Seizing the Square: 1989 Protests in China and Germany From a Global Perspective

241 Pages·2020·14.117 MB·English

by  Daniel Palm

Daniel Palm
Seizing the Square
SpatioTemporality /
RaumZeitlichkeit
Practices – Concepts – Media /
Praktiken – Konzepte – Medien
Edited by / Herausgegeben von
Sebastian Dorsch, Barbel Frischmann, Holt Meyer,
Susanne Rau, Sabine Schmolinsky,
Katharina Waldner
Editorial Board
Jean-Marc Besse (Centre national de la recherche scientifique de Paris),
Petr Bilek (Univerzita Karlova v Praze), Fraya Frehse (Universidade de São
Paulo), Harry Maier (Vancouver School of Theology), Elisabeth Millán (De-
Paul University, Chicago), Simona Slanicka (Universität Bern), Jutta Vinzent
(University of Birmingham), Guillermo Zermeño (Colegio de México)
Volume / Band 9
Daniel Palm
Seizing
the Square
1989 Protests in China and Germany
from a Global Perspective
This book is an edited version of a dissertation manuscript defended at the University of
Bremen. The chapter “On the SpaceTime of 1989” was written to fit the script into the book
series “Spatiotemporality”.
Printed with the financial support of the Erfurter RaumZeit-Forschung (ERZ) / Erfurt
Spatio-Temporal Studies Group at the University of Erfurt in Germany and the Sciencefunding
Erfurt gGmbH.
ISBN 978-3-11-068246-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-068260-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-068268-7
ISSN 2365-3221
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940754
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Photograph on the book cover: Kyiv, 2014 (author’s photograph)
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Contents
Introduction 1
I On the SpaceTime of 1989 16
I. Germany’s very own Peaceful Revolution 19
I. Modernization Tales for Tiananmen 24
I. Framing a Global SpaceTime for 1989 29
II Towards the Global Moment of 1989 45
II. Economic Globalization during the 1980s 46
II. The End of the Cold War 58
II. Rising Global Civil Society 66
II. Globalization and its Local Discontents in 1989 75
III The Global Moment of 1989 in Leipzig and Beijing 77
III. Reaching Out from the Pockets of Civil Society 77
III. Chasing the Moment in 1989 93
III. Towards the Fall of 1989 108
IV Producing Counter-spaces on the Squares in 1989 121
IV. The Enduring Occupation of Tiananmen 121
IV. The Rhythmic Claim to Nikolaikirchhof in Leipzig 141
IV. The Dominion of Representational Space in 1989 159
IV. Globalization and the SpaceTime of 1989 184
Lessons from 1989 for 2011 and after 188
Counter-spaces in Twenty-first Century Globalization 190
Euromaidan’s Transnational Entanglements 193
Being in Kyiv in 2014 197
Towards a Contemporary History of Seizing the Square 203
Acknowledgements 209
Bibliography 210
List of abbreviations 228
Index 229

To those who struggle

Introduction
When the bell of the city hall in Frankfurt am Main struck six, police units in
helmets and armor surrounding the central square engaged. They first broke
through the sitting blockades and then immediately tore down the camp made
outoftentsandanyothermaterial protestershad athand.The subsequentdis-
similationofthealternativespacesetuponthesquarewasthorough.Withinthe
hour,nothingoftheoccupationremained.Onlyfor abriefandexceptionalmo-
mentintimewouldimagesoftheseizedsquaretravelacrosstheworldtodisplay
themanifestdiscontentinFrankfurtatausteritymeasuresafterthefinancialcri-
sis. By the end of the day,protests fromacross Europe reachingout to aglobal
audiencehaddispersed.Andthoughtheoccupationofthesquaredidnotlast,it
had mirrored an insistent claim that things could be different. For a brief mo-
ment,thoseseizingthesquarehadcreatedaspacetodemandchangeinglobal
affairs.Their capacity to enforce that change, however,proved to be limited.
Thebroadrangeofliteratureonprotestsandglobalizationnotwithstanding,
theanswertothequestionofwhatitmeans–politically–toseizeasquareinan
increasinglyinterconnectedworldremainsanopenone.Protestsin2011onTah-
rir in Cairo, and later on Maidan in Kyiv, or Taksim in Istanbul were primarily
discussed in terms of national or democratic trajectories. Less attention has
beenpaidtotheroleofthecitysquareitself.¹Andwithregardtoglobalization,
protests seizing squares have only recently been of interest to scholars.² Prede-
cessors, like in 1989, remain stuck in narrations of nation. This book argues
that the space produced on the squares is of crucial importance to understand
political dynamics in a globalizing world. Since the 1970s, globalization pres-
sures have been translated into protests seizingsquares,which in turn have af-
 For literature discussing the relationship of protests and space more generally, see Tilly,
Charles.SpacesofContention.Mobilization:AnInternationalQuarterly5:2(2000):135–159;Sew-
ell,William.SpaceinContentiousPolitics.InSilenceandVoiceintheStudyofContentiousPol-
itics.DoughMcAdam,SidneyTarrow,andCharlesTilly(eds.).CambridgeUniversityPress,2001,
51–88; Routledge, Paul.Convergence Space: Process Geographies of Grassroots Globalization
Networks.InteractionsoftheInstituteofBritishGeographers28:3(2003):333–349;Martin,Debor-
ahG.,andByronMiller.SpaceandContentiousPolitics.Mobilization:AnInternationalQuarterly
8:2(2003):143–156;Leitner,Helena,EricSheppard,andKristinSziarto.TheSpatialitiesofCon-
tentiousPolitics.TransactionsoftheInstituteofBritishGeographers33:2(2008):157–172.
 Tejerina, Benjamin, Ignacia Perugorría, and Tova Benski. From indignation to occupation:
Anewwaveofglobalmobilization.CurrentSociology61:4(2013):377–392;dellaPorta,Donatel-
la.SocialMovementsinTimesofAusterity.BringingCapitalismbackintoProtestAnalysis.Cam-
bridge:Polity,2015;MarliesGlasiusandGeoffreyPleyers.TheGlobalMomentof2011:Democra-
cy,SocialJusticeandDignity.DevelopmentandChange44:3(2013):547–67.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110682601-001