The chapters we have collected here offer a polyphonic response to the feminist questions of protest camps we asked in the Introduction. They showcase a range of feminist theoretical and methodological frameworks that collectively reach towards a broadly intersectional or decolonial approach, along with case studies of camps from past and present, and from around the world. Notably, the chapters consider both Cold War western women-only peace camps and mixed-gender camps from the recent ‘global wave’ and beyond, previously studied in largely distinct sets of scholarly research. Together, our contributors reveal fresh insights into how camps are sites of both gendered politics and of feminist activism; they draw on feminist theoretical frameworks to develop new ways of assessing the limitations and possibilities of the protest camp form; and they spotlight the complex legacies of past camps for feminist theory and practice today.

This conclusion draws out some of the cross-cutting insights from the chapters, in two sections. First we consider several ways in which the feminist orientation of our authors produces new lines of sight into the politics of protest camps. Second we reverse our focus and reflect on how grounding the analysis in protest camp politics generates new perspectives on feminist theory and practice.

Rethinking protest camps

So how does the feminist perspective adopted in this book – and the specific feminist approaches of our authors – help us see protest camps differently? We organise the following discussion in terms of power, space, the body and language.

Power

To begin with, the chapters draw our attention to the persistence, complexity and granularity of power relations within protest camps. Like the social movements in which they are embedded, camps do not transcend the power dynamics in wider society that activists may seek to overturn but are often mired within them, in ways that constrain activist interactions with each other in the camp and their broader sustainability and effectiveness. This phenomenon is illustrated vividly in the chapters on mixed-gender camps.