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ABSTRACT. The article discusses the creativities of protest as phenomena of rhythm. Theoretically, I propose translating Cornelius Castoriadis' regional ontology of selves into a problematique of rhythms. I argue for an artisanal way of using the Castoriadian conceptual pair autonomy/heteronomy, focusing on moments rather than on entire societies. Furthermore, I introduce a notion of concentricity of rhythms that allows us to capture the polyrhythmic complexity of protest situations, which become psychic situations, involving presences, as well as absences, half-absences or spectres. Thus, I aim to contribute to a psychosocial understanding of the creativities of collective action. Finally, I analyse the concentricities of rhythm in a site of protest in Romania. The organisation Alburn us Maior protests against the project of a gold mine based on cyanide technologies. It performs a complicated political choreography, centred on the symbolic pair gold-death. Listening to the rhythms of the square enables a reflection on autonomy, recognition and post-oedipal politics.
Keywords: Cornelius Castoriadis, Henri Lefebvre, rhythm, radical social imaginaries, protest
Introduction: A Diagram of Rhythm* 1
Is there a rhythmic common thread connecting Tahrir Square, Syntagma Square, Puertas del Sol, Zuccotti Park and other places of mobilisation around the globe? While it is crucial to acknowledge the singularity of the rhythms of protest in each of these sites, what they share is a capacity to create strong political symbols, such as the "indignados" or "the 1%". Fredric Jameson argued that "[o]ne wants to think of formulations (and indeed diagrams) for collectivities that are at least as complex and stimulating as those of Lacan for the individual unconscious" (2004:405-406). He thus invited us to drawthe collective unconscious. In what follows, I discuss the problem of the formation of collective subjectivities2 in terms of the rhythmic emergence of the collective. My diagram of collectivity is a diagram of rhythms. In drawingthis diagram, I have two enduring commitments. One is to acknowledge the deep creativities3 of the new forms of mobilisation taking place in the past three years, and their potential in bringing about a redistribution of the sensible4 (Rancie?re, 2004) and in creating a new repertoire of political symbols. The other one is to trace the direction of this qualitative rupture as a phenomenon of rhythm: as a spacing of time,...