Todd Suomela's Library tagged social-movement →  View Popular, Search in Google

"The question of how such coded language emerges, spreads and evolves is a big one. I am interested in a very specific question: how do members of an emerging subculture recognize each other in public, especially on the Internet, using more specialized coded language?

The question is interesting because the Web is making traditional subcultures - historically illegible to governance mechanisms, and therefore hotbeds of subversion - increasingly visible and open to cheap, large-scale economic and political exploitation. This exploitation takes the form of attention mining, and is the end-game on the path to what I called Peak Attention a while back.

Does this mean the subversive potential of the Internet is an illusion, and that it will ultimately be domesticated? Possibly."

internet culture subculture code code-words attention data-mining social social-networking social-media communication signals society power government facebook social-movement

"They are numerous and they are gaining confidence and pace. These are;

Social Innovation incubators
Movements for a specific solution"

social-movement innovation wall-street activism protests solutions

"Some things were broadly shared by “anarcho-liberals”: an anti-intellectualism that manifested itself in a rejection of “grand narratives” and structural critiques of capitalism, abhorrence for the traditional forms of left-wing organization, a localist impulse, and an individualistic tendency to conflate lifestyle choices with political action. The worst of both worlds, the “anarcho-liberal” can neither manage the capitalist state nor overcome it, and aspires to do both and neither at the same time."

culture-jamming tactics media anarchism liberalism political-science social-movement causation scale objects social-objects

"But, as they say, that was then. This is now. The call to “improvise” comes in an entirely different context than its predecessors of ’68 and the late 90s. The sustained civic engagement; the focus on economic rights; the olive branches extended to labor; the resurrection of the general strike; hell, just the phrase “we are the 99%,” all work in concord to dispel many of the problems exhibited by the anarcho-liberal. That having been said, there are obviously profound similarities in OWS’s refusal to make demands and the character of “post-territorial” or symbolic politics. Does this matter? Probably. One hopes that it foments significant discussion, disagreement, dialogue and reckonings with past mistakes. But these concerns — i.e., worry that engaging the question of “what next?” will be forestalled by placing organizational regard over the articulation of a platform — are not a call for a return to traditional forms of political engagement. "

wall-street protest activism culture-jamming tactics media anarchism liberalism political-science social-movement causation scale objects social-objects

"Although the term “Tactical Media” may be unfamiliar to some readers, its ethos and freight are in evidence in bookstores, classrooms, activist canteens, and artist co-ops. And doubly so a decade ago. The phenomenon arose in late 80s/early 90s, unnamed, in the unholy union of techno-anarcho utopians (think R. U. Sirius, the triumphalist techno-fetishist spirit of Mondo 2000, and the brashness of industrial avant-garde) and the ascendant mode of political pranking dubbed “culture jamming” (think Adbusters and anti-advertising/anti-consumerist sentiment). In both instances there was an enthusiasm for technology, tacticality, and autonomism. And again, in both instances micro-politics replaced the macro. These were movements more preoccupied with stealth and speed than with the lumbering political processes of yesteryear. "

culture-jamming tactics media anarchism liberalism political-science social-movement causation scale objects social-objects

"But the thing about this moment that I am trying to get at is that one doesn't need the right temperament in order to be carried along with the mass upheaval. To say, I'm sorry, this just isn't really my thing, is really nothing other than to say, I am an asshole, a wretch. And furthermore, fuck you. To say that this is just not one's thing would be morally the same as that puerile gesture of the Chicago stock traders who announced with a sign in the window of their skyscraper, We Are the 1%. To not acknowledge that the various Occupations are good and right is to side with those cretins. There's really no other choice. "

wall-street protest activism social-movement participation

politics organizing therapy relationship community opposition argument social-movement

politics organizing therapy relationship community opposition argument social-movement

"Direct Revolution"

politics political-science revolution social-movement theory history

politics political-science revolution social-movement theory history

politics political-science revolution social-movement history theory

A communication-centered explanation of the difficulty to reform Wall Street so far would depend largely on which view of public opinion and the nature of the public sphere (indeed, which view of democracy) you adopt.  University of Pennsylvania Provost and communication researcher Vincent Price (2008) usefully describes four models of the public sphere that could potentially apply to the U.S. at various points in the debate over financial reform and other issues:

public-sphere opinion public-opinion wall-street theory model movement social-movement

"Charles Tilly, the late Columbia sociologist, divided movements into three types, based on the policies they demand, the constituencies they claim to represent, and the identities they are trying to construct. Both the civil rights movement and the Tea Party combined the first and second goals. Occupy Wall Street is what we might call a "we are here" movement. Asking its activists what they want, as some pundits have demanded, is beside the point. Participants are neither disillusioned Obama supporters, nor or a "mob," as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor cynically described them. By their presence, they are saying only, "Recognize us!""

wall-street protests activism social-movement

"Not everything is included. It's politically imperative not to let Occupy Wall Street become an omnibus container for any and all political sentiments. Not every position should be welcomed, encouraged, or tolerated. How this plays out in the General Assemblies is an effect of the local cultures, the activists involved, the patterns of interaction. In NY, the power dynamics are already reflected upon in discussions and working groups. I expect this is also the case already in the other sites. In the same way that racism, sexism, and homophobia have no place in the movement, it should also be the case that libertarian, capitalist, and financialist attempts to interpret and guide the movement are rejected"

wall-street activism protests class class-war rhetoric politics social-movement meaning

1. they chose the right target
2. they made a great poster
3. they gave their action time to build
4. they created a good scenario for conflict
5. they are using their momentum to escalate

wall-street protests activism social-movement growth propaganda

protests activism wall-street organizing movement social-movement

"Today, people around the country are rallying around a new ill-defined movement, which has for now taken its name from its first act of civil disobedience: Occupy Wall Street. For now, it looks marginal, rag-tag, ill-defined and without focus. But keep an eye on it. To paraphrase Buffalo Springfield, something may be happening here."

protests activism wall-street capitalism social-media social-movement media journalism mainstream

"OCCUPY WALL STREET (the theory)

Really simple:

Occupy Wall Street is an open source protest.

This type of protest has been very effective over the last year in toppling regimes in north Africa. It's proving relatively successful in the US too.

Open source protest is an organizational technique. Probably the only organizational technique that can assemble a massive crowd in today's multiplexed environment. "

protests activism wall-street capitalism social-media social-movement media technology open-source

"The taking of a tiny square in downtown New York hardly impinges on the power of the vector. It doesn't even inconvenience the minions who work in the surrounding offices, but the actual occupation is connected to a more abstract kind of occupation, and the slightest hint that it could spread disturbs the fragile constitutions of the rentier sensibility."

protests activism wall-street capitalism social-media social-movement media technology

"Put another way, Twitter/Facebook/G+ are secondary media. They are a means to connect in crisis situations and to quickly disseminate rapidly evolving information. They are also great for staying connected with others on similar interests (Stanley Cup, Olympics). Social media is good for event-based activities. But terrible when people try to make it do more – such as, for example, nonsensically proclaiming that a hashtag is a movement. The substance needs to exist somewhere else (an academic profile, journal articles, blogs, online courses). "

social-media failure twitter politics social-movement facebook