The affective atmospheres of the Australian Freedom Movement: ‘unmasked, unvaxxed, unbothered’

This article analyses the ‘Convoy to Canberra’, a nationalistic ‘freedom protest’ that emerged in Australia in response to COVID-19 countermeasures, such as movement restrictions and vaccine mandates, which they called "Medical Apartheid". I argue that through the Convoy and its resulting...

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1. VerfasserIn: Gillespie, Liam (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2023
In: Criminological encounters
Jahr: 2023, Band: 6, Heft: 1, Seiten: 66-80
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Zusammenfassung:This article analyses the ‘Convoy to Canberra’, a nationalistic ‘freedom protest’ that emerged in Australia in response to COVID-19 countermeasures, such as movement restrictions and vaccine mandates, which they called "Medical Apartheid". I argue that through the Convoy and its resulting protest occupation, ‘Camp Freedom’, participants generated an affective atmosphere that not only challenged COVID-19 restrictions, but also allowed participants to performatively embody the very ‘freedom’ they perceived themselves as having lost. Drawing on insights from spatial and sensory criminology, I argue the atmosphere of the Convoy and Camp facilitated a series of favourable spatial and sensorial experiences through which ‘freedom’ could not only be performed, but also ostensibly recognised and thereby recuperated. I maintain that within the atmosphere of Camp Freedom, and the literal and figurative movement of the Convoy, the ‘unvaxxed’ body came to function as an ideal image of the nationalist self as such: a body that is free and unrestricted within the nation, and sovereign unto itself. This body, as articulated by the Australian Freedom Rally’s slogan, is one that is ‘Unmasked, Unvaxxed, Unbothered.’
Beschreibung:Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 77-79
Physische Details:Illustrationen
ISSN:2506-7583
DOI:10.26395/CE.2023.1.06