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Workshop: Understanding the new wave of social cooperation: Triangulation of Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and American occupy movement. March 21st, 2012 - #21M

Introduction

This one-day workshop brings together several groups of researchers: members of the Council for European Studies (CES) European Social Movements research network who will be in Boston for the Council for European Studies conference (March 22 - 24); scholars researching the Arab Spring, recent mobilizations in European countries (such as 15 of May mobilizations in the Spanish State), and the Occupy movement in United States at the Berkman Center, as well as researchers of other Boston – based institutions including Harvard Kennedy School, MIT's Comparative Media Center; Northwest University and Boston College's Social Movements seminar.

The workshop will be hosted in the Berkman Center, Harvard, and organized in cooperation with the Council for European Studies (CES) European Social Movements research network and other Boston-based groups working in the area.

Goals and Key Objectives

We would like a historically grounded comparative approach that attempts a certain amount of historical contextualization and analytical and theoretical grounding of these protests and forms of social cooperation and the relations between them.

The workshop aims to analyses the specificity of each country/region case, at the time of approaching the commonalities between them based on a "triangulation" of the current research and understanding on Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and American occupy movement.

What are the relations between these forms of social cooperation? How similar/different are they from each other? What do they tell us concerning collective action? How important are national or global factors in shaping them? How important and which has been the role of new technologies for each case? In what way are they new and in what way are we witnessing a reconfiguration of elements we are very familiar with? What theoretical and analytical frameworks are people finding useful/not so useful as they think about these movements? Etc

The specific angle of each of each of the three planned session will be defined around clusters of participants' interests.

Objectives:

• Analyses the specificity of each country/region case, at the time of approaching the commonalities and differences between them based on a "triangulation" of the current research and understanding on Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and American occupy movement.

• Contribute to contextualize (historically and from a socio-political perspective) the impact of digital in collective action by connecting social movements studies tradition with Internet-based phenomenons analysis. Connect European, Nord – American and Arabic traditions of thinking and researching.

• Contribute to map and systematize expertise on the current wave of social cooperation/mobilization.

• Exchange, share and discuss current work and facilitate further synergy among researchers on the topic (most of them also practitioners).

• It is possible that a publication or grant proposal will come out of the event, but this is not its primary goal.

Workshop "ecosystem"

The workshop puts together very diverse profile and trajectories. Combination of European, Arabic and United States profiles; English- native and non-English native; social movements scholars and - not social movements (meaning not familiar with social movement studies); digital and non-digitals. This great diversity requires to take distance from each position and be still even more open minding and not - giving things for granted details on the cases or on each (language and) perspective .

Format

The workshop is intended as an exchange between researchers (many of whom are also participants) rather than a dissemination event for other researchers or the general public. Rather than conference presentations this event will create an intimate exchange between people already working in the field. It will be mainly discussion-based around a series of questions, with the possibility to circulate papers in advance (including those already presented elsewhere or under preparation).

Discussion is organized in three sessions around clusters of participants' interest.

A moderator will introduce the theme for each session, there will be around two very short (5 minutes) warm up presentations, and then all participants will be invited to discuss any and all issues pertaining to the theme. Per each session there will be a person creating a drafting/scheming/mental map of the issues emerging.

A maximum of 30 participants are expected.

Workshop discussion will be audio-recording and make availeble afterword on the web.

Schedule

20 March (Optional) Informal dinner among the participants in town (particularly those coming from abroad).

21 March

9 - 10h Welcoming coffee. Introduction to the agenda, a map of expertise and brief round of presentations.

10 – 12h First discussion

Moderator:

Discussion drafting/scheming:

Warm up interventions (from 5 to 7 minutes):

12h Lunch

1 - 3h Second discussion

3 - 3:30h Coffee break

3:30 - 5:30 Third Discussion

5:30 - 6:00 Sum up conclusions:

7pm 21M Food for Thought Dinners

Post – event: 22 March and 23 March (Optional)

Council of European Studies Conference

Seminars organized by the network of European social movements @ Conference of the European Council of European Studies Nineteenth Annual Conference of Europeanists. Coordinators: Cristina María Flesher Fominaya and Laurence Cox. List of seminars Please note attendance at the seminars at the CES requires registering for the CES conference. Attendance at the Network luncheon or the workshop does not. “Social Movements Network Workshop on publishing in social movements” facilitated by Laurence Cox and Cristina Flesher Fominaya, editors of Interface Journal. This workshop is designed to facilitate the exchange of practical information on publishing in the area of social movements. The main intended beneficiaries are those relatively new to publishing in the area although we would love experienced scholars to participate and pass on their knowledge as well.

Discussion agenda

Clusters of issues: working progress

A) How // Emerging organizational logics, modes of interaction and involvement with social media.

Collective action and digital media: Mayo Fuster Morell, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Ethan Zuckerman (TBC), Rob Faris, Zeynep Tufekci, Bruce Etling, Nagla Rizk, Colin Maclay (TBC), Pablo Rey (TBC), Jeffrey Juris, and Jason Pramas.

Internal performative dynamics and democratic conceptions: Nicole Doerr (Decision making), Christian Scholl (Tensions with Bottom-up democracy); and, Marcos Ancelovici (Participative democracy and the role of assemblies).

B) Is this really a global wave of protest? If so, Why // Explanatory factors and cases connections, and how the wave is diffused and translated among the several cases? Are there similar factors between them? Why did social mobilization happen in so many countries at once?.

Historical perspective:

Laurence Cox (Historical contextualization), Mayo Fuster Morell and Jeffrey Juris (Connections with previous waves of movilizations – Global Justice Movement)

Explanatory factors:

Jason Pramas (Precarious working conditions in Boston) Alice Mattoni (Labor Precarity in Italy)

Charlotte Ryan (Social exclusion: Homeless movement)

How the wave diffuse and translate among the several cases?

Ana Margarida Esteves (Chronology of events and the "contagion" effect) Maite Tapia (Diffusion of community organizing) Nicole Doerr (Translation and democracy) Cristina Flesher Fominaya (brief chronology and methodological issues)

Maite Tapia (Is there potential for a shift of scale (e.g., to an international level)?)

C) Movement composition and visions/strategies of change: Actors involved, in terms (e.g.) of social groups mobilised vs those passive and those hostile, of different political and cultural traditions involved or not involved.

Movement composition: Marcos Ancelovici (Who the occupiers were and what they wanted) Charlotte Ryan (Homeless movement) Alice Mattoni (Precarity movement in Italy) Maite Tapia (The role of the labor movement and whether/how they shaped the rise of these new social movements) Mayo Fuster Morell (Free culture movement trajectory into 15M in Spain)

Visions/strategies of change: Mayo Fuster Morell (Ecology of strategies; commons umbrella) Marcos Ancelovici (Significance, usefulness and limits of framing demands in terms of “we are the 99%”; the importance of problem-solving goals in social movements (what difference do they make for mobilization and for the sustainability of the movement?).

Map of places/cases

Occupy movement (general): Ana Margarida Esteves, Maite Tapia Boston : Sasha Costanza-Chock, Pablo Rey (TBC), Nicole Doerr, Jeffrey Juris, Charlotte Ryan, Jason Pramas Pittburg : Alice Mattoni Canada: Montreal : Marcos Ancelovici

Arab Spring (general): Rob Faris, Bruce Etling, Tunisia : Ethan Zuckerman (TBC) Egypt : Zeynep Tufekci, Nagla Rizk

European dimension: Christian Scholl, Cristina María Flesher Fominaya and Nicole Doerr Spain : Mayo Fuster Morell, Pablo Rey (TBC), Cristina María Flesher Fominaya, Marcos Ancelovici Germany : Nicole Doerr, Maite Tapia Italy : Alice Mattoni UK: Maite Tapia Ireland : Laurence Cox France : Marcos Ancelovici, Francesca Vassallo Amsterdam : Christian Scholl Portugal : Ana Margarida Esteves Poland : Elzbieta Cizewska