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Workshop: Understanding the New Wave of Social Cooperation: Triangulation of Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and the American Occupy Movement 9:00am-6:00pm March 21st, 2012 Harvard University- Cambridge, MA (Boston) Social media hashtag: #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 at the Berkman Center researching the Arab Spring, recent mobilizations in European countries (such as the 15th of May mobilizations in the Spain), and the Occupy movement in United States; and researchers from institutions including the 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 at Harvard University and is organized in cooperation with the Council for European Studies (CES) European Social Movements research network and other Boston-based groups working in this space.

Goals and Key Objectives

At this event, we will undertake a historically grounded comparative approach that attempts to place these protests and their corresponding forms of social cooperation in historical context and seeks to establish an analytical and theoretical grounding for the study of these events. We plan not only to investigate each individual movement, but also to assess the relationships (or lack thereof) between each of the respective cases.

More specifically, the workshop aims to analyze the particular details associated with each national/regional case and will endeavor to identify and discuss any commonalities between them based on a 'triangulation' of current research and understanding on the Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and the American Occupy movement. To facilitate an interactive discussion on these topics during the event, the specific angle of each of the three planned sessions will be defined around clusters of participants' interest.

To achieve our objectives, we will take up the following questions, among others: What is the relationship between these forms of social cooperation? How similar and different are they from each other? What do these events tell us about collective action? How important are national or global factors in shaping each case and the relationship among them? What role have new technologies played in each case? To what extent is the application of these technologies truly new, and in what way(s) might we be witnessing a reconfiguration of familiar elements? Which theoretical and analytical frameworks are people finding useful as they think about these movements, and which frameworks are proving less productive?

Objectives:

  • As noted above, the key objective is to analyze the specific details associated with each national/regional case to identify commonalities and differences among them based on a "triangulation" of the current research and understanding on the Arab revolutions, European mobilizations and the American Occupy movement.

To achieve this overarching goal, we aim to:

  • Contextualize (both historically and from a socio-political perspective) the impact of digital tools in collective action by connecting the social movements studies tradition with the analysis of Internet-based phenomena, which will require drawing connections among European, North American, and Arabic approaches to research and analysis.
  • Map and systematically organize existing research and expertise on the current wave of social cooperation and mobilization.
  • Exchange, share, and discuss current work and facilitate synergy among researchers on the topic.

Format and methodology

The workshop is intended as an exchange between researchers at the event rather than as an opportunity to disseminate information to other researchers or to the general public. To facilitate interaction among researchers, this workshop will avoid conference-style presentations and instead is designed to foster dialogue among individuals working in this space. The format will be mainly discussion-based around a series of questions, with the opportunity to circulate papers (including those already presented elsewhere or under preparation) in advance of the event itself. A maximum of 30 participants are expected at this highly-interactive event.

For each session, a moderator will introduce the theme followed by very short (5 minute) warm up presentations. All participants will be invited to discuss any and all issues pertaining to the theme. For each session, we will assign a note taker and draft a schema/map of the issues emerging.

Please note that all workshop discussion will be audio recorded and will be made publicly available afterwards on the web.

Logistical Information

  • Location: The workshop is taking place in two places

A Morning Session from '9:00am-1:00pm' - Room 105 in Hauser Hall, Harvard Law School

Following the lunch break, from 1:00pm-5:00pm - The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at 23 Everett Street, second floor

With an optional dinner for participants at 6:00pm

Link to map of directions from Harvard T station (underground station)

Getting there:

  • Wireless Internet access will be available at the workshop
  • Social Media Participation: Twitter / Identica hashtag: #21M
  • Other questions? Contact Amar Ashar at ashar(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu

Schedule

A FINAL VERSION OF THE WORKSHOP AGENDA WILL BE PROVIDED


20 March 8pm: (Optional) Informal dinner among the participants in town (particularly those coming from abroad) http://acetarium.com/ (265 Elm Street, Somerville T Station: Davis Square) – Please sign in if you plan to attend


21 March

9:00 am Welcome and introduction - Coffee and baked goods will be provided Room 105 in Hauser Hall

Rob Faris (Berkman center), Cristina Flesher Fominaya (CES) and Mayo Fuster (Berkman center)

Lighting Round Introductions (30 seconds each) (15 minutes)

9:30am – 10:30am EMERGING ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES Room 105 in Hauser Hall Which organizational forms were adopted by the movements in each case? What is the role of social media in shaping these emerging forms? Are there similarities among the cases? What do these cases tell us about the conditions and organizational principles of collective action? (Briefly comment on your methodological approach as it relates to these questions and any particular barriers, challenges or opportunities you have encountered in your work.)

Presents the session and moderates (timekeeper) Warm up presentation (5 to 7 minutes): Egypt, Spain and OWS cases. Participants working on the area. From a more “digital” perspective: Mayo Fuster Morell, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Rob Faris, Bruce Etling, Nagla Rizk, Alice Mattoni, Colin Maclay, Pablo Rey, Lina Attalah, Jeffrey Juris, Jason Pramas, Beth Coleman, Alicia Solow-Niederman. More on each participant approach to the topic: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/21M12socialcooperation/Insights_on_topics#First_discussion In all the sessions, there will be collaborative notes taken, Live blogging and live tweeting. 10:30am-10:45 am Break

10:45 am- 11:45 pm: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS AND DIGITAL MEDIA

Warm up presentation: Social Network analysis, text analysis, blogs, Twitter and MSM; and Occupy research experience.

Ending Session Synthesis (5 - 7 minutes).

11:45 pm-1:00 pm Lunch and move to new location, Berkman Center Conf. Room We will walk as a group to the Berkman Center, 23 Everett St., 2nd floor Group picture at the Berkman Center entrance.

1:00 pm-2:30pm: WHO MOBILIZED AND WITH WHICH GOALS AND STRATEGIES? Berkman Center Conference Room, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor What is the movement composition (i.e, who were the actors and what social bases were involved)? In terms of the actors what is the continuity with previous mobilization waves, such as the global justice movement? What were/are the visions and strategies of change in each of the cases? Is there a common political view or strategy among all the cases? What are the significant divisions between actors within each individual case? Are there similar divisions across different cases, and to what extent are the local and national dynamics important in shaping movement configuration? (Briefly comment on your methodological approach as it relates to these questions and any particular barriers, challenges or opportunities you have encountered in your work.)

Warm up presentation (5 to 7 minutes): Egypt, Europe (Greece) and OWS cases.

Participants particularly working on the area. Charlotte Ryan, Ofer Sharone, E. Coling Roggero, Maite Tapia, and Marcos Ancelovici.

More on each participant approach to the topic: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/21M12socialcooperation/Insights_on_topics#Second_discussion

Ending Session Synthesis (5 - 7 minutes).

2:30pm-3:00pm Coffee break

3:00pm-4:15pm EXPLANATORY FACTORS AND CONNECTIONS AMONG THE CASES Berkman Center Conference Room, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor Why did social mobilization happen in so many countries at once? Are there similar explanatory factors and historical trajectories that explain why mobilization took place? Is it legitimate to talk about a global wave of mobilization? If so, how are these different cases connected and how might we confirm and document the connections between movements? What are the mechanisms of diffusion and translation among the cases?(Briefly comment on your methodological approach as it relates to these questions and any particular barriers, challenges or opportunities you have encountered in your work.)

Warm up presentation (5 to 7 minutes): Comparison Egypt and Tunisia; Comparison Israel, Arab countries & Occupy; and reflection on waves of mobilization. Participants particularly working on the area. Jeffrey Juris, Jason Pramas, Maria Kousis, Nicole Doerr, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, and Laurence Cox.

More on each participant approach to the topic: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/21M12socialcooperation/Insights_on_topics#Third_discussion

Ending Session Synthesis (5 - 7 minutes).

4:15pm - 5:00pm Final reflections and next steps: “Theoretical Takes and Methods to Rethink Research” Berkman Center Conference Room, 23 Everett Street, 2nd Floor

Brainstorming of takes from the workshop (Each says one or two takes) - Topics: Methods, Theory, and Comparability of the cases.

Closing Remarks

6:00pm 21M Dinner (Optional) List of people attending the dinner Please add your name to the list on the wiki if you plan to attend.


Seminars and workshop Council of European Studies Conference

23 March and 24 March (Optional)

OccupyData Hackathon 2: Data Visualization for the 99%!

What: OccupyData Hackathon 1 brought you visualizations of 13 million occupy tweets (see summaries by OccupyResearch, R-Shief, Fast Company, and Utrecht University). People participated from Utrech, LA, Boston, NY, and Spain.OccupyData Hackathon 2 builds on the demos and tools from the first round, and turns our collaborative energy on visualizing the 5000+ responses to the OccupyResearch General Demographics and Participation Survey (ORGS), R-Shief Twitter #occupy tags aggregated since September 2011, and Occupy Oakland Serves the People survey, as well as other datasets people might want to explore. This event is not only for hackers or coders, but for anyone who’s interested. Bring your ideas, skills, creativity, questions and critical perspectives as we explore occupy datasets using free and open source tools and software. We’ll make connections from one place to another – open to all participants! The model is for people to arrange local venues for f2f meetups, work locally, and share/collaborate real time via skype/chat/twitter/google docs and etherpads, etc. If you can’t make it to one of the physical locations, you can still join in remotely.

How: Sign up here

Where in Cambridge: MIT Media Lab E15-432, 20 Ames Street Cambridge, MA 02139 USA (http://www.media.mit.edu/about/building) Contacts for clarification on location and others: Sasha Costanza-Chock (schock(at)MIT.EDU) & Pablo Rey (Pablo(at)basurama.org) or irc.lc.freenode/occupydata

Participants

Participants target: A gender balanced and topic/place diverse gathering of currently researchers (not only interested) in the Arab Spring, European wave or Occupy movements that combine action and research perspectives. Room maximum: 30 people (already full).

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.

List of participants

Map of case/participant

USA Occupy movement (general): Mike Ananny, Beth Coleman, Maite Tapia, E. Colin Ruggero, Marcos Ancelovici, William A. (Bill) Gamson, Ofer Sharone, Pablo Rey

  • Boston : Sasha Costanza-Chock, Pablo Rey, Nicole Doerr, Jeffrey Juris, Jason Pramas, Sandra Ray
  • Pittburg : Alice Mattoni
  • Philadelphia: E. Colin Ruggero
  • Rhode Island and Providence (RI): Charlotte Ryan

Canada: Montreal: Marcos Ancelovici

Arab Spring (general) Rob Faris, Bruce Etling, Alicia Solow-Niederman (how to understand the Occupy movement in the global context), William A. (Bill) Gamson

  • Tunisia : Ethan Zuckerman, Zack Brisson
  • Egypt : Lina Attalah, Zeynep Tufekci, Nagla Rizk, Alicia Solow-Niederman, Zack Brisson

Israeli Summer: William A. (Bill) Gamson

European dimension: Christian Scholl, Cristina María Flesher Fominaya, Francesca Vassallo and Nicole Doerr

  • Spain : Mayo Fuster Morell, Pablo Rey, Cristina María Flesher Fominaya, Marcos Ancelovici
  • Germany : Nicole Doerr, Maite Tapia
  • Greece: Maria Kousis, Sandra Ray
  • Italy : Alice Mattoni
  • UK: Maite Tapia
  • Ireland : Laurence Cox France : Marcos Ancelovici, Francesca Vassallo
  • Amsterdam : Christian Scholl
  • Poland : Elzbieta Cizewska
  • France: Marcos Ancelovici
  • Russia: Rob Faris, Bruce Etling

Distribution of participants per topics

Bibliographic resources

Please add any relevant resource.

Arab Spring

Brisson, Zack, & Krontiris, Kate (March, 2012). 'Tunisia: From Revolutions to Institutions' <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/53226669/Tunisia%201-2012-Publication-Web-%C6%92.pdf> World Bank Group

Brisson, Zack, & Lee, Panthea (March, 2011). 'Egypt: From Revolutions to Institutions'<http://thereboot.org/wp-content/Egypt/Reboot-Egypt-From-Revolutions-To-Institutions.pdf>

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson (2012) Nonviolent Resistance in the Arab Spring: The Critical Role of Military-Opposition Alliances. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue:http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Goodwin, Jeff. (2012) Why We Were Surprised (Again) by the Arab Spring. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Schneider, Cathy Lisa (2012) Violence and State Repression.Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Alimi, Eitan Y. and David S. Meyer (2012) Seasons of Change: Arab Spring and Political Opportunities. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Diani, Mario (2012) Networks and Internet into Perspective. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Gamson, William A. (2012) Arab Spring, Israeli Summer, and the Process of Cognitive Liberation. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Goldstone, Jack A. (2012) Cross-class Coalitions and the Making of the Arab Revolts of 2011. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

Aouragh, Miriyam and Anne Alexander. 2011. “The Egyptian experience.” International Journal of Communication (5): 1344-1358. International Journal of Communication (Vol. 5), http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc

Lotan, Gilad et al. 2011. “The revolutions were tweeted.” International Journal of Communications 5: 1375-1405. Malcolm Gladwell’s blog post on The New Yorker website, “Does Egypt Need Twitter?” www.newyorker.com (accessed November 11, 2011).

Tufekci, Zaynep. 2011. “Too many messages and only one Facebook page.” Technosociology. Blog posted on September 19, 2011. http://technosociology.org, accessed November 11, 2011.

Tufekci, Zaynep. 2011. “New media and the people-powered uprisings.” Technology Review. Blog posted on August 30, 2011. www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/27122/, accessed November 11, 2011.

Tufekci, Zeynep (2011) Video presentation http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/zeynep & http://technosociology.org/ Keywords/themes: Collective action and technology Focus cases: Arab Spring (Egypt) Related work: Video presentation: From Tehran to Tahrir: Social Media and Dynamics of Collective Action under Authoritarian Regimes http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/09/tufekci

Wilson, Christopher and Alexandra Dunn. 2011a. “Digital media in the Egyptian revolution.” International Journal of Communication 5: 1248-1272.

Spanish Indignated/15M

Fuster Morell, M (2011) Video presentation: The Spanish Revolution & the Internet: From free culture to meta-politics http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/11/morell

Fuster Morell, M. & Subirats, J. (2012). Més enllà d'Internet com a eina "martell” - eina de la vella política: Cap un nou Policy Making?. Els casos del Moviment de Cultura Lliure i pel Procomú Digital i el 15M a Catalunya (Beyond the Internet as a tool "hammer" - tool of the old politics: Towards a New Policy Making?. Cases the Free Culture Movement and the digital commons and 15M in Catalonia). Research report. Institute de Govern i Politiques Publiques (UAB) per l'Escola d'Administracio Publica de Catalunya. (139 pages)

Postill, John. n.d. “Democracy in an age of viral reality,” unpublished manuscript submitted to special edition of Ethnography “Media Ethnography and Public Sphere Engagement,” edited by Debra Vidali and Thomas Tufte.

Taibo, Carlos. 2011. El 15-M en sesenta preguntas. Madrid: Los libros de la Catarata.

Occupy Wall Street

Adbusters call to occupy wall street: www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html (accessed October 24, 2011).

Collins, Joan. 2012. "Theorizing Wisconsin's 2011 Protests." American Ethnologist 39(1): 1-15.

Collins, Randall. 2001. “Social movements and the focus of emotional attention.” In Passionate Politics, edited by Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper and Francesca Polletta, 27–44. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

Hector R. Cordero-Guzman, "Main Stream Support for a Mainstream Movement, The 99% Movement Comes From and Looks Like the 99%, Profile of web traffic taken from occupywallstreet.org," October 19, 2011, http://occupywallst.org (accessed January 4, 2011).

Graeber, David. 2011. "On Playing By the Rules—The Strange Success of #OccupyWallStreet,"http://www.nakedcapitalism.com (accessed January 4, 2012).

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negro. 2011. "The Fight for 'Real Democracy' at the Heart of Occupy Wall Street." - (October 11), www.foreignaffairs.com (accessed January 5, 2012).

Milan, Stefania. 2011. “Cloud protesting.” Blog posted on October 18, 2011. http://stefi.engagetv.com/node/103, accessed November 11, 2011.

Rinke, Einke M. and Maria Röder. 2011. “Media ecologies, communication culture, and temporal-spatial unfolding.” International Journal of Communication 5: 1273-1285.

Schradie, Jen. 2011. "Why Tents (Still) Matter for the Occupy Movement," www.commondreams.org (January 4, 2012).

Suresh, Fernando Occupy Vancouver Organizer on Dec 27, 2011Occupy My Soul by http://thenextedge.org/2011/12/occupy-my-soul/

Ruggero, E, Colin (2011). "Spirit of ’76: Occupy Philadelphia, Voicelessness, and the Challenge of Growing the Occupy Wall Street Movement" Deliberately Considered, November 2011. Blog post: [1]

Gamson, Bill. (2012) Boston College Cultural Outcomes of the Occupy Movement. December 30, 2011 [with changes added: January 2, 2012]

Blogs on OWS:

Meyer David's Blog: http://politicsoutdoors.com/tag/occupy/ and http://politicsoutdoors.com/tag/occupy-wall-street/;

The Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame <http://cssm.nd.edu/>: http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/tag/occupy-movement/;

Foreign Affairs articles on OWS: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/node/133733.

Comparison of several cases

Ancelovici, Marcos (2012) “Le mouvement Occupy et la question des inégalités: Ce que le slogan ‘Nous sommes les 99 %’ dit et ne dit pas.” In F. Dupuis-Déri, ed. Par dessus le marché! Rélexions critiques sur le capitalisme. Montreal: Écosociété. [2]

Rey, Pablo (2011) Gallery of different twitter-newspaper visualizations. http://numeroteca.org/cat/frontpage-newspaper/

Rey, Pablo (2011) Post: Analyzing newspapers’ front pages to interpret the Mainstream Media ecology. Researching the #15M, #Occupy movement and the Arab Spring. Interested in the relationship between Mainstream Media and social Media(Twitter): http://civic.mit.edu/blog/pablo/analyzing-newspapers-front-pages

Gamson, William A. (2012) Arab Spring, Israeli Summer, and the Process of Cognitive Liberation. Swiss Political Science Review. Special issue: http://dmmsclick.wiley.com/view.asp?m=0jcva5g0090vlet42smd&u=19087420&f=h

USA - SPAIN

Fuster Morell, M (2012) Blog post Report on OWS Forum on the commons: http://www.onlinecreation.info/?p=492

Others

Bauwens, Michel 'Occupy' as a business model: The emerging open-source civilisation. The Occupy Wall Street movement is a model for a new economic paradigm, in which value is first created by communities. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012361233474499.html

Observatorio Metropolitano (Octubre 2011). Crisis y revolucion en Europa. Traficantes de suenyos: Madrid. (Spanish) http://traficantes.net/index.php/editorial/catalogo/otras/Crisis-y-revolucion-en-Europa This analysis by Observatorio Metropolitano (October 2011) links the social mobilizaions from northern Africa and Europe.

Occupy research resources:

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