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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).

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)

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

Related work:

Dalida María Benfield

Related work:

Sasha Costanza-Chock

Related work:

Ethan Zuckerman (TBC)

Related work:


Rob Faris

Related work:

Bruce Etling

Related work:

Nagla Rizk

  • Affiliation: American University of Cairo
  • Bio & web:
  • Email:
  • Keywords/themes:
  • Focus cases: Egypt

Related work:

Colin Maclay

Related work:

Amar Ashar

Related work:

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

Related work:

Nicole Doerr

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@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
  • Related work: See above

Charlotte Ryan

  • Affiliation: Boston College's Social Movements seminar
  • Bio & Web:
  • Email:
  • Keyword/Themes: Homeless movement and their use of cellphones for activism.
  • Focus places: Occupy Movement, Boston

Related work:

Jason Pramas

  • 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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Related work: possibly as scheduled for CES conference

Alice Mattoni

  • Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh.
  • Bio & web: Phd.
  • Email:
  • Themes/topics: Precarity movement in Italy
  • Focus places: Occupy movement, Pittsburgh, Italy.

Related work:

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

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

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