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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.

Logistical Information

  • Location:

Getting there:

  • Wireless internet access will be available at the workshop
  • Participation Tools: Twitter / Identica hashtag: #21M
  • For networking (meeting previous and after) the workshop you could go to the [wiki community portal]
  • Other questions? Contact Amar Ashar at ashar(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu

Schedule

20 March (Optional) Informal dinner among the participants in town (particularly those coming from abroad @ 8 pm in http://acetarium.com/ (265 Elm Street, Somerville T Station: Davis Square)

21 March

9 - 10h Welcoming coffee. Introduction to the agenda, a map of expertise and brief round of presentations. 'Room 105 in Hauser Hall'

10 – 12h First discussion: How? Emerging organizational logics, modes of interaction and involvement with social media. Room 105 in Hauser Hall

12h Lunch Room 105 in Hauser Hall

1 - 3h Second discussion: 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? Conference room, 23 Everett Street - 2nd Floor, Berkman center

3 - 3:30h Coffee break

3:30 - 5:30 Third Discussion: 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. Conference room, 23 Everett Street - 2nd Floor, Berkman center

5:30 - 6:00 Sum up conclusions Conference room, 23 Everett Street - 2nd Floor, Berkman center

7pm 21M Food for Thought Dinners

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

Seminars and workshop Council of European Studies Conference

Participants

Participants target: Currently researching (not only interested) in the Arab Spring, European wave or Occupy movements. Combining action and research perspectives. Gender balance.

Room maximum: 30 people (already full).

Please add or complete your affiliation / bio & web / email address / contact info / Keywords or themes of interest / Focus cases / References or links to your related work, if you would like to connect with other attendees.

BERKMANERS

Mayo Fuster Morell

  • Affiliation: Berkman center fellow, Harvard University and involved on the Digital Commons Forum (http://www.digital-commons.net).
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/mfustermorell http://www.onlinecreation.info
  • Email: mayo.fuster(at)eui.eu
  • Keywords/themes: Free culture movement and 15M; organizational logic; use of technology; connexions with Global Justice Movement; commons perspective
  • Focus cases: Spain - 15M, Catalonia, comparison between OWS and Indignated/15M mobilizations in Spain
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed? Comparison between the cases on the base of the changes of collective action organizational logic linked to the digital environment.

Related work:

  • Video presentation: The Spanish Revolution & the Internet: From free culture to meta-politics http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/luncheon/2011/11/morell
  • Blog post Report on OWS Forum on the commons: http://www.onlinecreation.info/?p=492
  • 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)

Abstract: In the context of multiple crises – ecological, political, financial and geopolitical restructuring – there are emerging forms of social cooperation. In the Spanish case, we have seen some of the largest demonstrations since the country made its transition to democracy in the 70s with massive occupations of public squares, attempts to prevent parliaments’ functioning and citizen assemblies of thousands of people taking place in spring and autumn 2011. Large mobilizations are also taking place in other countries (such as Arab countries, Iceland, Greece, and more recently the United States). This research centered in the case of the Spanish State; analyzing its genealogy and the organizational logic that adopted connected to the use of the new technologies. In the Spanish case, the Free Culture and Digital Commons Movement played an important role in the rising and shaping of the mobilization. The campaign against "Sinde Law" (on restrictive Internet regulation) in December 2010 and its afterworld meta-political derivation into "Don't vote them" campaign (meaning do not vote for the parties which approved Sinde law) are considered a starting point and one of the trajectories that most contributed to the generation of the "Indignate"/15th of May mobilization cycle for a "True Democracy Now". Additionally, the Free Culture and Digital Commons Movement has influenced the organizational logic of the "Indignate" mobilization (particularly in terms of new technologies usage for the collective achievement of common goals). The research first presents the role of the Free Culture and Digital Commons Movement in the genealogy of the "Indignate" Movement in Spanish State. Then, it will be analyzed the commonalities and differences between both emerging forms of social cooperation (contrasting "digital commons" initiatives such as Wikipedia and "society commons" initiatives such as Square Occupations) that together suggest a sift of the format of collective action for mobilization and organization, and a shift to a more active and autonomous role of civic society in the network society. The research is based on the results of an a analysis of 145 initiatives connected to the Indignate mobilization in Catalonia and 28 interview to participants. The research report is in Catalan.

  • Fuster Morell, M. (2011). Participacion en communidades online y democracia radical. En A. Calle, Democracia Radical. Entre vínculos y utopías. Barcelona: Icaria Editorial.

Dalida María Benfield

  • Affiliation: Berkman center fellow, Harvard University.
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/dmbenfield.
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus case: Occupy movement, Boston
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Sasha Costanza-Chock

Related work:

Ethan Zuckerman (TBC)

  • Affiliation: MIT Comparative media and Berkman center fellow, Harvard University.
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/ezuckerman
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes: Social media
  • Focus cases: Occupy movement, Arab Spring
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Rob Faris

  • Affiliation: Research Director for the Berkman Center, Harvard University.
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/rfaris
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes: Digital media
  • Focus cases: Arab Spring
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

  • Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent. Authored by Bruce Etling, John Kelly, Robert Faris and John Palfrey. New Media Society 2010: 1225.

Abstract: This study explores the structure and content of the Arabic blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs. We identified a base network of approximately 35,000 Arabic-language blogs, mapped the 6000 most- connected blogs, and hand coded over 3000. The study is a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arabic-speaking world, which mainly clusters nationally. We found the most politically active areas of the network to be clusters of bloggers in Egypt, Kuwait, Syria, and the Levant, as well as an ‘English Bridge’ group. Differences among these indicate variability in how online practices are embedded in local political contexts. Bloggers are focused mainly on domestic political issues; concern for Palestine is the one issue that unites the entire network. Bloggers link preferentially to the top Web 2.0 sites (e.g. YouTube and Wikipedia), followed by pan-Arab mainstream media sources, such as Al Jazeera. Download: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2009/Mapping_the_Arabic_Blogosphere

  • Online Security in the Middle East and North Africa. A Survey of Perceptions, Knowledge, and Practice. Authored by Rob Faris, Hal Roberts, Rebekah Heacock, Ethan Zuckerman, Urs GasserPublished August 01, 2011

Abstract: Digital communication has become a more perilous activity, particularly for activists, political dissidents, and independent media. The recent surge in digital activism that has helped to shape the Arab spring has been met with stiff resistance by governments in the region intent on reducing the impact of digital organizing and independent media. No longer content with Internet filtering, many governments in the Middle East and around the world are using a variety of technological and offline strategies to go after online media and digital activists. In this report we describe the results of a survey of 98 bloggers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) carried out in May 2011 in order to study bloggers’ perceptions of online risk and the actions they take to address digital communications security, including both Internet and cell phone use. The survey was implemented in the wake of the Arab spring and documents a proliferation of online security problems among the respondents. In the survey, we address the respondents’ perceptions of online risk, their knowledge of digital security practices, and their reported online security practices. The survey results indicate that there is much room for improving online security practices, even among this sample of respondents who are likely to have relatively high technical knowledge and experience. Download: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6973

  • Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization. Published October 18, 2010. Authored by Bruce Etling, Karina Alexanyan, John Kelly, Rob Faris, John Palfrey, Urs Gasser.

Key findings: We analyzed Russian blogs to discover networks of discussion around politics and public affairs. Beginning with an initial set of over five million blogs, we used social network analysis to identify a highly active ‘Discussion Core’ of over 11,000. These were clustered according to long term patterns of citations within posts, and the resulting segmentation characterized through both automated and human content analysis. Key findings include: + Unlike their counterparts in the US and elsewhere, Russian bloggers prefer platforms that combine features typical of blogs with features of social network services (SNSs) like Facebook. Russian blogging is dominated by a handful of these “SNS hybrids.” + While the larger Russian blogosphere is highly divided according to platform, there is a central Discussion Core that contains the majority of political and public affairs discourse. This core is comprised mainly, though not exclusively, of blogs on the LiveJournal platform. + The Discussion Core features four major groupings: i) Politics and Public Affairs (including news-focused discussion, business and finance, social activists, and political movements) ii) Culture (including literature, cinema, high culture, and popular culture) iii) Regional (bloggers in Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Israel, etc.) iv) Instrumental (paid blogging and blogging for external incentives) + Political/public affairs bloggers cover a broad spectrum of attitudes and agendas and include many who discuss politics from an independent standpoint, as well as those affiliated with offline political and social movements, including strong ‘Democratic Opposition’ and ‘Nationalist’ clusters. + The Russian political blogosphere supports more cross-linking debate than others we have studied (including the U.S. and Iranian), and appears less subject to the formation of self-referential ‘echo chambers.’ + Pro-government bloggers are not especially prominent and do not constitute their own cluster, but are mostly located in a part of the network featuring general discussion of Russian public affairs. However, there is a concentration of bloggers affiliated with pro-government youth groups among the Instrumental bloggers. + We find evidence of political and social mobilization, particularly in those clusters affiliated with offline political and social movements. + The online ‘news diet’ of Russian bloggers is more independent, international, and oppositional than that of Russian Internet users overall, and far more so than that of non-Internet users, who are more reliant upon state-controlled federal TV channels. + Popular political YouTube videos focus on corruption and abuse of power by elites, the government, and the police.

Bruce Etling

Related work:

  • See Rob Faris related work.

Nagla Rizk

  • Affiliation: American University of Cairo
  • Bio & web:
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus cases: Egypt
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Colin Maclay

  • Affiliation: Managing Director of the Berkman Center.
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/cmaclay
  • Email: cmaclay(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus cases:
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Amar Ashar

  • Affiliation: Berkman Center's Program Coordinator.
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/aashar
  • Email: ashar(at)cyber.law.harvard.edu
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus cases:
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Mike Ananny

Related work:

  • Papers "WikiLeaks and Networked Press Autonomy" and "Tweeting the Revolution" (with Berkman Fellow Beth Coleman) at the Oxford Internet Institute's 20th Anniversary event.

Beth Coleman

Related work:

  • Papers "WikiLeaks and Networked Press Autonomy" and "Tweeting the Revolution" (with Berkman Fellow Mike Ananny) at the Oxford Internet Institute's 20th Anniversary event.
  • Paper: Tweeting the Revolution: agency, collective action, and the negotiation of risk in a networked age.

Abstract: This paper looks at the impact of social media platforms on collective action. In particular, it focuses on spheres of activism where personal risk (bodily or otherwise) is the condition of participation. For this analysis, I discuss interviews conducted with Egyptian activists around the events of Tahrir Square. Issues of copresence, witness, and visibility are central to my discussion. This talk is based on a research paper developed with my coauthor Dr. Mike Ananny. Link Ethan Zuckerman liveblogged a talk: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/10/18/4237/

FROM OTHER INSTITUTIONS IN BOSTON

Pablo Rey

  • Affiliation: Comparative Media MIT
  • Bio & web: http://montera34.org/prm/
  • Email: pablo(at)basurama.org
  • Keywords/Themes: Twitter use analysis.
  • Focus cases: Occupy movement and Spanish case
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Nicole Doerr

  • Affiliation: Kennedy School - Harvard University and Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation from University of California Irvine.
  • Bio & web: PhD on social movements. http://www.ash.harvard.edu/Home/About/Fellows-Scholars/Democracy/Doerr-Nicole
  • Email: roshku(at)gmail.com
  • Keywords/Themes: Translation and democracy in movements.
  • Focus cases: Europe
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Jeffrey Juris

  • Affiliation: Northeastern University
  • Bio & web: Jeffrey S. Juris is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California Berkeley, and is the author of Networking Futures: the Movements against Corporate Globalization (Duke University Press), Global Democracy and the World Social Forums (co-author, Paradigm Press), as well as numerous articles on social movements, transnational networks, new media, and political protest. His co-edited volume, Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Activism, Ethnography, and the Political, is forthcoming with Duke University Press, and he is currently working on a new book about free media and autonomy in Mexico. He is also conducting collaborative research on Occupy Boston, and has a forthcoming article in American Ethnologist called "Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere: Social Media, Public Space, and Emerging Logics of Aggregation." http://www.northeastern.edu/socant/?page_id=354 and www.jeffreyjuris.com
  • Email: j.juris(at)neu.edu
  • Keywords/Themes: globalization; social movements; new media; youth protest; violence; Occupy movements (social media, organization, direct democracy; race/class)
  • Focus places: Previous work in Spain, Mexico, and U.S. Current research on Occupy Boston
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work: See above

Charlotte Ryan

  • Affiliation: Movement / Media Research Action Project. Boston College's Social Movements seminar.
  • Bio & Web: http://www.mrap.info/people/charlotte_ryan.html
  • Email:
  • Keyword/Themes: Homeless movement and their use of cellphones for activism.
  • Focus places: Occupy Movement, Boston
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Jason Pramas (TBC)

  • Affiliation: Boston College's Social Movements seminar and Open Media Boston.
  • Bio & Web: http://www.openmediaboston.org/
  • Email:
  • Keyword/Themes: Precarious workers' movement in Boston.
  • Focus place: Occupy Movement Boston
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Sandra Ray

  • Affiliation: 3L student at Harvard Law
  • Bio & web: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/mananny
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus cases: Greece
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:


PARTICIPANTS FROM CES

Cristina María Flesher Fominaya

  • Affiliation: Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Aberdeen.
  • Bio & web: PhD, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley. Founding co-chair, Council for European Studies European Social Movements Research Network (http://www.councilforeuropeanstudies.org/research/research-networks/social-movements<https://mail.abdn.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=3ebe09530160453999a7d1a9bba126a9&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.councilforeuropeanstudies.org%2fresearch%2fresearch-networks%2fsocial-movements). Editor Interface journa for and about social movements (http://www.interfacejournal.net). Current research project: Global waves of protest, in development (pending funding). Web: http://aberdeen.academia.edu/CristinaFlesherFominaya
  • Email: cristinaflesher(at)gmail.com
  • Keyword/Themes: Social movements and culture, internal movement divisions, vertical versus horizontal or autonomous versus institutional left approaches, collective identity formation in heterogeneous movements
  • Focus place: Europe
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

  • Initial research on connections between GJM and 15-M in Europe, which follows from: “The Madrid bombings and popular protest: misinformation, counterinformation, mobilisation and elections after ‘11-M’” Contemporary Social Science Vol. 6, 3, 2011, pp. 1–19.
  • "Collective Identity in Social Movements: Central Concepts and Debates", Sociology Compass, Vol 4, 6, 2010, pp.393-404, doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00287.x
  • “Creating Cohesion from Diversity: The Challenge of Collective Identity Formation in the Global Justice Movement”, Sociological Inquiry, Vol 80, 3, 2010, pp. 377-404, doi: 10.1111/j.1475-682X.2010.00339.x
  • “Autonomous Movement and the Institutional Left: Two Approaches in Tension in Madrid's Anti-globalization Network”, South European Society & Politics, Vol 12, 3, 2007, pp.335-358.

Laurence Cox

Related work:

  • Paper on how movements define themselves historically and locally to be presented at the CES conference.
  • Chapter on continuity and ruptures between movements in Europe for book on European social movements.
  • “Gramsci in Mayo” paper on theorising social movements in Ireland.

Marcos Ancelovici

  • Affiliation: Department of Sociology, McGill University, Canada.
  • Bio & web: Current project: Anti-Austerity Protests in France and Spain and Occupy movement in Montreal, Canada.
  • Email: marcos.ancelovici(at)mcgill.ca
  • Keywords/Themes: Composition and agenda (Who the occupiers were and what they wanted); Significance, usefulness and limits of framing demands in terms of “we are the 99%”; Participative democracy and the role of assemblies; and, the importance of problem-solving goals in social movements (what difference do they make for mobilization and for the sustainability of the movement?).
  • Focus places: Spain, France and Montreal.
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

  • Paper on the Spanish Indignados to be presented at the CES conference;
  • Preliminary results about who the occupiers were and what they wanted. Based on survey at the site of the occupation in Montreal (my students and I interviewed 75 people).
  • Short paper on the significance, usefulness and limits of framing demands in terms of “we are the 99%” (Paper in French).

Christian Scholl

  • Affiliation: Lecturer Political Science, University of Amsterdam.
  • Bio & web: Current research project: Emergence of indignant movement in Europe
  • Email: c.scholl(at)uva.nl
  • Keywords/Themes: Tensions with Bottom-up democracy
  • Focus places: Europe and Amsterdam.
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Ana Margarida Esteves

  • Affiliation: Tulane University
  • Bio & web: Current research project: Insurgent Economics: The Solidarity Economy movement and the developmentalist state in Brazil (book manuscript based on my dissertation)
  • Email: aesteves(at)tulane.edu
  • Keywords/Themes: Chronology of events and the "contagion" effect between the Arab Spring, the protest movements in Greece, Spain and Portugal and the Occupy movement in the USA.
  • Focus places: Portugal and USA
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Maite Tapia

  • Affiliation: Ph.D. Candidate at Cornell University. This academic year visiting student at MIT (Institute for Work and Employment Research - Sloan Department of management).
  • Bio & web: Current research project: As part of my dissertation, I focus on the diffusion of community organizing from the US to the UK and Germany, as well as the mobilization capacity and organizational processes of community organizations and trade unions in the US and Europe. I started very preliminary research on the Occupy movement,
  • Email: mtapia81(at)gmail.com
  • Keywords/themes: Diffusion of ideas; International scale; The role of the labor movement and whether/how they shaped the rise of these new social movements.
  • Focus places: Occupy movement, UK and Germany.
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Elzbieta Cizewska

  • Affiliation: University of Warsaw
  • Bio & web:
  • Email: e.cizewska(at)uw.edu.pl, cizewska(at)gmail.com
  • Themes/topics: Cultural approaches to social movements.
  • Focus places: Poland
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Francesca Vassallo

  • Affiliation: University of Southern Maine
  • Bio & web:
  • Email: francesca.vassallo(at)maine.edu
  • Themes/topics: French protest activism during austerity policies.
  • Focus places: France
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

  • Paper for the CES: French Protest and Tradition: Mobilization against the New Minimum Retirement Age. University of Southern Maine

Alice Mattoni

  • Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh and OWS Pittsburgh
  • Bio & web: Phd.
  • Email:
  • Themes/topics: Precarity movement in Italy
  • Focus places: Occupy movement, Pittsburgh, Italy.
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed?

Related work:

Colin Ruggero

  • Affiliation: PhD Candidate, Sociology. The New School for Social Research.
  • Bio & web:
  • Email: ecolinr@gmail.com
  • Themes/topics: PhD Dissertation- A City and Its Occupation (Occupy Philly and the Micropoltics of Social Change). This is a long term project, begun prior to the emergence of Occupy Philly. I am both a research and participant, deeply involved with Occupy Philly in both senses. In the most simple sense, the project asks: Why does Occupy Philly look, sound, act, and transform in the way it does, and what can this tell us about contemporary social movements more generally?
  • Focus places: Occupy movement, Pittsburgh, Italy
  • Goals of the workshop? Questions that trigger you and would like to be addressed? .

Related work:

  • Paper would deal with above topic, but would be a small section representing my very early work. Due to personal familiarity with the Philadelphia Punk community, initial analyses have been possible with early data in this community, whereas further research aims at broadening this scope. Here is a brief abstract: "The emergence of the U.S. Occupy Movement (OM) has raised a host of complex questions about the nature of ‘social change’ in contemporary Western societies. This article represents the reflections of a young social movement scholar and Occupy participant, struggling to make sense of OM in terms of social movement scholarship and actual activist experience. Drawing on six months of ethnographic research within Occupy Philadelphia (OP), three preliminary insights are highlighted here, analyzed in relation to both ‘the study’ and ‘the practice’ of social movements. First, OP intimately reflects the city itself, its history and geography, tensions and dynamics. Analysis of this contextual relationship highlights the need to reevaluate the ahistorical, universalizing tendencies that pervade social movement literature. Rather than abstracting movements from their historical and cultural contexts, the case of OP suggests the importance of understanding a movement’s specific contexts. Second, close attention to individual OP participant experiences underscores how movement contexts offer significant insight into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of social movements. An analysis of the differential participation of Philadelphia Punks in OP demonstrates how grounded, culturally sensitive research can lend crucial analytical insights not currently accessible through approaches found in the literature. Finally, the methodological implications of the suggested approach are discussed, arguing that the literature’s fondness for ‘spectacular’ and explicitly ‘political’ social movement activity is incomplete and limiting. Greater attention should be given to understanding specific movement contexts, actual actors’ daily experiences and practices, and how these specific rationalities relate to the formation of activist networks and movement canopies."

Other scholars that show interest in the topic and we are connected to

Dr. Prof. Yochai Benkler Dr. Prof. Manuel Castells Dr. Prof. Donatella della Porta Dr. Prof. Joan Subirats Dr. Prof. James Jasper Dr. Andrea Teti

Zeynep Tufekci

Related work:

Exchange and systematization of resources on the topic

Add links to articles, research, people and more.

Video Berkman presentations:

Occupy research:

Blog posts:

Discussion agenda

Clusters of issues: working progress.

Systematization of insights for the issues to be address: Insights on topics

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