Infoshop

Image:Left Bank Books Seattle.jpg, 2006.]]

An infoshop (the word being a portmanteau of information and shop) is a physical space where people can access radical ideas through flyers, posters, zines, pamphlets and books. It also provides a space to meet other people and in some cases to organise events such as meetings or fundraisers.{{cite book |last1=Olson |first1=Joel |editor1-last=Amster |editor1-first=Randall |editor2-last=DeLeon |editor2-first=Abraham |editor3-last=Fernandez |editor3-first=Luis A. |editor4-last=Nocella III |editor4-first=Anthony J. |editor5-last=Shannon |editor5-first=Deric |chapter=The Problem with Infoshops and Insurrection: U.S. Anarchism, Movement-Building, and the Racial Order |title=Routledge |location=Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Anthology of Anarchy in the Academy |isbn=9780415474023 |page=40|year=2009 }} Some infoshops have computers, copy machines and printers so that pamphlets, position papers, articles, magazines, and newspapers can be created and then circulated between the network of spaces.{{cite book |last1=Katsiaficas |first1=George |title=The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday life |date=1997 |isbn=9781904859-536 |page=190|publisher=AK Press }}

Academic Chris Atton describes the infoshop as a "forum for alternative cultural, economic, political and social activities."{{cite book |last1=Atton |first1=Chris |title=Alternative Media |url=https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto |url-access=limited |date=2010 |publisher=Sage |isbn=9780761967705 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto/page/n56 48]}} For example, in a flyer announcing its planned activities, the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) stated it would make available locally produced arts and crafts, records, T-shirts, badges, books, zines and information. When it opened the following year, ACE provided flyers, leaflets, newsletters, magazines and journals about causes such as antivivisectionism, anti-monarchism, hunt sabotage and jobseeker's allowance advice.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1177/1206331205277350 | title=Networked Communities| journal=Space and Culture| volume=8| issue=3| pages=286–301| year=2005| last1=Lacey| first1=Anita| bibcode=2005SpCul...8..286L| s2cid=145336405}}

Like social centres, infoshops vary in size and function depending on local context. Many contemporary anarchists first come into contact with radical politics through an infoshop.{{cite book |last1=Shannon |first1=Deric |editor1-last=Amster |editor1-first=Randall |editor2-last=DeLeon |editor2-first=Abraham |editor3-last=Fernandez |editor3-first=Luis A. |editor4-last=Nocella III |editor4-first=Anthony J. |editor5-last=Shannon |editor5-first=Deric |chapter=As beautiful as a brick through a bank window: Anarchism, the academy, and resisting domestication |title=Routledge |location=Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Anthology of Anarchy in the Academy |isbn=9780415474023 |page=183|year=2009 }}

Infoshops tend to be run on a voluntary basis by a non-hierarchical collective. The spaces are non-profit and self-managed.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1108/03074809910248564 |title = The infoshop: The alternative information centre of the 1990s|journal = New Library World|volume = 100|pages = 24–29|year = 1999|last1 = Atton|first1 = Chris}}

In the United Kingdom, early antecedents of infoshops were the radical presses such as Giles Calvert's printshop (1600s) and John Doherty's coffee house (1830s).{{cite book |last1=Atton |first1=Chris |title=Alternative Media |url=https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto |url-access=limited |date=2010 |publisher=Sage |isbn=9780761967705 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto/page/n61 53]}} More recently, infoshops were associated with squatted anarchist social centres such as the 121 Centre in Brixton, London{{cite book |last1=Atton |first1=Chris |title=Alternative Media |url=https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto |url-access=limited |date=2010 |publisher=Sage |isbn=9780761967705 |page=[https://archive.org/details/alternativemedia00atto/page/n55 47]}} and the Free Information Network (FIN).

Writing in Maximumrocknroll in the 1990s, Chuck Munson placed North American infoshops in the lineage of peace and justice community centres and acknowledged the influence of European social centres.{{cite news |last1=Munson |first1=Chuck |title=Your Friendly Neighborhood Infoshop |url=http://practicalanarchy.org/infoshops.html |access-date=25 July 2019 |work=Maximum RocknRoll |date=January 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010204062900/http://practicalanarchy.org/infoshops.html |archive-date=4 February 2001}} Munson also stated there were over 60 infoshops (infoladen) in Germany which were connected to the anarchist, autonomist, squatting and punk movements.

File:The 1 in 12 Club.jpg.]]

Self-managed social centres in Italy, such as Forte Prenestino in Rome, often contain infoshops.

Social centres in the United Kingdom often contain infoshops, such as for example the Cowley Club in Brighton and the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford. There is also the 56a Infoshop in London.{{cite journal |last1=Firth |first1=Rhiannon |title=Critical cartography as anarchist pedagogy? Ideas for praxis inspired by the 56a infoshop map archive |journal=Interface: A Journal for and About Social Movements |date=2014 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=156–184}} In the mid-2000s, as well as these spaces, there were infoshops in Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and Nottingham.

In the 1990s, there were the following infoshops in North America: 223 Center (Portland, Oregon); 404 Willis (Detroit); A-Space (Philadelphia); Arise! Bookstore & Resource Center (Minneapolis); Autonomous Zone (Chicago); Beehive Infoshop (Washington DC); Blackout Books (New York City); Crescent Wrench Infoshop (New Orleans); Croatan (Baltimore); Emma Center (Minneapolis); Epicenter (San Francisco); Long Haul (Berkeley); Lucy Parsons Center (Cambridge); Mayday Books (Minneapolis); Who's Emma (Toronto); Wooden Shoe Books (Philadelphia).{{cite news |last1=Dodge |first1=Chris |title=Street Libraries: Infoshops and Alternative Reading Rooms |url=http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/infoshop.html |access-date=25 July 2019 |work=Utne Reader |date=1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027155038/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/infoshop.html |archive-date=2009-10-27}}

Elsewhere in the world, projects include Jura Books in Australia, Salon Mazal in Israel and Freedom Shop in New Zealand.

Related projects include anarchist archives, bunkos in Japan and community libraries.

File:Lucy Parsons Center panoramic.jpg in Boston, United States.]]

{{Portal|Anarchism|Libertarianism|Communism|Socialism|Organized Labor|Society}}

{{Commons category|Infoshops}}

• Arts centre
• Anarchist bookfair
• Cultural centre
• CrimethInc.
• :Category:Infoshops, notable infoshops
• Zine library

{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://slingshotcollective.org/radical-contact-list/ Slingshot contact list] (updated 2019).
• [https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/category/book-shop-info-shop-library Radar directory of infoshops] (updated 2019).
• [http://www.spunk.org/texts/contacts/sp001700/direct.html Directory of infoshops] (last updated 1997).
• [http://www.tangledwilderness.org/infoshops/ Infoshops in North America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326121237/http://www.tangledwilderness.org/infoshops/ |date=2015-03-26 }} (last updated 2015).
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20150815054656/http://infoshopnetwork.org/infoshops/regional/index.html Infoshops by region] (archived 2015).
• [http://www.livingroomdocumentary.org/ Living Room Documentary] – A documentary film about infoshop culture (2006).
• [http://anarchisthistory.noblogs.org/post/2015/03/18/new-zine-the-a-zone-a-decade-of-anarchy-in-chicago/ The A-Zone & A Decade Of Anarchy In Chicago] – A zine about the Autonomous Zone in Chicago (re-released 2015).

{{Infoshops|state=expanded}}

{{Anarchism}}

Category:Anarchist movements

Category:DIY culture

Category:Squatting

Category:Anarchist terminology