Republic of Outsiders The Power of Amateurs, Dreamers, and Rebels

Alissa Quart

eBook - 2011

“Vivid portraits” of individuals and subcultures by a writer who “unmasks the assumptions we make about what counts as normal” (The New York Times). They are outsiders who seek to redefine fields from mental health to diplomacy to music. They push boundaries and transform ideas. They include filmmakers crowdsourcing their work, transgender and autistic activists, and Occupy Wall Street’s “alternative bankers.” These people create and package themselves in a practice cultural critic Alissa Quart dubs “identity innovation.” In this “fascinating” book, Quart introduces us to individuals who have created new structures to keep themselves sane, fulfilled, and, on occasion, paid. This deeply reported book shows how these... groups now gather, organize, and create new communities and economies. Without a middleman, freed of established media, and highly mobile, unusual ideas... more