As the work of Crim­son His­to­ri­ans and Urban­ists shows, lim­it­ing roads to dis­cus­sions of mobil­i­ty would be neg­li­gent. After all, street spaces also act pri­mar­i­ly as spaces of protest. The street, closed off and swept emp­ty of traf­fic, becomes a stage for expres­sions of dis­con­tent­ment and dis­sat­is­fac­tion with state sys­tems or polit­i­cal deci­sions. Crimson’s work speaks of these strug­gles as well as of the dynam­ics and forces that are revealed here. The future of protest move­ments, they argue, is close­ly linked to the street as a place of assem­bly acces­si­ble to all. But this under­stand­ing is not a giv­en every­where. What hap­pens, for exam­ple, if sur­veil­lance gets out of hand? Or, Crim­son asks, will this be the very thing that trig­gers new protests?

Link to Audio guide