Occupying the Political: Occupy Wall Street, Collective Action, and the Rediscovery of Pragmatic Politics

Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 13:3 (Forthcoming)

13 Pages Posted: 18 Sep 2012

See all articles by Daniel Kreiss

Daniel Kreiss

Stanford University

Zeynep Tufekci

Princeton University - Center for Information Technology Policy; University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill

Date Written: September 17, 2012

Abstract

In this paper we compare the institutional and strategic decision making structures of the civil rights movement with the Occupy movement with special emphasis on the role of self-expression as a political value versus strategic considerations. We argue that Occupy participants cast the values and form of the movement itself — how it operates and makes decisions — in terms that are synonymous with its very identity and survival. Occupy is the change that its members seek. There is both promise and peril in this approach. Occupy is finding it difficult to engage in institutional politics — which we argue is key to broad and durable societal transformations. We suggest that as Occupy goes home, and as it prepares to come back, it should renegotiate the tension between self-expression and strategic institutional action, and between movement itself as a goal and movement goals. In short, we argue that mistaking an anti-institutional style of participatory democracy and self-expression for both real democracy and radical capitalist critique undermines political power — and ultimately results in less progress towards participatory democracy as the movement becomes politically less relevant and less able to bring about societal change.

Keywords: social movements, occupy, civil rights movement, collective action

Suggested Citation

Kreiss, Daniel and Tufekci, Zeynep, Occupying the Political: Occupy Wall Street, Collective Action, and the Rediscovery of Pragmatic Politics (September 17, 2012). Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 13:3 (Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2147711

Daniel Kreiss

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

Zeynep Tufekci (Contact Author)

Princeton University - Center for Information Technology Policy ( email )

C231A E-Quad
Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
United States

University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill ( email )

102 Ridge Road
Chapel Hill, NC NC 27514
United States

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