How the ‘Lejabys’ Came into Being: Artists and Workers in Struggle. A Spatio-Temporal Odyssey between ‘Mobilising’ and ‘Organising’

Abstract

Art and other creative approaches can be a resource or a mobilising strategy for activists and artists. Little work has been done, however, on what happens in the interactions between artists and activists in the daily life of a conflict. We suggest that social mobilisations may be seen as organising processes as well as mobilising actions, and we analyse how creative and artistic approaches may contribute to this organising/mobilising reciprocal relationship. Based on an analysis of the conflict that accompanied the announcement of the Lejaby plant closure in Yssingeaux in 2012, which inspired several artists, we show that these approaches, by their capacity to grasp sensitive dimensions, favour spatio-temporal episodes that structure the struggle: some constitute protected spaces, which can correspond to an intimate reflexive time or to a collective moment of synchronisation of subjective temporalities; others correspond to hybridised spaces, which can be sometimes empowering and sometimes theatrical. We thus contribute both to the field of social movement analysis and to the role of art and creativity in the organisation and mobilisation within these movements; we also contribute to a relational reading of the spatial and temporal dimensions of organisation and collective action, in the tradition of Lefebvre and Massey.