DOCSLIB.ORG

ON RADICAL GROUNDS: a RHETORICAL TAKE on the EMERGENCE of #OCCUPY in TIME, PLACE, and SPACE by MEGHAN MARIE DUNN B.A., Texas

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ON RADICAL GROUNDS: a RHETORICAL TAKE on the EMERGENCE of #OCCUPY in TIME, PLACE, and SPACE by MEGHAN MARIE DUNN B.A., Texas ON RADICAL GROUNDS: A RHETORICAL TAKE ON THE EMERGENCE OF #OCCUPY IN TIME, PLACE, AND SPACE by MEGHAN MARIE DUNN B.A., Texas State University, 2005 M.A., University of Texas, 2008 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication 2015 This thesis entitled: On Radical Grounds: A Rhetorical Take on the Emergence of #Occupy in Time, Place, and Space written by Meghan Marie Dunn has been approved for the Department of Communication (Dr. Gerard A. Hauser) (Dr. Peter Simonson) Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. IRB protocol # 15-0064 Dunn, Meghan Marie (Ph.D., Communication) On Radical Grounds: A Rhetorical Take on the Emergence of #Occupy in Time, Place, and Space Thesis directed by Emeritus Professor Gerard A. Hauser This dissertation explores how the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the Occupy Movement (OM) writ large generated new forms of rhetorical invention through its emergence in geographical places and virtual spaces across the world. The genesis and development of Occupy on these “radical” grounds provide an empirical grounding to theory on the chora, rhetorical invention, and the vernacular, where the word occupy and the tactic occupation designate vital sites (topoi) of rhetorical activity: seats/sources of local meaning(s) that occupiers used to bring new lines of thought to life. The radical uptake of “occupy” would create what Edward Schiappa calls a definitional rupture: a disruption of the “natural attitude” around the meaning or usage of a word. To suture this gap, I acknowledge the ethical and normative ramifications that accompany the act of definition as a political act and then conduct a philological analysis on ‘occupy’ and ‘occupation’ by tracing these words to their earliest or “radical” roots. I then attend to the emergence of OWS in the place of Zuccotti Park/Liberty Plaza, followed by its first call to action and popular uptake in virtual streams and media, where both places produced new vernacular modalities and media. In gesturing to the disaster sociology literature on emergent citizen groups (ECGS) and emergent phenomena, this assembly of Occupy in time, place, and space, radically reconceives ‘what it means’ to “occupy” common places and spaces towards the creation of new socio-economic realities in response to crisis. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Occupy, occupiers, and all those that continue to hold space for the emergence of new realities. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor, Jerry, for his time and tenor in this project. His continued mentorship and humor have been instrumental to the generation and completion of this project. Secondly, I’d like to express the deepest gratitude to my living “patron saint,” Margaret, who taught me the meaning of Mutual Aid. I would not have been able to live in New York and pursue this project in the manner I did were it not for her unwavering support, her Polish pierogies, and her making me feel at home. As for those I’d like to acknowledge in Occupy, there are too many to list, but to name a few: Brandi Williams Palmer, Drew Hornbein, Katie, Jackrabbit, Ale & Nicole, Dicey, Tess, Priscilla, Pablo, Brett, Phoebe, Shane, Ethan, Cecily, Shawn, Rahee, Charles, Nick & Mariya, Lucky, Danielle, Schlomo, Thiago, Ingrid, Becky, Josh, Jenny, ALL the Puppet People, Andy Gimma, and Kelli Daley. I’d also like to acknowledge the first person I met from Occupy Wall Street in NYC, Justin Stone Diaz, who introduced me to Stan Williams—a person who deserves an entire acknowledgement page unto himself—and to the Think Tank, whose members reached out to me, took me in, and ultimately gave me a foothold in an otherwise nebulous movement and city. I am eternally grateful for the kindness and creativity I was shown by those working to make the world a better place. On a more local (Boulder) front, I’d like to thank Patty Malesh for her encouragement to explore and participate in Occupy, for her informal advising of the dissertation, and for her creating a space conducive to “getting it done.” I’d also like to acknowledge Tiernan Doyle for her constant encouragement, for her translation of key Greek terms in this dissertation, and for keeping Boulder Flood Relief—formerly Occupy Boulder Flood Relief—alive and moving as our executive director. Thank you for keeping the goodness and integrity of this effort a viable, living, entity. To Daniel Hyunjae Kim: thank you for your friendship and camaraderie over these v past 5 years. Our conversations about rhetoric are some of my most cherished memories…many of which were diligently/candidly recorded on video for future generations, of course. To Daniel Kopyc: thank you for helping to keep the spirit of this project alive and kicking in good faith/bona fides. You saw beauty in this effort in ways that I still struggle to put into words; thank you. To my committee and department members: thank you for providing intellectual support and for allowing me to spend a year participating in Occupy at its epi-center. While not on the committee, I’d like to thank Bob Craig and Rosa Eberly, who engaged with me on @Occupy-related accounts and took seriously my efforts of bringing rhetoric and meta communication online. On a familial front, I’d like to acknowledge the support and love of my family, both immediate and extended, who have given me something [so beautiful] to talk about “in the first place.” You’re the reason why I understood love to be the driving force of rhetoric. Finally, in the spirit of revolution—of “coming full circle”—I’d like to acknowledge a word that arrived in conjunction with the greatest epiphany of my life thus far: trincident. While this word is not colloquially used/recognized as a word, its unexpected but kairotic arrival—at the Denver Westword Music Showcase on June 18, 2011, mid-way through the last headliner/performance of the night—gave me a way to name the co-inciding of events or “emergent phenomena” in time, place, and space. I mention this here since this word would ultimately bring me into the fold of the Occupy Movement. Following through with this word would consequently find me working in the sector of crisis/disaster response and relief. For the purposes of this project, it would be negligent not to acknowledge and name the word that would help me understand what it is to “occupy” a thing for the sake of a higher good or a higher love. vi CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Integrated Choric Components ................................................................................9 Arrangement of the Dissertation ...........................................................................11 I. THEORY ON PLACE (TOPOS) AND SPACE (CHORA) ........................................19 Topos and Chora: Between a Rock and an Open Place .........................................23 The Chora: Past and Present ..................................................................................25 Radical Conceptions of the Chora .........................................................................30 The Place of Love ..................................................................................................33 Theorizing the Vernacular with the Chora.............................................................37 The Emergence of Vernacular Rhetoric Studies ....................................................41 The Word and Early Concept of the Vernacular ...................................................49 Vernacular Hybridity .............................................................................................51 Incommensurate Logics: “Outlaw” Invocations of Authority ...............................55 The Virtual Ekklesia ..............................................................................................58 The Reticulate Public Sphere .................................................................................62 II. METHODS ..................................................................................................................68 Objectives and Research Question.........................................................................68 Methods on the Margins ........................................................................................73 Rhetorical Field Methods .......................................................................................75 Participatory Epistemology ....................................................................................78 vii Research Design.....................................................................................................79 Publically Available Information ...........................................................................81 Non-public Documents ..........................................................................................82 Emails ........................................................................................................82 Public and Private Listservs ......................................................................83 Google Drive .............................................................................................84
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Brief History of Occupy Wall Street ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE by Ethan Earle Table of Contents
    A Brief History of Occupy Wall Street ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG NEW YORK OFFICE By Ethan Earle Table of Contents Spontaneity and Organization. By the Editors................................................................................1 A Brief History of Occupy Wall Street....................................................2 By Ethan Earle The Beginnings..............................................................................................................................2 Occupy Wall Street Goes Viral.....................................................................................................4 Inside the Occupation..................................................................................................................7 Police Evictions and a Winter of Discontent..............................................................................9 How to Occupy Without an Occupation...................................................................................10 How and Why It Happened........................................................................................................12 The Impact of Occupy.................................................................................................................15 The Future of OWS.....................................................................................................................16 Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, November 2012 Editors: Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114,
    [Show full text]
  • 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]
  • Conceptualizing the State of Movement-Based Counter-Power:I Peter N
    This essay was submitted as part of TNI's call for papers for its S tate of Power 2015 report. The essay was not shortlisted for the final report and therefore TNI does not take responsibility for its contents. However the Editorial Board appreciated the essay and it is posted here as recommended reading. Conceptualizing the State of Movement-Based Counter-power:i Peter N. Funke Abstract This essay presents a conceptual perspective on the dominant and novel logic informing today’s social movement-based counter-power. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s image of the rhizome, this essay analytically accentuating the nature and workings as well as the challenges and shortcomings of contemporary movement-based counter-power. This “Rhizomatic Movement Logic” has been emerging in conjunction with shifting dynamics of neoliberal capitalism as well as in conversation with older forms of left movement-based counter power. It thrives on multiplicity and thus lacks a dominant core or main axis and emphasizes radical participatory democracy and horizontal organizational forms, media and communication tools, multi-connectivity and heterogeneity of political struggles, with no central actor, issue, strategy, or ideology beyond opposition to a neoliberal society. Moreover, it displays a reluctance to resilient longer-term organizing and (at least in parts of the global north) to making policy demands on the state. Introduction The last decades have seen massive protests and mobilizations against rising inequality, war, the dispossession of rights and entitlements,
    [Show full text]
  • The House at 702 Vermont Street in Brooklyn Doesn't Stand Out. It's One in a Series of Two-Story Brick Houses That Extends T
    #Map The house at 702 Vermont Street in Brooklyn doesn’t stand out. It’s one in a series of two-story brick houses that extends the length of its block in East New York. Like many of its neigh- bors, the house has a narrow, fenced front yard leading to a few stairs and a porch that has been enclosed and incorpo- rated into the house. Trees partially screen its tan vinyl sid- ing and blue cornice. After picking up the kids at Public School 213, you might drive right past it without noticing as you pulled up to the Jonathan Massey light at New Lots Avenue. Syracuse University Open Trulia or another real estate app on your phone, though, and you’ll Brett Snyder learn a lot about the house, including the fact that while the current owner University of California, Davis bought it in 2007 for $424,500 and the house is taxed based on an assessed value of $384,000, its estimated market price is $286,000. There’s a good chance this house is underwater, mortgaged at a value that far exceeds its market value. Indeed, plug in the address at NYC CityMap, the GIS-based portal for municipal information and public records, and you’ll see that when the current owner bought the house five years ago, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (MERS) recorded a primary mortgage of $339,600 and a secondary loan of $84,900. A year and a half later, the company assigned one of the mortgages to Countrywide Home Loans.
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of Debt
    powerthe debtof Identity & Collective Action in the Age of Finance contents introduction 4 i Financialization and Household Debt 7 ii Indebtedness Today: 2008—2018 18 iii Debtor as Political Identity 29 iv Debtor Collective Action: A Case Study 40 conclusion 52 authors Hannah Appel is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Univer- sity of California, Los Angeles, and a founding member of the Debt Collective. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on the daily life of capitalism and the economic imagination. She has a forthcom- ing book (Duke 2019) on U.S. oil companies in Central Africa, and has published extensively on Occupy Wall Street and the economic imagination. Her research has been supported by the National Sci- ence Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Mel- lon Foundation, among others. Sa Whitley is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Gender Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, a Part-Time Faculty member at Maryland Institute College of Art, and a Visiting Grad Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, their ethnographic dissertation project explores the afterlives of the subprime foreclosure crisis - particularly how black women and femmes organize against the gendered racism that underwrites foreclosure, gentrification, and speculative real estate development. They work with collectives that devise alternative models for community building that decenter heteronormativity and market individualism. Their research has been supported by the UC Consortium for Black Studies and the Center for the Study of Women. Caitlin Kline is an advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission on derivatives enforcement issues.
    [Show full text]
  • Combining Distributed and Centralized Systems in Disaster Response Willow Brugh, Galit Sorokin, Yaneer Bar-Yam
    3 Combining Distributed and Centralized Systems in Disaster Response Willow Brugh, Galit Sorokin, Yaneer Bar-Yam Abstract Hierarchical control models have dominated organizational structures for thousands of years. Increasingly, the power of distributed organizations for performing complex tasks is becoming apparent. The​ strength of centralized decision making systems lies in consistency, continuity, and availability of resources. However, the inherent structure which leads to these strengths also limits the ability to respond to highly complex information. In this paper we explore the strength of the Occupy Sandy mutual aid organization. Where centralized systems fall short are in areas requiring responsive flexibility to dynamic conditions. Networks operating as distributed systems have intrinsic qualities of adaptivity, immediacy, and appropriateness that allow them to succeed where centralized systems fail. Despite having complementary modes to the other's gaps, these two modes of decision making are generally not mixed in response situations. Overcoming the strategic challenges of combining distributed and centralized systems can add capacity to the overall system. This paper outlines an example of such a combined system working successfully in the field, contributing to a more complete overall response to Superstorm Sandy. Understanding the components that make such a mixed-mode system possible requires understanding how a distributed network and the interfacing between the modes function. The insights gained provide an intentional mixed-mode, holistic approach to response capable of being extrapolated to other systems-based operating contexts. Overview Much of management practice is concerned with distributing control, authority, and decision making. It is increasingly apparent that hierarchical organizations face challenges in responding to complex environments and tasks1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Locals Do It Better? the Strange Victory of Occupy Sandy Peer Illner
    Chapter 3 The Locals Do It Better? The Strange Victory of Occupy Sandy Peer Illner It is Thursday, November 8, 2012 at St. Jacobi Church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It’s a bright, dry day.1 Just one week earlier, Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the East Coast, ravaging everything in its wake. In New York City, thousands of houses are destroyed or flooded. Thousands of households in the low-lying areas of Staten Island, Red Hook, and the Rockaways are still without electricity. At St. Jacobi Church, young people with smartphones and walkie-talkies are sifting through piles of donations, sorting canned food, diapers, torches, candles, bed covers, and power generators into stacks, and loading these items onto trucks. A young man with a scruffy-looking beard posts on Facebook: “Attention! If anyone in Rockaway needs to have their basement pumped, please contact Suzanne Hamalak at [email protected]. Her family wants to help and have industrial pumps […] they will do it for free.”2 The young man is part of Occupy Sandy, Occupy Wall Street’s disas- ter relief agency that set up camp in Brooklyn a day after the hurricane, while the Red Cross and FEMA were still struggling to get personnel out to New York’s hardest-hit areas. The most lethal and destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Sandy’s immediate death toll in New York City alone was 97, fol- lowed by weeks-long power cuts and billions of dollars in damage.3 Further- more, Sandy revealed the staggering vulnerability of low-lying New York City areas that proved incapable of protecting their property.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hurricane Sandy Charitable Organization and House of Worship
    The Hurricane Sandy Charitable Organization and House of Worship Recovery Task Force | Final Report ​ TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements …….……………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 ​ A Note from the Authors …………………………………………….……………………………………………... 4 ​ List of Acronyms ………….……………………………………………………………………………………………... 5 ​ Key Terminology …………………………….…………………………………………………………………………… 6 ​ Executive Summary …………………….……………………………………………………………………………… 7 ​ Introduction ……………………………………………..……………………………………………………………….... 9 ​ The Value of Charitable Organizations …………………………………………………………………….. 9 Hurricane Sandy …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Establishment of the Task Force …………………..………………………………………………………….. 13 ​ Project Organization ……………………………………………………..……………………………………..… 14 Methodology …………………………..……….………………………………………………………………………… 16 ​ Task Force Meetings ……..……………………………………………………………………………………….. 16 Literature Review ………………………………………………………………………………………………...... 16 Datasets …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 16 Limitations ………………………………………….……………………………………………………………….... 18 Analysis of Damages and Losses by Charitable Organizations ………….….……….…..…. 19 ​ Infrastructural Damages ………………………………………………………………………………..………. 20 Damages to Service Provided ………………………………………………………………………………… 26 Case Study: YANA Community Center …………………………………………………………..……….. 27 Future Resources, Recovery and Rebuilding Aid ………………….……………………………...… 29 ​ Overview of Recovery Aid ………………………………………………………………………………………. 29 Financial Aid Assessment ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 30 Case Study:
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    Democratic Communiqué 25, No. 2, Fall 2012, pp. 58-59 Cover Image / Tewksbury 58 Cover Image The End of Cynicism The photo on the cover of this issue of the Democratic Communique comes from Zuccotti Park on October 13, 2011. It features Occupy Wall Street’s citizen media committee in New York City: Self-produced, DIY media by and for the movement through audio and video podcasts, web presence, and collaborative media projects. Its media content was mostly distributed via tens of thousands of social media links, but also word-of-mouth shar- ing, independent media outlets, and even print media through the encampment’s newspaper, The Occupied Wall Street Journal. But in New York that day, it was immediately clear that Occupy was a serious move- ment, even if it was making up its rules and agenda as it went along. The mobilized partici- pants in the park that October were cooperating with an idealism unmatched by any in re- cent history, and in an era where competition and monetization and markets are the name of the game, it was an undeniably exciting moment. And one that would be short lived, too. The encampment would be cleared by the NYPD in a matter of weeks. As I’m sitting here today in mid-November, one year to the day since the clearing of Zuccotti Park, I’m not so sure that the end of the encampment was such the bad thing that I thought it was back then. By any measure, the occupation of space by hundreds of thou- sands of participants in more than 700 cities was a real success story of a mobilized global and local citizenry.
    [Show full text]
  • U.S. Far-Left Groups
    U.S. FAR-LEFT GROUPS www.counterextremism.com | @FightExtremism U.S. FAR-LEFT GROUPS Key Points Far-left groups in the United States in the 20th century largely focused on issue-specific causes such as Puerto Rican independence or environmentalism. Modern far-left groups largely focus on social justice issues such as racial equality and immigration rights. These groups often align with socialist or anti-capitalist values out of protest against wealth inequity. Gun ownership is a central characteristic of far-left groups such as the John Brown Gun Club and Redneck Revolt, which believe they must arm themselves for protection from the far right. These groups appear at protests brandishing firearms and serving as security forces while instructing others on how to use guns. Today’s far-left groups largely do not have hierarchal or even organizational structures like their far-right counterparts. U.S. President Donald Trump has called Antifa a terrorist group, but it is less a cohesive group and more a broad ideological opposition to perceived fascism. Antifa’s lack of a uniform doctrine or organization results in followers presenting sometimes opposing ideals. 1 Far-left extremism in the United States largely centers around the notion of correcting an injustice but is otherwise broad in its ideological catchment. In the 20th century, U.S. left-wing extremism was synonymous with either communism or causes such as environmentalism. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Weather Underground declared war against the U.S. government and carried out a campaign of political violence.1 According to the FBI, far-left extremism in the United States was most active during the period between the 1960s and 1980s.
    [Show full text]
  • Manifestations of Anti- Semitism in the 21St Century
    ANTI-SEMITISM RESURGENT: MANIFESTATIONS OF ANTI- ST SEMITISM IN THE 21 CENTURY 1 www.counterextremism.com | @FightExtremism ANTI-SEMITISM RESURGENT: MANIFESTATIONS OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY Key Points Modern anti-Semitism is a repackaging of historic tropes. Anti- Semites have adapted conspiracy theories of the blood libel as well as Jewish influence in economic and governmental affairs to fit new circumstances, such as the accusation that Jews are responsible for spreading COVID-19, just as Jews were accused of spreading the plague a millennium ago. Jews have historically been denied political and economic rights, and modern anti-Semitism is an expression of the rejection of Jewish integration into society. While the twentieth century saw the rise of influential Jewish politicians around the world as well as the creation of the Jewish nation-state of Israel, conspiracy theorists continue to accuse Jews of dual loyalties and exerting too much influence in world affairs. Partisan politicians are also increasingly willing to incorporate anti-Semitic tropes into their rhetoric to attack opponents they view as serving other interests. Blatantly anti-Semitic historical legal restrictions on Jewish life have evolved into modern laws restricting basic tenets of Jewish life—e.g., kosher slaughter and circumcision—with support from both the left and the right, who argue they are protecting animal and children’s rights. These laws largely do not specifically target Jews but still have the effect of restricting Jewish practice. 2 Table of Contents Anti-Semitism By The Numbers ............................................................................................ 8 Reviving Anti-Jewish Laws .................................................................................................. 31 Modern Political Anti-Semitism .......................................................................................... 34 Holocaust Denial .................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Studien Occupy
    STUDIEN ROBERT OGMAN THE U.S. OCCUPY MOVEMENT – SINCE THE EVICTION FROM THE SQUARES Study commissioned by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG ROBERT OGMAN studied social theory at The New School in New York and was active in the alterglobalisation movement. Following the evictions of the Occupy encampments in late 2011, he met with and interviewed participants. Today he lives in Berlin, where he’s researched, amongst other things, social movements in Germany and the U.S. In his PhD, he is analysing “social impact bonds” and “impact investing” as strategies of crisis governance. IMPRINT STUDIEN is published by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Responsible: Martin Beck Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 · 10243 Berlin, Germany · www.rosalux.de ISSN 2194-2242 · Editorial deadline: September 2013 Copy-editing: Eric Canepa Layout/Production: MediaService GmbH Druck und Kommunikation Printed on Circleoffset Premium White, 100 % recycled paper Table of ConTenTs TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 5 Crisis of Neoliberal Hegemony and Blocked Transformation. 5 Occupy Wall Street: A counter-neoliberal response ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Towards a counter-hegemonic bloc ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 Evicted from the squares: Regrouped on the front lines of the crisis . 6 Navigating the tensions as an agent of societal transformation. 6 Four interventions: Occupying the crisis . 7 1. ‘Occupy Our
    [Show full text]