Time,Space,and Rationality: Rethinking Political Action through the Example of Montreal's Student Spring 1

Abstract

Because of a changing relationship with time, space, and affect in a more urbanized world, political actions and social movement practices have transcended the modern, state-oriented logic of action. Following this claim, this paper questions a specifically urban way of acting politically. To answer this question, we need to begin by “looking” for politics in the kinds of places that political scientists generally overlook for political analysis. Understanding the urban logic of political action cannot come solely from an observation of political campaigns, ideologies, political organizations, or interviews with social movement leaders. Using the 2012 student strike in Montreal as our focus, we are taking a different analytical angle that focuses more closely on the personal experience of participation, the personal trajectories of the participating students and the effect of this intense mobilization. This research project uses biometric tools, spatial data and qualitative data to investigate political participation and its relation to the city space.