
Movement Media
In Pursuit of Solidarity
Rachel Kuo(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 9. October 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-19-769537-1 (ISBN)
Description
From newsletters and zines to hashtags and social media posts, social movements frequently generate and circulate media to define political goals, build solidarity, and articulate theories of change. These acts of media-making play a crucial role in developing relationships rooted in collective political visions across racial differences. Yet, in past and present movements, building solidarity across uneven race, class, and gender differences has often been a tenuous pursuit. How do social movements use media to create and sustain solidarity?
In Movement Media, Rachel Kuo assesses the possibilities and limitations of crafting solidarities across racialized differences through media-making processes and communications practices. Drawing on interviews, archival research, and ethnographic fieldwork, Kuo revisits key movements--Third World feminism, environmental justice, migrant justice, and police and prison abolition--to assess the mundane and less visible forms of movement building that help various groups navigate the politics of difference in theory and in practice. Kuo situates these movements alongside shifts in technological developments and the communication landscape, making the case that building and sustaining solidarity requires time and work to develop shared political analysis and practices.
As contemporary movements organize and struggle against the challenges of NGO-ization, neoliberal identity politics, private technologies, and liberal carceral reform--all of which seek to subsume and manage the efficacy of political organizing--Movement Media tells the important story of how communities build and sustain solidarity through media.
In Movement Media, Rachel Kuo assesses the possibilities and limitations of crafting solidarities across racialized differences through media-making processes and communications practices. Drawing on interviews, archival research, and ethnographic fieldwork, Kuo revisits key movements--Third World feminism, environmental justice, migrant justice, and police and prison abolition--to assess the mundane and less visible forms of movement building that help various groups navigate the politics of difference in theory and in practice. Kuo situates these movements alongside shifts in technological developments and the communication landscape, making the case that building and sustaining solidarity requires time and work to develop shared political analysis and practices.
As contemporary movements organize and struggle against the challenges of NGO-ization, neoliberal identity politics, private technologies, and liberal carceral reform--all of which seek to subsume and manage the efficacy of political organizing--Movement Media tells the important story of how communities build and sustain solidarity through media.
Reviews / Votes
By insisting on race as a critical analytic lens, Kuo demonstrates how political consciousness and communication in a digital landscape are always mediated through uneven power relations. This valuable contribution provides a profound understanding of social movements, past and present, and helps readers build their own political practice. * A. Hussien, CHOICE *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
549 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-769537-1 (9780197695371)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
03/2026
Oxford University Press Inc
€30.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Rachel Kuo is Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a co-founder of the Asian American Feminist Collective and founding member of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies. Her writing and commentary on race and politics has been published in several academic journals, including Journal of Communication; Media, Culture and Society; New Media and Society; Political Communication; and Frontiers: A Women's Studies Journal. Kuo's work has also been featured in The New York Times, CNN, NBC, NPR, and Teen Vogue.
Author
Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American StudiesAssistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Content
Acknowledgments Frequently Used Acronyms (In Order of Chronology) A Note on Sources Introduction: Movement Media 1: Making People, Making Politics 2: Building Women of Color Feminist Formations 3: Connecting Grassroots Networks 4: Movement Technology under the Shadow of Empire 5: Mediating Asian America in Political Relation Conclusion: In Pursuit of Solidarity Notes Index