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Psychological contributions to social movement scholarship have disproportionately concentrated on a "politics of demand", rather than on a "politics of the act", or prefigurative politics. Prefigurative actors, rather than making demands of power-holders, take direct action aimed at creating change in the 'here and now' by constructing alternative modes of being and interacting that reflect a given movement's desired social transformations. Given that the prefigurative process takes place within and between individuals—with aims of changing the macrostructure by altering micro-relations—psychological perspectives are imperative to their understanding. Despite relevant theories and concepts, a psychology of prefiguration has yet to emerge. This theoretical discussion explores several reasons why prefigurative practices have been largely overlooked and at times misunderstood within mainstream social movement scholarship, traces the distinctive dimensions of prefiguration deserving of further (especially psychological) inquiry, and calls for methodological techniques both responsive to the context-driven nature of prefigurative praxis and consistent with the 'bottom-up' approach embodied within these unique spaces of resistance. After highlighting important points of disjuncture and possibility within the study of prefiguration, this discussion offers critical questions and methods aimed to envision and invigorate a critical psychology of prefigurative politics.

Psychological contributions to social movement scholarship have disproportionately concentrated on a "politics of demand", rather than on a "politics of the act", or prefigurative politics. Prefigurative actors, rather than making demands of power-holders, take direct action aimed at creating change in the 'here and now' by constructing alternative modes of being and interacting that reflect a given movement's desired social transformations. Given that the prefigurative process takes place within and between individuals—with aims of changing the macrostructure by altering micro-relations—psychological perspectives are imperative to their understanding. Despite relevant theories and concepts, a psychology of prefiguration has yet to emerge. This theoretical discussion explores several reasons why prefigurative practices have been largely overlooked and at times misunderstood within mainstream social movement scholarship, traces the distinctive dimensions of prefiguration deserving of further (especially psychological) inquiry, and calls for methodological techniques both responsive to the context-driven nature of prefigurative praxis and consistent with the 'bottom-up' approach embodied within these unique spaces of resistance. After highlighting important points of disjuncture and possibility within the study of prefiguration, this discussion offers critical questions and methods aimed to envision and invigorate a critical psychology of prefigurative politics. ; peerReviewed ; publishedVersion

It is difficult to imagine what life might be like without capitalism, patriarchy, and modernism, yet these systems did not always exist: they were built. As professional designers who want to work towards something different, what can we do? Some have turned to prefigurative politics for a path forward. Prefiguration is a political strategy of working towards social transformation by "building the new world in the shell of the old". For example: solidarity economies prefigure an economy based in cooperation rather than competition through shared ownership of production; and transformative justice initiatives prefigure a world without police by finding new ways for people to keep each other safe. These efforts question the fundamental values and beliefs underlying the oppressive systems we rely on today by building something different. This paper grapples with questions like: How have professional designers worked with prefigurative projects in the past? What roles do designers think we could play in prefigurative projects? When designerly frameworks and methods, timelines, partnerships and outcomes carry the baggage of an industrial field born out of capitalism and modernism, is it possible for a design practice to contribute towards building social systems based in fundamentally different values?

People living in systems of domination and exploitation resist in many different ways. Some modes of resistance build and experiment with alternatives to the present in various forms, from the small to the large, the hidden to the open. An overall term for these efforts is "constructive resistance," which covers initiatives in which people start to build the society they desire independently of the dominant structures already in place. This is initiatives which not only criticise, protest, object, and undermine what is considered undesirable and wrong, but simultaneously acquire, create, built, cultivate and experiment with what people need in the present moment, or what they would like to see replacing dominant structures or power relations. Within peace and conflict studies, this has been approached through Gandhi's concept of the constructive programme. In the anarchist and Marxists traditions and social movement literature, a related notion is prefigurative politics.

Activists have long justified their egalitarian organizational forms in prefigurative terms. Making decisions by consensus, decentralizing organization, and rotating leadership serves to model the radically democratic society that activists hope to bring into being. Our comparison of consensus-based decision-making in three historical periods, however, shows that activists have understood the purposes of prefiguration in very different ways. Whereas radical pacifists in the 1940s saw their cooperative organizations as sustaining movement stalwarts in a period of political repression, new left activists in the 1960s imagined that their radically democratic practices would be adopted by ever-widening circles. Along with the political conditions in which they have operated, activists' distinctive understandings of equality have also shaped the way they have made decisions. Our interviews with 30 leftist activists today reveal a view of decision-making as a place to work through inequalities that are informal, unacknowledged, and pervasive.

Desde el ciclo de las multitudes conectadas que arranca en 2011 con la Primavera Árabe o el 15M en el estado español, el #YoSoy132 en México en 2012 o #NuitDebout en Paris en 2016, las manifestaciones en las plazas alumbraron un devenir feminista de la acción colectiva que es simultánemante in situ y online (es decir, "onlife"). Los programas, la pertenencia identitaria, la adscripción a organizaciones y las figuras de liderazgo masculino han estado menos presentes que nun ca en estas protestas que con todas sus variantes comparten la exigencia democrática de tomar las riendas de la vida común. En el mismo sentido, aparecen nuevas politizaciones feministas que rompen los límites de las militancias, con llamados a la acción que no reconocen autoridad y que se expanden como constelaciones performativas. En 2016 y 2017, la ola de movilización global más relevante es precisamente esta andanada de nuevos feminismos transnacionales que irrumpen en las calles y en las redes poniendo la vulnerabilidad del cuerpo como base de la política, denunciando las violencias, y autoconvocándose a través de hashtags como la #PrimaveraVioleta en México en 2016, lemas como Ni Una Menos en 2017 o la Huelga de Mujeres en 2017 y 2018. Analizar las caracterísiticas de esta "feministización" de la política contenciosa es el objetivo de este artículo. ; Desde as multidões conectadas que tomam as praças e as redes (da Primavera Árabe em 2011 à #Nuit Debout em 2016), se desvela um tornar-se feminista e hacker de ação coletiva que é simultaneamente in situ e on line. Este artigo analisa as características desta "política de prefiguração" que é feminizada, que dá especial relevância ao "pessoal é político" na multiplicação das vozes e na não mediação, no contar e no fazer, em oposição aos modos de atuar da "política de organização", mais ideológicos, unitários e orientados aos fins. Ao mesmo tempo se revisa a emergência de constelações performativas e hashtags feministas que se estendem em redes livres de escala transnacionais, politizando a vulnerabilidades, como a #PrimaveraVioleta no México em 2016 ou a Greve de Mulheres de 2017 e 2018. ; From the connected crowds that have taken the squares and the networks (from the Arab Spring in 2011 to #NuitDebout in 2016), a feminist and hacker evolution of collective action that is simultaneous in situ and online is enlightened. This article analyzes the characteristics of this "politics of prefiguration" that is tendentially feminist, which gives special relevance to "the personal is political" in the multiplication of voices and non-mediation, in counting and doing, in opposition to the "politics of organization", more ideological, unitary and oriented towards ends. At the same time, it explores the emergence of performative constellations and feminist hashtags that extend into transnational networks, politicizing vulnerability, such as #PrimaveraVioleta in Mexico in 2016 or the Women Strike of 2017 and 2018.

From the connected crowds that have taken the squares and the networks (from the Arab Spring in 2011 to #NuitDebout in 2016), a feminist and hacker evolution of collective action that is simultaneous in situ and online is enlightened. This article analyzes the characteristics of this "politics of prefiguration" that is tendentially feminist, which gives special relevance to "the personal is political" in the multiplication of voices and non-mediation, in counting and doing, in opposition to the "politics of organization", more ideological, unitary and oriented towards ends. At the same time, it explores the emergence of performative constellations and feminist hashtags that extend into transnational networks, politicizing vulnerability, such as #PrimaveraVioleta in Mexico in 2016 or the Women Strike of 2017 and 2018. ; Desde el ciclo de las multitudes conectadas que arranca en 2011 con la Primavera Árabe o el 15M en el estado español, el #YoSoy132 en México en 2012 o #NuitDebout en Paris en 2016, las manifestaciones en las plazas alumbraron un devenir feminista de la acción colectiva que es simultánemante in situ y online (es decir, "onlife"). Los programas, la pertenencia identitaria, la adscripción a organizaciones y las figuras de liderazgo masculino han estado menos presentes que nun ca en estas protestas que con todas sus variantes comparten la exigencia democrática de tomar las riendas de la vida común. En el mismo sentido, aparecen nuevas politizaciones feministas que rompen los límites de las militancias, con llamados a la acción que no reconocen autoridad y que se expanden como constelaciones performativas. En 2016 y 2017, la ola de movilización global más relevante es precisamente esta andanada de nuevos feminismos transnacionales que irrumpen en las calles y en las redes poniendo la vulnerabilidad del cuerpo como base de la política, denunciando las violencias, y autoconvocándose a través de hashtags como la #PrimaveraVioleta en México en 2016, lemas como Ni Una Menos en 2017 o la Huelga de Mujeres en 2017 y 2018. Analizar las caracterísiticas de esta "feministización" de la política contenciosa es el objetivo de este artículo. ; Desde as multidões conectadas que tomam as praças e as redes (da Primavera Árabe em 2011 à #Nuit Debout em 2016), se desvela um tornar-se feminista e hacker de ação coletiva que é simultaneamente in situ e on line. Este artigo analisa as características desta "política de prefiguração" que é feminizada, que dá especial relevância ao "pessoal é político" na multiplicação das vozes e na não mediação, no contar e no fazer, em oposição aos modos de atuar da "política de organização", mais ideológicos, unitários e orientados aos fins. Ao mesmo tempo se revisa a emergência de constelações performativas e hashtags feministas que se estendem em redes livres de escala transnacionais, politizando a vulnerabilidades, como a #PrimaveraVioleta no México em 2016 ou a Greve de Mulheres de 2017 e 2018.

The dissertation analyzes a recognized collective political actor in Egypt, the shabāb al-thawra – the revolutionary youth. The thesis posits that in order to understand the shabāb al-thawra political actor, it is necessary problematize "revolutionary youth" beyond its nominative sense. Instead, the concepts of "youth" and "revolutionary" are conceived as communities of practice, whereby "youth" represents a generational practice of activism and contestation, while "revolutionary" represents a prefigurative practice of the actor's conception of revolution. Proposing a theoretical framework that lies at the nexus of practice theory and social movement theory, the dissertation assesses the role of practices of "youth" and "revolutionary" in the construction of the shabāb al-thawra through culturalist analysis of the social movement. The analytical framework operationalizes social movement construction processes in order to understand how these are informed by practices of generational activism and prefiguration, using six key concepts directly derived from social movement theory: grievances, emotions, resources, collective identity, political opportunity, and strategy. Through narrative analysis of empirical materials gathered from fieldwork and qualitative techniques, the dissertation assesses three distinct chronological periods of the revolutionary youth movement's development: the period of 2005-2010, during which the movement's earliest organizations emerged; the 18 days of the 2011 uprising; and the period of 2011-2014, in which the social movement became a dominant actor in Egypt's political scene. By introducing practice theory into culturalist social movement analysis, the dissertation puts forth new conceptual and analytical tools that contribute both to the empirical study at hand as well as the literature on social movements in general, on youth movements more particularly, and the state of the art on the shabāb al-thawra.

'Prefigurative politics' has become a popular term for social movements' ethos of unity between means and ends, but its conceptual genealogy has escaped attention. This article disentangles two components: an ethical revolutionary practice, chiefly indebted to the anarchist tradition, which fights domination while directly constructing alternatives; and prefiguration as a recursive temporal framing, unknowingly drawn from Christianity, in which a future radiates backwards on its past. Tracing prefiguration from the Church Fathers to politicised re-surfacings in the Diggers and the New Left, I associate it with Koselleck's 'process of reassurance' in a pre-ordained historical path. Contrasted to recursive prefiguration are the generative temporal framings couching defences of means-ends unity in the anarchist tradition. These emphasised the path dependency of revolutionary social transformation and the ethical underpinnings of anti-authoritarian politics. Misplaced recursive terminology, I argue, today conveniently distracts from the generative framing of means-ends unity, as the promise of revolution is replaced by that of environmental and industrial collapse. Instead of prefiguration, I suggest conceiving of means-ends unity in terms of Bloch's 'concrete utopia', and associating it with 'anxious' and 'catastrophic' forms of hope.

This paper investigates how the prefiguration of an alternative future by social movements produces new space through a processual dynamic. A case study of the Indignados movement in Barcelona shows how mobilizations evolved from symbolizing an alternative future in the square to constructing alternatives in the city in the post-encampment period. In the alternative projects forged during the post-square period, activists re-appropriated urban spaces and transformed them, wanting to live differently and to produce a radically different city, now. We conceptualize these new spaces as 'prefigurative territories', integrating the seemingly divergent anarchist-inspired theory of prefiguration with Lefebvre's Marxist theory of space production. This integration helps to capture how participants strategized the type of evolution of the movement after the square as well as the type of space being produced. While the square's encampment was a détournement of a capitalist space with limited spatial creativeness, in post-square counter-spaces the prefiguration of a different society takes an offensive stance, setting concrete objectives to counter-plan the state's organization of space. Counter-spaces arise through a dialectical movement that preserves the first two dimensions of prefiguration, a consistency between means and ends and a proleptic foretaste of the future society, that realize and become the third dimension of created alternatives. This dialectical movement unfolds through three processes: experimentation, demonstration, and proliferation through 'open prefiguration'. Prefigurative territories, we argue, signal strategic horizons, but members struggle with conflicts when opening up.

This book chapter is in closed access until 18 months after publication. ; This paper brings anarchist perspectives to bear on the Charles Mills' and Carole Pateman's critical review of Rawlsian contract theory to explore the possibility of re-appropriating 'master's tools' to advance radical change. It uses a concept of prefiguration to consider how activists operate within the framework of the state to promote libertarian politics and it recovers an anarchist conception of free agreement to explore the theoretical grounding of this activism. The argument is that the state is re-imagined through the active contestation of the powers states reserve to determine the rightness of actions and the underpinning principles of justice. The argument has three parts. The first discusses Charles Mills' analysis Rousseau's contract theory to redress structural domination as an exemplary model of contemporary theoretical reimaging. The second part of the paper develops a critique of Mills' position, drawing on the work of Carole Pateman and Martin Buber. The final section discusses the reclamation of the state's powers through direct action.

International audience ; This contribution advances a theoretical-methodological proposal for the study of ecological prefiguration, which is a form of environmental activism inspired by ecologism and characterized by an interstitial vision of social change conducive to the creation of alternative, socially and ecologically sustainable local economies. After a discussion of the current approaches to ecological prefiguration as «ecotopia» and «new environmentalism of everyday life», the article introduces an "ontological politics" perspective, centered upon, on the one hand, the analysis of the alternative value practices "performed" in prefigurative initiatives and, on the other hand, the imaginaries that relate them to a vision of ecological society. The focus on the ontological dimension shows that what is at stake in ecological prefiguration is not so much the realization of an anticipated future in the present but rather the disclosure of a potential of ontological alternative that is already inherent in the present, and whose activation allows to open a space for the radical imagination of the future. At the same time, as we discuss starting from the case of the "ecotopian" movement of permaculture, this perspective provides some interpretative keys to understand the different "transgressive" potential of ecological prefiguration initiatives. ; L'articolo avanza una proposta teorico-metodologica per lo studio della prefigurazione ecologica, cioè quel tipo di attivismo ambientalista ispirato dall'ecologismo e caratterizzato da una visione interstiziale del cambiamento sociale, che si concretizza nella creazione di economie locali alternative, socialmente ed ecologicamente sostenibili. Dopo una discussione dei principali approcci alla prefigurazione ecologica come «ecotopia» e come «nuovo ambientalismo del quotidiano», l'articolo presenta una prospettiva di "politica ontologica", incentrata, da un lato, sull'analisi delle pratiche alternative del valore "performate" nelle iniziative di prefigurazione ...

International audience ; This contribution advances a theoretical-methodological proposal for the study of ecological prefiguration, which is a form of environmental activism inspired by ecologism and characterized by an interstitial vision of social change conducive to the creation of alternative, socially and ecologically sustainable local economies. After a discussion of the current approaches to ecological prefiguration as «ecotopia» and «new environmentalism of everyday life», the article introduces an "ontological politics" perspective, centered upon, on the one hand, the analysis of the alternative value practices "performed" in prefigurative initiatives and, on the other hand, the imaginaries that relate them to a vision of ecological society. The focus on the ontological dimension shows that what is at stake in ecological prefiguration is not so much the realization of an anticipated future in the present but rather the disclosure of a potential of ontological alternative that is already inherent in the present, and whose activation allows to open a space for the radical imagination of the future. At the same time, as we discuss starting from the case of the "ecotopian" movement of permaculture, this perspective provides some interpretative keys to understand the different "transgressive" potential of ecological prefiguration initiatives. ; L'articolo avanza una proposta teorico-metodologica per lo studio della prefigurazione ecologica, cioè quel tipo di attivismo ambientalista ispirato dall'ecologismo e caratterizzato da una visione interstiziale del cambiamento sociale, che si concretizza nella creazione di economie locali alternative, socialmente ed ecologicamente sostenibili. Dopo una discussione dei principali approcci alla prefigurazione ecologica come «ecotopia» e come «nuovo ambientalismo del quotidiano», l'articolo presenta una prospettiva di "politica ontologica", incentrata, da un lato, sull'analisi delle pratiche alternative del valore "performate" nelle iniziative di prefigurazione ...

'Prefigurative politics' has become a popular term for social movements' ethos of unity between means and ends, but its conceptual genealogy has escaped attention. This article disentangles two components: (a) an ethical revolutionary practice, chiefly indebted to the anarchist tradition, which fights domination while directly constructing alternatives and (b) prefiguration as a recursive temporal framing, unknowingly drawn from Christianity, in which a future radiates backwards on its past. Tracing prefiguration from the Church Fathers to politicised resurfacings in the Diggers and the New Left, I associate it with Koselleck's 'process of reassurance' in a pre-ordained historical path. Contrasted to recursive prefiguration are the generative temporal framings couching defences of means-ends unity in the anarchist tradition. These emphasised the path dependency of revolutionary social transformation and the ethical underpinnings of anti-authoritarian politics. Misplaced recursive terminology, I argue, today conveniently distracts from the generative framing of means-ends unity, as the promise of revolution is replaced by that of environmental and industrial collapse. Instead of prefiguration, I suggest conceiving of means-ends unity in terms of Bloch's 'concrete utopia', and associating it with 'anxious' and 'catastrophic' forms of hope.