Introduction: Creative practices/resistant acts

In the opening of this special issue, we invite readers to consider, through the articles presented, how various modes of artistic expression and creative acts of resistance can lead to a better understanding of the nature and implications of political and social revolt, and how a focus on creative practices can be part of the wider debate in a time of uncertainty and unrest. The issue examines the important intersection between creative practices and acts of resistance from an interdisciplinary perspective with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Mediterranean regions. The introduction aims to frame the problems presented by the sphere of creative practices of resistance and clarify what is at stake with a view to providing impetus for further research into this critical aspect of contentious politics. It concludes by tracing how the general framing of the problems operates within and through the different articles.

This is a post–peer-review, precopyedited version of an article published in Contention: The Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Protest. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Hussein, N., & MacKenzie, I. (2017). Introduction, Contention, 5(1), 1-13 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.3167/cont.2017.050102