Riotous Epistemology: Open Referentiality and Reconfigured Temporalities in AK Thompson's Black Bloc, White Riot
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This paper suggests that AK Thompsons text be viewed through the twin lenses of what I describe as open referentiality and reconfigured temporalities in order to broadly understand the pedagogical and epistemological contributions of his work. I argue that Thompsons work, at the pedagogical level, provides several reference points through which readers are invited to consider how theories, concepts, and the traditions that they are embedded in can be reinterpreted in the context of contemporary forms of social struggle, protest, demonstrations, and direct action. I connect the pedagogical aspects of Thompsons work to their epistemological underpinnings arguing that Thompsons work produces a phenomenology of thought and action that, taken in consort with his pedagogical invitation to reconsider aspects of radical and critical traditions, provides a riot in the epistemological frameworks that settle or partition (radical and critical) traditions of thought. I explore this idea by discussing how Black Bloc White Riot provided a means for me to rethink the contributions of Antonio Gramsci to contemporary social movement studies. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org 2021 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.] KEYWORDS: AK Thompson, Black Bloc White Riot, Critical Theory, Radical Theory, Direct Action, Antonio Gramsci.
