This book discusses global dynamics behind the synchronous outburst of protests in China and Germany in 1989 and the local acts of dissent on the squares comparatively. It breaks with the national timelines protests in 1989 have so far been identified with and offers insights into the spatial manifestation of the global moment of 1989. Concluding on the importance of the "SpaceTime" on the seized squares in 1989, it also discusses more recent protests forming on city squares. Offering a global perspective on a phenomenon that itself became global in the last decades, the book provides a view on globalization processes operating from below that puts the occupied space on city squares at the heart of interest.

• Contents 6
• Introduction 10
• I. On the SpaceTime of 1989 25
• II. Towards the Global Moment of 1989 54
• III. The Global Moment of 1989 in Leipzig and Beijing 86
• IV. Producing Counter-spaces on the Squares in 1989 130
• Lessons from 1989 for 2011 and after 197
• Acknowledgements 218
• Bibliography 219
• List of abbreviations 237
• Index 238