The social life of contentious ideas: piracy and unruly, translocal appropriation in the Arab Uprisings and beyond

This chapter argues for the relevance of piracy-the unruly, translocal and cross-border appropriation of "unpatented" models for contentious mobilization-in triggering, shaping and fortifying the mobilizing projects of early-riser activists. The chapter considers some central forms of piracy, undertaken by dissenting constituencies undergoing hegemonic disincorporation, in the Arab uprisings of 2011. Piracy brings amid uncertainty and risk a guide to mobilization, a basis of cohesion amid new connections, and an asymmetric strategy for previously fragmented and/ or weak actors. The chapter challenges standard studies of diffusion, faulting them for hydraulic and/or economistic approaches. Piracy can help explain the velocity, selectivity, many-headed-ness, and force of the translocal life of contentious ideas, shedding light on the rapid constitution of transgressive collective actors.