the social capital necessary to move bodies of ideas forward. Such innovation is rarely seen in more institutionalized social arrangements. Rebel Friendships offers a new take on the ties between friends who are connected through affinity and efforts aimed at social change.

Rebel Friendships delves deep into a phenomenon that every activist, and student of activism, is aware of, but not enough of us acknowledge: at the core of every collective and at the center of every social movement are individual friendships radical friendships. Kudos to Shepard for writing this perceptive and moving book! - Stephen Duncombe, Professor of Media and Culture, New York University, USA, and Co-Director, Center of Artistic Activism

Rebel Friendships is a masterpiece, weaving together the lived experiences of activists critical to important movements for social justice. In lucid prose, Shepard vividly details the dialectical interplay among key individuals engaged in activism through friendships the magical elixir of sustainable movement making. This compelling analysis is a must read! - Ron Hayduck, Professor of Political Science, Queens College, City University of New York, USA

Friendship is a central social and psychological force in people's lives. Yet it also has political dimensions, as Shepard so vividly demonstrates. Through his own personal stories, and interviews and biographl“$