Paper short abstract:

Protestors often perform their demonstrations within the framework of cultural narratives of knights and nobility, adopting shields as a projection of the individual’s identity. These devices bear the symbols that embody their ideology, even as they are used to protect their body from harm.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in citizen militia groups staging demonstrations and protests along ideological lines. Whether they are raging against the establishment in power, a perceived threat to their identity, biased police brutality, or an infringement upon what they see as their rights, these protestors often perform their demonstrations within the framework of cultural narratives of knights and nobility. Taking up shields and sometimes pieces of armor, they express a romanticized view of their struggle, warring against an inherently evil adversary. The shields are sometimes purchased, but just as often constructed. This presentation will explore the sources that these individuals draw from for their shield designs and training in their usage. Do the shapes of the shields carry a perceived meaning? How much is form and how much is function? What kind of background do the people who taught them to make these shields have and how has that reflected on their usage? In an era of Twitter and Instagram, how do so many learn to form a shield wall in the city streets? The shield is often a projection of the individual’s identity, bearing the symbols that embody their ideology, even as it is used to protect their body from harm.

Paper short abstract:

This paper puts forth an understanding of Colombian tropel as a bodily practice that beyond its form as a violent encounter and based on a performative understanding of it allows us to recognise its subversive potential stimulating reflection processes, questioning capitalism and power structures.

Paper long abstract:

Although violent encounters between hooded persons [the encapuchados] and Colombian police forces are a recurrent phenomenon, there are only few scholars that engage with the analysis of those confrontations commonly referred to as “tropeles”. At the National University of Colombia (UNAL) a particular kind, named organised tropeles, can be observed and call on critical social movement research to reflect on it in performative terms.

Based on ethnographic research conducted on the campus of the UNAL this paper shows that the tropel, understood as a performative ritual, allows us to gain an understanding of its deeper meaning beyond its surface understanding and common portrayal as a violent act.

With regard to the conceptions of body and spatiality it is argued that through tropeles the encapuchados call into question the social order. Through their practice, they are challenging manifestations of global capitalism and the Colombian state by making their bodies a site for the inscription and production of culture. Moreover, they temporarily transform the public space into an area of contention that redefines the occupation of space(s) understood as representative of the social order. It is discussed that these collective performances enacted by young militants have a community-building effect on the students of the university. The paper will show that these practices bear a subversive potential, which can challenge existing power structures, stimulate reflection processes, and initiate transformation. With this, the paper aims to present a new perspective on the tropeles in Colombia, currently absent from the recent discourse regarding this practice.

Paper short abstract:

Under the sparks of fire dressed up as devil, women defend their place in ​​folklore somehow at the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes. Likewise, on their disguise many of them, exploiting their public visibility and breaking the rules, wear symbols to claim for political and gender rights.

Paper long abstract:

Lately, fervor for traditional local festivals has

increased in Catalonia, specially devils and fire animals attract crowds

of people of all ages, who take to the streets to participate with

devotion in correfocs. A correfoc (literally “run fire”) is a festive

street event in which participants parade under the sparks of fireworks

borne by devils and other fantastic figures, emulating hell.

In a city of the conurbation of Barcelona, 40 years ago the willingness

of a few women to join a group of “run fire” and their impossibility to

do so led them to create their own female-only group. Its very existence

is a claim to women’s courage. The more so because in their parades they

stage the struggle between good and evil, yet they themselves somehow

represent evil, at a symbolic level, since women represent the evil

side, at the risk of reproducing gender stereotypes. What’s more, in a

night party context, they might be exposed to all sort of experiences,

reducing the risk thanks to sorority.

The paper presents the results of an ethnography carried out with this

group during 2019 on the framework of CHIEF (Cultural Heritage and

Identities of Europe’s Future) a HORIZON2020’s project. It analyses how

in the context of popular culture, these women legitimate an activity

aimed only at men and how taking advantage of their public visibility

and popularity, they use their costumes to claim for their political and

gender rights, breaking the established rules.