Geography of Protest: Places of Demonstration in Buenos Aires and Seoul

Demonstrations shape the urban landscape and affect the normal functions of a city. They disrupt traffic, make marginalized people and neglected areas visible in city centers, and challenge élite designs of urban landscape both visually and functionally. Demonstrations question élite norms by using city space in nonconformist ways for making claims, and by charging places with demonstrators' own meanings. Differences between Buenos Aires and Seoul show that historically developed conventions and symbolic readings of city space matter in the strategic choice of places to protest. Yet most demonstration sites belong to the same major categories. Demonstrators may gather outside governmental buildings to communicate with the authorities; at centers of commercial activity to appeal to the public; to places that link them historically, culturally or morally with symbolically important events; or at places connected with a particular grievance. Along with local traditions, an internationally shared demonstration culture determines what kinds of places are suitable for demonstrations.