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The Occupy Model: A Site of Conflict and Opportunity

Sun, August 17, 12:30 to 1:30pm, TBA

Abstract

Occupy joined the newest wave of contention on September 17, 2011, when hundreds of people critical of the current political and economic system in the U.S. and inspired by the preceding revolts occupied a park in the financial district in New York City. Over the next several weeks, Occupy groups formed across the U.S. and around the world as tens of thousands of people joined the movement. Participants questioned the legitimacy of existing institutions, and sought to create a new movement based on non-hierarchical relationships and direct democracy. Occupy Wall Street re-popularized approaches from the past, such as taking over a physical location and practicing horizontal “leaderless” organizing structures. These approaches were quickly adopted by Occupy groups around the world. Interested in how model adoption would impact local occupations, I examine this process in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where many participants were unfamiliar with decentralized network structures. I find that participants’ understandings of and intentions with space-taking and horizontal practices point to deep political differences over a valuation of prefigurative politics. Drawing from previous scholarship on prefiguration in social movements, I analyze conflicts over space and structure in Occupy Pittsburgh. I argue that a shared understanding of and commitment to prefiguration is necessary for it to be a strategic approach, and greater attention to participant understandings can be beneficial to social movement actors and scholars interested in strengthening movements and explaining organizing shifts.

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