The ambivalence of creative activism as a reorganization of critique

Abstract

This article identifies an emerging type of critique and defines it as creative activism. It is argued why this is distinguishable from earlier similar forms of protests and shown why traditional theories of political art, social movements and citizenship are in themselves insufficient to accurately describe and understand the normative ambivalence of what is also known as culture jamming. Irony and utopia are proposed as analytical concepts supplementing these existing theoretical frameworks. It is also demonstrated how these alternative perspectives can be fruitfully applied to understand the reorganization of critique regardless of whether one views creative activism suspiciously as a societal symptom or more optimistically as a democratic potential.