How Storytelling Drives Activism and Resistance? : Mobilization behind the Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation

Abstract: This thesis focuses on the stories of activists in Kosovo and why and how they resist in a context where powerful actors increasingly use strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) as a new mode of exercising power. The thesis seeks to understand resistance and new ways of exercising resistance in the context of SLAPP. Resistance is conceptualized using Hannah Arendt’s notion of storytelling as an inspiration. The importance of storytelling as a new way of resisting SLAPP lawsuits and the role of social media today in raising public attention and awareness. A qualitative design is applied to understand the stories of activists. More specifically, the thesis uses social constructivism and the hermeneutic circle as a basis for the research. The thesis concludes by analyzing and discussing why and how actors resist and what they do to counter SLAPP.  Five implications for resistance are drawn here: what provokes activism and resistance in the first place, natality as an occurrence that invokes resistance, storytelling as a mechanism for creating a common space and connecting others by creating alliances, establishing boundaries, and creating friend vs enemy positions at the end.