Insubordinate Spaces

“Cynics beware! Insubordinate Spaces takes us to sites and stories of imagination, hope, and possibility. Tomlinson and Lipsitz show how everyday practices of defiance and opposition—within indigenous-led struggles over land and sovereignty, liberatory visions of Latinx cultural workers, new ways of being and knowing in the university, and bold challenges to state violence—transform relations of domination into new horizons of freedom. A book demanded by the crisis of our times.”
—Daniel Martinez HoSang, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race and Migration at Yale University and co-author of Producers, Parasites and Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity

“Insubordinate Spaces is, at once, an emotional and intellectually clarifying work. Tomlinson and Lipsitz capture the desperation we feel as we witness the persistent suffering among the global poor, continued police killings of black and brown peoples, and the degradation of our most vulnerable. Sadness and horror surround us. The past few decades have left many of us feeling tired and distressed as we have engaged and supported varying and seemingly disparate actions and efforts for change, with little end to the trauma in sight. Yet, Tomlinson and Lipsitz make clear that these struggles are not in vain. Insubordinate Spaces helps us to make sense of our anguish, untangle the thread that connects multiple acts of resistance, and illuminate the meaning of contemporary collective engagement.”
— Jennifer F. Hamer, Vice Provost, Office of Diversity and Equity, and Professor in the Departments of American Studies and African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, and editor of the journal, Women, Gender, and Families of Color

"(A) well-written addition to Temple University’s series on social justice movements.... Insubordinate Spaces provides intimate stories and firsthand accounts plus a wide-ranging bibliography of several progressive social movements.... (T)his (is) a cultural study more than a sociology of social movements. Summing Up: Recommended."
— Choice

" (A) timely examination of social justice framed in the dialogue of insubordinate spaces, accompaniment, and improvisation.... The book is well written and clearly organized.... (and) creates a rich playing ground for critical thinking."
—Contemporary Sociology

"Drawing on a wide range of social justice scholarship amply discussed in the book, the authors argue that it is exactly these dire and subordinating circumstances that have provoked the emergence of insubordinate spaces and currents of resistance.... (T)he theoretical frameworks and the thoroughly researched and immensely informative examples of political movements add up to a very engaging publication."
—Samples