Jules Boykoff

Jules Boykoff is professor and chair of the Government and Politics Department at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. He is the author of "The Suppression of Dissent: How the State and Mass Media Squelch US American Social Movements" (2006), "Beyond Bullets: The Suppression of Dissent in the United States" (2007) and, "Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics" (2016). Boykoff is a former professional soccer player who represented the US Olympic Team in international competition.
Articles by this author
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Views Friday, July 20, 2012 Policing Dissent at London 2012 The Olympic Games are set to kick off in London, replete with a sheepalicious £27m opening ceremony choreographed by Danny Boyle. Boyle’s live-animal master-plans have raised the hackles of animal rights groups, but Olympics-induced dissent spans far beyond the Peta circuit. With a jaw-dropping five-ring price-tag, dodgy corporate sponsorships, a militarised public sphere, and a hyper-vigilant brand protection racket revving its corporate engine, it’s hard to blame Londoners for wanting to take to the streets. Read more |
Views Thursday, July 05, 2012 Olympian Arrogance While Europe roils in economic turmoil, London is preparing for a lavish jamboree of international good will: in a few weeks, the city will host the 2012 Summer Olympics. Read more |
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Views Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Protest Is Coming to the London Olympics To be in London, two months before the 2012 Summer Olympics, is to feel a bit like a fish in an aquarium, with people constantly poking at the glass. Cameras adorn nearly every street corner and police vehicles are more prevalent than double-decker buses. Read more |
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Views Sunday, April 22, 2012 Has London 2012 Been Greenwashed? The Olympic Games showcase exceptional athletic prowess under pressure. But to the chagrin of London 2012 organisers, a different sort of pressure has emerged: a clash between Olympic-style environmentalism and the corporate commercialism of the Games. Read more |
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Views Wednesday, April 04, 2012 'Celebration Capitalism' and the Real Cost of the Olympics The 2012 Olympics glimmer on London's horizon, but the Games are more than a smiley-faced sportstopia. The cost of hosting the Olympics has skyrocketed while private funders have evaporated, leaving the government holding the fiscal bag. Meanwhile, security officials have the green light to militarize the public sphere. Read more |
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Views Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Where Victors Are Victims: Santorum and Republican 'Dissent' Recently, while cavorting with a solemn band of pastors in McKinney, Texas, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum lashed out at the “secular left” as an atheist plague distilled into the human form of President Obama and his boosters. Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 12, 2011 Occupy Wall Street: Reclaiming Public Space, Reclaiming Dignity As the public-space prairie fire known as Occupy Wall Street spreads across the country from New York to Portland, it's becoming glaringly apparent activists are pinging the political target. In the face of both predictable right-wing detractors as well as high-profile liberals who want a crisp list of specific demands, activists have rejected top-down, slicker than slick press-release politics in favor of messy, slow, ground-up politics -- the essence of radical democracy. Because the movement is leaderless, it has left the media rudderless. Read more |
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Views Saturday, August 06, 2011 Why The Insurance Industry Gets Climate Change When it comes to climate change, the US Congress is a hornets' nest of political dysfunction. In May, President Barack Obama nominated energy executive John Bryson to lead the commerce department. Read more |
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Views Tuesday, June 28, 2011 Why the Insurance Industry Gets Climate Change When it comes to climate change, the US Congress is a hornets' nest of political dysfunction. Last month, President Barack Obama nominated energy executive John Bryson to lead the commerce department. From the response of congressional Republicans, you might have thought Obama had nominated Ed Abbey and Rachel Carson's imaginary love child. Read more |
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Views Saturday, May 21, 2011 US Military Goes to War with Climate Skeptics Federal legislation to combat climate change is quashed for the foreseeable future, scuttled by congressional climate cranks who allege the climate-science jury is still out. What's become clear is that, for some, the jury will always be out. We can't stack scientific facts high enough to hop over the fortified ideological walls they've erected around themselves. Fortunately, though, a four-star trump card waits in the wings: the US national security apparatus. Read more |