Protesters often find themselves opposing the state or corporations. Usually they lack the material and symbolic resources the latter have at their disposal; yet, as my research examines, protesters can draw on alternative sources of symbolic power, such as images or popular music.

But how can we explain the symbolic power of art in collective action? Expanding on the work of music sociologist Tia DeNora, I propose that because protesters endue images, artifacts and music with meanings, these cultural artifacts acquire symbolic power over time.

From this follows a need to study what individuals and collectives do to music, images or objects to render them not only sensually but also emotionally effective.

My understanding of art is non-elitist: a collectively created aesthetic situation that facilitates bodily, political and social experimentation and, potentially, engenders cognitive and emotional reflection on the world among those who experience it.