DOCSLIB.ORG

A Critical Ethnography of Occupy London

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Critical Ethnography of Occupy London Territory, Identity, Enunciation: a critical ethnography of Occupy London This thesis is submitted to the University of Manchester for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2016 James Matthews School of Social Sciences Contents Chapter 1 - Introduction .......................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Research aims and questions ......................................................................................... 9 1.2 Occupy London ............................................................................................................ 11 1.3 My occupation ............................................................................................................. 13 1.4 Contributions and interventions .................................................................................. 14 1.5 Thesis structure ............................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 2 - Writing Radical Spaces ........................................................................................ 23 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 23 2.2 The protest camp ......................................................................................................... 25 2.3 Politics in the everyday ................................................................................................ 27 2.4 Organising radical spaces ............................................................................................. 29 2.5 The effects of locality ................................................................................................... 30 2.6 Wider movements ....................................................................................................... 31 2.7 Collective and individual identities .............................................................................. 33 2.8 Political creativity ......................................................................................................... 35 2.9 Camp or campaign? ..................................................................................................... 38 2.10 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 3 - Being There: occupation and ethnography ......................................................... 41 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 41 3.2 Aims and questions restated ....................................................................................... 41 3.3 Research philosophy .................................................................................................... 42 3.4 Ethnography: method, philosophy, politics ................................................................. 44 3.5 My position .................................................................................................................. 48 3.6 A shifting role ............................................................................................................... 53 3.7 Delineating ‘the field’ ................................................................................................... 55 3.8 The shifting field of Occupy London ............................................................................ 56 3.9 Data collection ............................................................................................................. 59 3.9.1 Participant observation ......................................................................................... 59 3.9.2 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 62 3.9.3 Texts ...................................................................................................................... 65 3.10 Analysis ...................................................................................................................... 65 3.11 Ethics and politics....................................................................................................... 67 3.12 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 69 Chapter 4 - Occupation and Beyond: the territory of Occupy London .................................. 70 2 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 70 4.2 The space and territory of protest ............................................................................... 73 4.2.1 Space and the political .......................................................................................... 73 4.2.2 Territory as ‘refrain’ .............................................................................................. 76 4.3 Taking space, marking a centre .................................................................................... 80 4.4 The ‘home’ of occupation ............................................................................................ 86 4.4.1 Home and heterotopia .......................................................................................... 88 4.4.2 Heterotopic distortions ......................................................................................... 91 4.4.3 Progressive alterity ............................................................................................... 93 4.4.4 Things get weird .................................................................................................... 98 4.5 Beyond the boundary: opening up the occupation ................................................... 101 4.5.1 ‘Occupy Everywhere!’: Occupy as extra-territorial ............................................. 102 4.5.2 Attempts to transcend the camp ........................................................................ 105 4.6 The stagnation of ‘home’ ........................................................................................... 110 4.6.1 Thinking past eviction ......................................................................................... 111 4.6.2 Returning to St. Paul’s ......................................................................................... 115 4.6.3 Going ‘back into occupation’ .............................................................................. 116 4.7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 119 Chapter 5 - ‘We Are The 99 Percent’: between inequality and identity .............................. 122 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 122 5.2 The ‘99 percent’ formulation ..................................................................................... 125 5.2.1 Origins ................................................................................................................. 125 5.2.2 Understanding ‘the 99 percent’ in Occupy London ............................................ 126 5.3 The critique of inequality ........................................................................................... 128 5.3.1 Politicising inequality .......................................................................................... 129 5.3.2 Competing visions of inequality .......................................................................... 133 5.4 ‘The people’ as identity .............................................................................................. 138 5.4.1 The problem with ‘the people’ ........................................................................... 138 5.4.2 Erasing difference ............................................................................................... 139 5.4.3 Occupy London as ‘voice of the people’ ............................................................. 142 5.5 Representing the people: problems and partial solutions ........................................ 147 5.5.1 The performative slogan ..................................................................................... 148 5.5.2 Assembly and dynamic representation .............................................................. 152 5.5.3 The illusion of the constituted people ................................................................ 155 5.5.4 ‘Ordinary people’ ................................................................................................ 158 5.5.5 Representation through ‘diversity’ ..................................................................... 161 3 5.5.6 ‘Disagreement’ as bridge .................................................................................... 164 5.6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 168 Chapter 6 - Speech and Collectivity: assemblages of enunciation ...................................... 170 6.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 170 6.1.1 Collective assemblages of enunciation ............................................................... 175 6.2 The General Assembly ..............................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Real Democracy in the Occupy Movement
    NO STABLE GROUND: REAL DEMOCRACY IN THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT ANNA SZOLUCHA PhD Thesis Department of Sociology, Maynooth University November 2014 Head of Department: Prof. Mary Corcoran Supervisor: Dr Laurence Cox Rodzicom To my Parents ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is an outcome of many joyous and creative (sometimes also puzzling) encounters that I shared with the participants of Occupy in Ireland and the San Francisco Bay Area. I am truly indebted to you for your unending generosity, ingenuity and determination; for taking the risks (for many of us, yet again) and continuing to fight and create. It is your voices and experiences that are central to me in these pages and I hope that you will find here something that touches a part of you, not in a nostalgic way, but as an impulse to act. First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Laurence Cox, whose unfaltering encouragement, assistance, advice and expert knowledge were invaluable for the successful completion of this research. He was always an enormously responsive and generous mentor and his critique helped sharpen this thesis in many ways. Thank you for being supportive also in so many other areas and for ushering me in to the complex world of activist research. I am also grateful to Eddie Yuen who helped me find my way around Oakland and introduced me to many Occupy participants – your help was priceless and I really enjoyed meeting you. I wanted to thank Prof. Szymon Wróbel for debates about philosophy and conversations about life as well as for his continuing support.
    [Show full text]
  • SLSA Annual Conference
    SLSA Annual Conference Socio-legal in culture: the culture of socio-legal Tuesday 31st March – Thursday 2nd April 2015 We would like to thank our sponsors: 2 SOLUTIONS FOR STUDENTS FROM THOMSON REUTERS Help your students LEARN THE LAW with Sweet & Maxwell textbooks New editions for 2015 include: Hanbury & Glanville Williams Smith & Thomas: McEldowney: Martin: Modern Textbook of A Casebook Public Law Equity Criminal Law on Contract McEldowney Glister Baker Brownsword 4th Edition 20th Edition 20th Edition 13th Edition ■ PRINT ■ PRINT ■ PRINT ■ PRINT ■ KINDLE ■ PROVIEW™ ■ PROVIEW™ ■ PROVIEW™ ■ KINDLE ■ KINDLE ■ KINDLE And many more… See a better way forward at sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/academic Contents Welcome from the SLSA and Warwick Law School 1 SLSA Prize Winners 3 Schedule of Conference 4 Plenary Panel 9 Special Events 10 Poster Session in the Mead Gallery 12 Programme of Streams and Themes 18 Abstracts 44 Authors 173 Maps 183 Floor Plans 186 FAQ 191 Welcome to the SLSA Annual Conference 2015 As Chair of the Socio-Legal Studies Association, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the 25th annual SLSA Conference at Warwick Law School. With over 400 papers across 42 streams and themes the conference promises to be a vibrant and stimulating one. It is particularly pleasing that the SLSA should return to Warwick, which pioneered the contextual approach to the study of law, as the University is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The success of any conference is largely dependent on those who participate. Delegates are coming from around the world which we hope will facilitate comparative discussion and the establishment and strengthening of international socio-legal networks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Parade Darnley Mains M77
    A New Retail Destination THE PARADE Part of the Darnley Mains Mixed Use Development Silverburn Shopping Centre DARNLEY Glasgow City Centre MAINS G53 7PW J3 THE PARADE DARNLEY MAINS M77 Proposed Glasgow South Retail Park Available 2017 THE PARADE DARNLEY MAINS Darnley Mains is located approximately The site is bounded by the M77 to the 6.5 miles south west of Glasgow City east, a new residential development A New Retail Centre and is accessed off Junction by Bellway and Persimmon to the 3 of the M77. This is the main arterial west/south and B&Q to the north. Destination route connecting Glasgow City Centre Highly visible from the M77, and easily to its southern suburbs and onwards to connected via the busy intersection Ayrshire. The site itself is accessed from Junction 3 and the A726. Leggatston Road. THE PARADE DARNLEY Established MAINS Retail Conurbation Glasgow M80 International M73 including 100,000 sq ft Airport A82 B&Q Warehouse, 90,000 M8 M8 M8 Glasgow A8 sq ft Sainsbury’s, B&M City Centre Superstore, Matalan and Paisley McDonalds/Costa/KFC A761 Drive Thru’s M77 A726 M74 Silverburn A77 Shopping J2 Centre Cambuslang A724 J3 THE PARADE, A749 DARNLEY MAINS M74 J4 A736 A77 A726 A725 Hamilton Newton Mearns East Kilbride To Prestwick J5 International Airport Population On average within 5 miles of 1.5 miles Adjacent to Junction 3 of (5 minutes drive time) over 160,000 400,000 vehicles pass the site daily M77 Motorway people from Silverburn Regional Shopping Centre, attracting over 14 million on both the M77 and A726 shoppers per annum.
    [Show full text]
  • Willie Nelson Talks Music Legends Same Producers As “300,” Is Just As Bloody but Not Documentary Highlights As Big of a Hit with Some Audiences
    WE’RE THERE WHEN YOU CAN’T BE NELSON from Page 1 TheWEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER Baylor 16, 2011 Lariatwww.baylorlariat.com SPORTS Page 5 NEWS Page 3 A&E Page 4 A sweet reunion Baylor green is gold It’s no secret Baylor and the San Diego State Aztecs An initiative by the sustainability Clint Eastwood’s “J. Edgar,” follows the met Tuesday in the team’s first NIT department aims to make organization life of an FBI secret-keeper, from his semifinals together since 2009 meetings more environmentally friendly career highs to personal lows Vol. 112 No. 43 © 2011, Baylor University In Print >> 3-D flop “Immortals,” from the Willie Nelson talks music legends same producers as “300,” is just as bloody but not Documentary highlights as big of a hit with some audiences. Tommy Duncan’s career page 4 By Mandy Power Tommy Duncan fan club, with the Contributor idea for the documentary. “I had recently started work- >> An end in sight Willie Nelson is a famous ing at Baylor and thought this The Lariat Super League is musician in his own right, but would be a great opportunity for still going strong, with five the country star says his career my students to have a real-world teams coming close to the wouldn’t be the same without the experience,” Callaway said. playoffs this week. influence of old friend and west- The documentary highlights ern swing legend Tommy Dun- Duncan’s career as the lead singer can. for the band Bob Wills and the Page 5 Three students and a Baylor Texas Playboys.
    [Show full text]
  • THE RISE of LIFESTYLE ACTIVISM from New Left to Occupy
    THE RISE OF LIFESTYLE ACTIVISM From New Left to Occupy NIKOS SOTIRAKOPOULOS The Rise of Lifestyle Activism Nikos Sotirakopoulos The Rise of Lifestyle Activism From New Left to Occupy Nikos Sotirakopoulos Loughborough University United Kingdom ISBN 978-1-137-55102-3 ISBN 978-1-137-55103-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55103-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947743 © Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016 Th e author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifi ed as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and trans- mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Th e publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf at OAPEN Library
    Tweets and the Streets Gerbaudo T02575 00 pre 1 30/08/2012 11:04 Gerbaudo T02575 00 pre 2 30/08/2012 11:04 TWEETS AND THE STREETS Social Media and Contemporary Activism Paolo Gerbaudo Gerbaudo T02575 00 pre 3 30/08/2012 11:04 First published 2012 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Copyright © Paolo Gerbaudo 2012 The right of Paolo Gerbaudo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3249 9 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 3248 2 Paperback ISBN 978 1 8496 4800 4 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 8496 4802 8 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 8496 4801 1 EPUB eBook Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK and Edwards Bros in the United States of America Gerbaudo T02575 00 pre 4 30/08/2012 11:04
    [Show full text]
  • Darnley Mains
    MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT/LETTING OPPORTUNITY • Planning Permission in Principle (‘PPIP’) granted for a wide range of uses including Darnley Mains Class 1 Retail and Neighbourhood Centre Uses, Retail Warehousing, Hotel, Restaurant, GLASGOW Car Showroom, Nursery/Crèche and Business Space/ General Industrial M77 JUNCTION 3 • Fully serviced sites available for sale from 0.25 acres to 10+ acres • Design and Build Leasehold Opportunities available for all sites • Proposed Darnley Mains Retail Park to provide retail warehousing units from 5,000 sq ft TO LET/FOR SALE • 5 minutes south of Silverburn Shopping Centre which is located at J2 M77 • Immediately adjacent to Sainsburys, B&Q, Costa Coffee, McDonald’s, KFC, 34.69 acre (14.04 Ha) Carphone Warehouse, Subway and Domino’s Pizza. J3 M77 Motorway Recently acquired by KEY FACTS LOCATION PLANNING DEVELOPMENT ZONES THE OPPORTUNITY LEASE/LEGAL CONTACT Mixed use development / letting opportunity Darnley Mains on one of the most prominently located sites in Glasgow immediately accessed from Junction 3, M77, the main GLASGOW M77 JUNCTION 3 arterial route serving the south of the city A rare and fantastic opportunity for commercial occupiers across a wide range of uses to either acquire sites or secure representation through design and build leasehold opportunities. The very successful Silverburn Shopping Centre, which boasts in excess of 14 million visitors per High traffic volumes on both the annum, is located 1.5 miles north at M77 and A726. Over 73,000 cars junction 2 of the M77. Recently per day through J3 M77 with the A726 carrying around 20,000 extended to incorporate additional KEY FACTS restaurants, retail space and a vehicles per day.
    [Show full text]
  • Bourdieu for Beginners
    International Conference on Taxpayer Rights “Cosy deals”, Social Media and Tax Morale. Lynne Oats Cosy deals and other stories 2010: Vodafone: let off an unpaid bill of £6bn HMRC spokesman said: ‘It was agreed that Vodafone’s liability was £1.25bn ...There is no question of Vodafone having a tax liability of £6bn. That number is an urban myth” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11658950 2011 Goldman Sachs: ‘sweetheart’ tax deal “The deal reached between HMRC and Goldman Sachs was unlawful… in direct contradiction to HMRC’s duty to collect taxes and to do so properly, fairly and equally” http://ukuncutlegalaction.org.uk/2013/04/hmrc-in-the-high-court-over-goldman-sachs-sweetheart-tax-deal/ 2012 Comedian Jimmy Carr “I now realise I’ve made a terrible error of judgement” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18531008 The ‘public’ reacts October 2010 “Vodafone shops blockaded in tax protest” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11658950 “is made up of the people who take part in actions…We are you. We are ordinary people standing up (or sitting in) for what we believe in.” http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/ Since 2010 over 800 UK Uncut actions all over the country http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/about/ 2012 UK Uncut Legal Action re Goldman Sachs The ‘public’ reacts “Occupy London is part of a global movement that has brought together concerned citizens to fight for a new political and economic system…” http://occupylondon.org.uk/about-2/ Began outside the London Stock Exchange in 2011 Social media Facebook Global reach coupled with personal intimacy
    [Show full text]
  • Patrol Guide § 212-72
    EXHIBIT K AOR307 An Investigation of NYPD’s Compliance with Rules Governing Investigations of Political Activity New York City Department of Investigation Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD (OIG-NYPD) Mark G. Peters Commissioner Philip K. Eure Inspector General for the NYPD August 23, 2016 AOR308 AN INVESTIGATION OF NYPD’S COMPLIANCE WITH RULES GOVERNING AUGUST 2016 INVESTIGATIONS OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY Table of Contents Overview ............................................................................................................................... 1 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 11 I. NYPD Investigations of Political Activity: Handschu and Patrol Guide § 212-72 ....... 11 II. OIG-NYPD Investigation .............................................................................................. 12 Methodology and Access ..................................................................................................... 13 I. Treatment of Sensitive Information ............................................................................ 13 II. Compliance Criteria ..................................................................................................... 13 III. Scope and Sampling .................................................................................................... 14
    [Show full text]
  • Zerohack Zer0pwn Youranonnews Yevgeniy Anikin Yes Men
    Zerohack Zer0Pwn YourAnonNews Yevgeniy Anikin Yes Men YamaTough Xtreme x-Leader xenu xen0nymous www.oem.com.mx www.nytimes.com/pages/world/asia/index.html www.informador.com.mx www.futuregov.asia www.cronica.com.mx www.asiapacificsecuritymagazine.com Worm Wolfy Withdrawal* WillyFoReal Wikileaks IRC 88.80.16.13/9999 IRC Channel WikiLeaks WiiSpellWhy whitekidney Wells Fargo weed WallRoad w0rmware Vulnerability Vladislav Khorokhorin Visa Inc. Virus Virgin Islands "Viewpointe Archive Services, LLC" Versability Verizon Venezuela Vegas Vatican City USB US Trust US Bankcorp Uruguay Uran0n unusedcrayon United Kingdom UnicormCr3w unfittoprint unelected.org UndisclosedAnon Ukraine UGNazi ua_musti_1905 U.S. Bankcorp TYLER Turkey trosec113 Trojan Horse Trojan Trivette TriCk Tribalzer0 Transnistria transaction Traitor traffic court Tradecraft Trade Secrets "Total System Services, Inc." Topiary Top Secret Tom Stracener TibitXimer Thumb Drive Thomson Reuters TheWikiBoat thepeoplescause the_infecti0n The Unknowns The UnderTaker The Syrian electronic army The Jokerhack Thailand ThaCosmo th3j35t3r testeux1 TEST Telecomix TehWongZ Teddy Bigglesworth TeaMp0isoN TeamHav0k Team Ghost Shell Team Digi7al tdl4 taxes TARP tango down Tampa Tammy Shapiro Taiwan Tabu T0x1c t0wN T.A.R.P. Syrian Electronic Army syndiv Symantec Corporation Switzerland Swingers Club SWIFT Sweden Swan SwaggSec Swagg Security "SunGard Data Systems, Inc." Stuxnet Stringer Streamroller Stole* Sterlok SteelAnne st0rm SQLi Spyware Spying Spydevilz Spy Camera Sposed Spook Spoofing Splendide
    [Show full text]
  • Occupying Identities: Hierarchal Divisions and Collective Identity in the Occupy Movement
    1 Occupying Identities: Hierarchal Divisions and Collective Identity in the Occupy Movement By Bridget Eileen Stirling A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Supervisor: Dr. Phillip Vannini July 2015 Bridget Stirling, 2015 Occupying Identities 2 COMMITTEE APPROVAL The members of Bridget Stirling’s Thesis Committee certify that they have read the thesis titled Occupying Identities: Hierarchal Divisions and Collective Identity in the Occupy Movement and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication: Dr. Phillip Vannini [signature on file] Dr. David Black [signature on file] Dr. Robert Benford [signature on file] Final approval and acceptance of this thesis is contingent upon submission of the final copy of the thesis to Royal Roads University. The thesis supervisor confirms to have read this thesis and recommends that it be accepted as fulfilling the thesis requirements: Dr. Phillip Vannini [signature on file] Occupying Identities 3 Creative Commons Statement This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/. Some material in this work is not being made available under the terms of this
    [Show full text]
  • Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: Understanding the ‘New Student Rebellions’ Leon Sealey-Huggins and André Pusey
    Graduate Journal of Social GJSS Science Neoliberalism and Depoliticisation in the Academy: Understanding the ‘New Student Rebellions’ Leon Sealey-Huggins and André Pusey Since 2009 there has been an upsurge in political activity in and around the UK, as well as in some European and American universities. These ‘new student rebellions’ have displayed levels of radicalism and po- litical activism seemingly unprecedented among recent generations of students. Broadly speaking, the intensification of this activity can be understood as being directly related to ongoing neoliberal reforms of education, a process intensified by the global financial crisis. In this article we seek to consider some of the detail of the emergence of these rebellions, and argue that they can be interpreted as part of resistance to the neoliberal tendencies in contemporary social life. As such, we argue that a depoliticised tendency accompanies the introduc- tion of, and resistance to, neoliberal mechanisms in Higher Education (HE). As activists in groups who have adopted more creative and ex- plicitly politically antagonistic forms of activism, we suggest that such forms might be more productive arenas for our energies if we want to challenge the neoliberal and depoliticised root causes of these con- flicts. Keywords: Post-politics, Neoliberalism, Higher Education, NUS, Student Protest, Creative Resistance. The image of the future is chang- duced precarity (Compagna 2013; ing for the current generation of Southwood 2011; Standing 2011). young people, haunted by the spec- Young people are not the only ones tre of the ‘graduate with no future’ facing increasingly precarious fu- (Mason 2011, 2012; Gillespie and tures; current government austerity Habermehl 2012).
    [Show full text]