Infoshop
Encyclopedia
Social center
Social centers are community spaces. They are buildings which are used for a range of disparate activities, which can be linked only by virtue of being not-for-profit. They might be organizing centers for local activities or they might provide support networks for minority groups such as prisoners...
that serves as a node for the distribution of political information, typically in the form of books, zines, stickers and posters. Infoshops often serve as a meeting space and resource hub for local activist groups.
Infoshops are particularly prevalent in Western Europe and North America, but can be found around the world. According to an Utne Reader
Utne Reader
Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...
article, author Chris Atton
Chris Atton
Christopher Frank Atton is Professor of Media and Culture in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University...
describes British infoshops as having grown "out of the squatted anarchist centres of the 1980s, such as the 121 Centre in Brixton, London." Another big influence was the regular European-wide International Infoshop Meetings of the 1990s.
Writing in Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum RocknRoll
Maximum rocknroll is a widely distributed, monthly not-for-profit fanzine based in San Francisco, USA. It features interviews, columns, and reviews from international contributors...
, anarchist librarian Chuck Munson places North American infoshops in the lineage of Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
era peace and justice centers.
In June 2006, the Infoshop Network, a network spanning Canada and the United States, was formed at the Infoshop Gathering in Baltimore, Maryland.
List of infoshops
- 56A Infoshop, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... - ABC No RioABC No RioABC No Rio is a social center located at 156 Rivington Street on New York City's Lower East Side that was founded in 1980. It features a gallery space, a zine library, a darkroom, a silkscreening studio, and public computer lab...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... - Barricade BooksBarricade BooksBarricade Books is a New York, NY publishing house specializing in non-fiction books. Among its most famous publications is The Last Party, the memoir of Adele Morales about her marriage to author-playwright Norman Mailer....
, MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - The Big Idea Cooperative Cafe & Bookstore, Pittsburgh PA
- Blood Orange Infoshop, Riverside, CaliforniaRiverside, CaliforniaRiverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
- The Bloom Collective, Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
- BluestockingsBluestockings (bookstore)Bluestockings is an infoshop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Collectively run by volunteers and a worker-owner collective, Bluestockings is Manhattan's only women's bookstore...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... - Black Rose Collective, Portland, OR
- Boing Collective, Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
- Burning Books, Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
- Camas Infoshop, Victoria, BC
- Catalyst InfoshopCatalyst InfoshopThe Catalyst Infoshop is a volunteer-run activist center located in Prescott, Arizona. The Catalyst has been serving the needs of Yavapai County's community since 2004...
, Prescott, ArizonaPrescott, ArizonaPrescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s.... - Civic Media CenterCivic Media CenterThe Civic Media Center is a grassroots, community-based radical infoshop, an alternative library and reading room in Gainesville, Florida, United States...
, Gainesville, FloridaGainesville, FloridaGainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth... - Coffee StrongCoffee StrongCoffee Strong is a GI coffeehouse based on the tradition of resistance coffee houses opened during the Vietnam war by antiwar veterans and active duty soldiers. Based in Lakewood, WA it was founded in 2008 by veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its located within 300 meters of...
, Lakewood, WA - Cream City CollectivesCream City CollectivesThe Cream City Collectives are a volunteer-run collective space located at 732 E. Clarke St. in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It hosts The Mathilde Anneke Infoshop, the Milwaukee Screenprinting Collective, the CCC Gallery , and other groups that share the space for meetings and events. It opened its doors...
, Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the... - Documentations, Informations, Références et ArchivesDocumentations, Informations, Références et ArchivesDocumentations, Informations, Références et Archives , or DIRA, is an infoshop in downtown Montreal, Quebec. It serves as a free community lending library of books relevant to anarchism, and as a public archive of texts, flyers, videos, and other material produced by libertarian movements...
(DIRA), Montreal, Quebec - Firestorm Cafe & Books, Asheville, North CarolinaAsheville, North CarolinaAsheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
- Freedom ShopFreedom shopThe Freedom Shop is the name of an anarchist collective for the distribution of books and information based in Wellington New Zealand. It operates on a non profit basis, injecting income back into the project. They mainly sell books on anarchism, feminism, indigenous struggle, ecology and a range...
, WellingtonWellingtonWellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga... - Insoumise bookstoreInsoumise bookstoreMontreal's anarchist bookstore, Librairie l'Insoumise, is located downtown on Saint Laurent Boulevard. It opened in November 2004, several months after the closing of the Alternative bookshop...
, Montreal, Quebec - Internationalist BooksInternationalist BooksInternationalist Books and Community Center, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a volunteer operated infoshop, non-profit collective, and community center for local activists. The store name is a reference to the political philosophy of internationalism...
, Chapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill, North CarolinaChapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care... - Iron Rail Book CollectiveIron Rail Book CollectiveIron Rail Book Collective is an volunteer-run radical library and bookstore in New Orleans, Louisiana.The Iron Rail's main focus is as a lending library featuring a wide selection of books ranging from Anarchism and Socialism to Fiction to Gardening to Philosophy to name a few. The Iron Rail also...
, New Orleans - Ivar Matlaus Bokkafé, TrondheimTrondheimTrondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... - Jura BooksJura BooksJura Books is an anarchist bookshop and infoshop located in Sydney, Australia. The shop was named after the Jura federation. It has operated since August 1977, first on King Street, Newtown, before moving to Petersham....
, SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... - Laughing Horse Books, Portland, OR
- Left Bank Books, Seattle, WA
- Long Haul Infoshop, Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
- Lucy Parsons CenterLucy Parsons CenterThe Lucy Parsons Center, located in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, is an all-volunteer, nonprofit collective, operating as both a radical, independent bookstore and a community center for individuals to drop in, as well as a free meeting and event space for local activist groups.- History...
, Boston, Massachusetts - MonkeyWrench Books, Austin, TexasAustin, TexasAustin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
- The Old Market Autonomous ZoneThe Old Market Autonomous ZoneThe Old Market Autonomous Zone, or A-Zone, was founded in 1995, in Winnipeg, Canada by local activists Paul Burrows and Sandra Drosdowech, who also co-founded Winnipeg's Mondragon Bookstore. Its name is derived from "Old Market Square," the historic Exchange District in Winnipeg's downtown core...
, WinnipegWinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... - Red Emma's Bookstore CoffeehouseRed Emma's Bookstore CoffeehouseRed Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse is a radical infoshop located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA and run by a worker-owner collective. Named for anarchist firebrand Emma Goldman, Red Emma's opened in November 2004...
, Baltimore, Maryland - Salon MazalSalon MazalSalon Mazal is an infoshop in Tel Aviv, Israel. Its purpose is to spread information and raise awareness of issues related to social change, including human rights, animal rights, the environment, globalization, social and economic oppression, consumerism, feminism and gender issues...
, Tel AvivTel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... - Spartacus BooksSpartacus BooksSince 1973, Spartacus Books is a non-profit, volunteer and collectively run bookstore and resource centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and only one of its kind in the city. Located right on the edge of Vancouver's Eastside, Spartacus sells new and used books, zines, comics, magazines,...
, Vancouver, BC - Wooden Shoe BooksWooden Shoe BooksWooden Shoe Books & Records is an infoshop run on the principles of consensus decision-making by an all-volunteer anarchist collective in Philadelphia. It has existed for 34 years. The current storefront is located at 704 South Street.- History :...
, Philadelphia
See also
- Alternative information centreAlternative information centreThe alternative information centres were a feature of the anarcho-pacifist attempt at social engineering from the bottom up which took place from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s and which was referred to as the alternative society...
- AnarchismAnarchismAnarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
- Anarchist bookfairAnarchist BookfairThe Anarchist Bookfair is the name of several annual anarchist book fairs.The British Bookfair started in 1983, and it has become the largest anarchist event in the British calendar, and is a combination of stalls, talks and workshops by anarchist groups and campaigns.Most British anarchist groups...
- CrimethInc.CrimethInc.CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996...
External links
- Street Libraries: Infoshops and Alternative Reading Rooms
- The Infoshop Network (US & Canada)
- Comprehensive list of infoshops worldwide, via the Anarchist Yellow Pages.
- The Living Room documentary, a film about infoshop culture