Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

3 Reflexive framing Identities, protest dynamics and technology Introduction This chapter gives an account of the Prague plateau, a carnivalesque contestation of the IMF WB meeting held in September 2000. Our account draws on a range of sources including direct observation and video capture, interviews with activists from the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and United States, Czech, print media coverage, samizdat materials, activist video accounts and Indymedia sites. Through these diverse sources, we are able to capture something of the multi-layered nature of the meanings and processes structuring this plateau, rendering the underlying complexity visible. Analytically we focus upon the relationship between various forms of technological mediation widely regarded as central to global protests. CMC technologies are central to theoretical accounts emphasising the importance of network actors (Castells 1996, Hardt and Negri 2000, 2004) as emergent phenomena. Our account reveals the continuing importance of technologies that are more ‘mundane’, face-work contacts and mobilities through which a ‘virtual network’ is transformed into concrete acts of contestation. In this context the representation of acts of contestation within the public sphere assume a position of centrality in a struggle for legitimacy over world (dis)order. Understanding the dynamics of such contestation is dependent upon a degree of immersion within the network of networks operating as a ‘shadow realm’ (Welsh 2002) constituting subterranean structures which otherwise remain invisible. ‘Protests’ with a carnivalesque or dramaturgical element are complex social events expressing multi-layered cultural meanings which are symbolically coded and enacted with the potential to resonate or clash with wider social representations and perceptions. The action against the WB/IMF bank meeting in Prague on 26 September 2000 contained all these familiar elements, but brought together ‘national’ protest repertoires from across Europe and beyond. Such events are typically ‘known’ and ‘framed’ through their appearance within the public sphere in print and broadcast media. Media ‘snapshots’ such as these even form the methodological basis for some comparative social movement studies, despite being based on
44 Identities, protest dynamics and technology analysis of one newspaper per country. Such monochrome renditions lose the underlying event richness which arises, in part, from the multiple acts of definition and meaning found within such milieu (McKechnie and Welsh 2002). The Prague WB/IMF summit was the first major summit to occur outside the United States. The event had been identified as a site for a Czech action long before this but the consolidation of the AGM transformed this ‘national local’ event creating a ‘new’ phenomenon on the streets of Prague. Claims of ‘newness’ are always problematic within the social sciences, but this one is justified. The Czech Republic had just emerged as one of the transition democracies of Eastern Europe, a transition within which many of the high profile figures from the ‘dissident’ movement formed under Communist domination became figures of state, including the Czech President Vaclav Havel and the late Joseph Vavroueek as federal minister of the environment (Tickle and Welsh 1998). The action on S26 was the first by the AGM in a country where English was not the primary language. Since the 1989 ‘velvet’ revolution, when the streets of the capital city had been occupied by crowds for days on end, S26 was widely predicted to be a significant protest event. For the post-transition Czech Government it was certainly the most significant street event to have taken place since 1989. There are many ‘firsts’ here and this underlines the symbolic stakes associated with the event for all parties. Initial conditions and the ‘new democracies’ In terms of complexity theory, the founding of the transition or new democracies throughout Eastern Europe is a particularly clear example of the importance of initial conditions in understanding subsequent events. Here, two important factors are our understanding of the foregoing state of civil society and the degree of inclusiveness achieved during the transition period. Many accounts of the transitions assumed that under communist domination, the associations of civil society did not exist (Schöpflin 1993). Tickle and Welsh (1998: 164–167) demonstrate the existence of nascent civil societies of differing compositions throughout the period of communist domination. Here, environmentally orientated citizens initiatives formed a kernel around which much broader social and political concerns became articulated. Even in Poland, where Solidarity formed an apparently clear example of a transition dominated by religious and trades union forces, the role of far less formalised network actors using innovative direct action repertoires was central in reinvigorating Solidarity’s ‘stalled’ initiative (Kenney 2002). The existence of civil society actors at the point of transition has to be recognised as part of the initial conditions making the issue of inclusion critical in terms of understanding the contemporary milieu. Here we depart from the influential idea (Elster et al. 1998) that the degree of institutional inclusion achieved during the transition period
Page 2 and 3:
Complexity and Social Movements Che
Page 4 and 5: Complexity and Social Movements Mul
Page 6 and 7: Contents List of figures vi Acknowl
Page 8 and 9: Acknowledgements With thanks to all
Page 10: Preface ix activists and engaged ci
Page 13 and 14: 2 Introducing global movements poli
Page 15 and 16: 4 Introducing global movements arou
Page 17 and 18: 6 Introducing global movements esta
Page 19 and 20: 8 Introducing global movements Thes
Page 21 and 22: 10 Introducing global movements exp
Page 23 and 24: 12 Introducing global movements che
Page 25 and 26: 14 Introducing global movements Fra
Page 27 and 28: 16 Introducing global movements ‘
Page 29 and 30: 18 Introducing global movements for
Page 31 and 32: 20 Introducing global movements and
Page 33 and 34: 2 Prefiguration and emergence Intro
Page 35 and 36: 24 Prefiguration and emergence on T
Page 37 and 38: 26 Prefiguration and emergence 9 If
Page 39 and 40: 28 Prefiguration and emergence Prop
Page 41 and 42: 30 Prefiguration and emergence agai
Page 43 and 44: 32 Prefiguration and emergence C. E
Page 45 and 46: 34 Prefiguration and emergence The
Page 47 and 48: 36 Prefiguration and emergence Glob
Page 49 and 50: 38 Prefiguration and emergence In t
Page 51 and 52: 40 Prefiguration and emergence Neo-
Page 53: 42 Prefiguration and emergence from
Page 57 and 58: 46 Identities, protest dynamics and
Page 79 and 80: 68 States fight back when trust in
Page 81 and 82: 70 States fight back academically,
Page 83 and 84: 72 States fight back streets from d
Page 85 and 86: 74 States fight back ‘green Parli
Page 87 and 88: 76 States fight back to trivialise
Page 89 and 90: 78 States fight back beneath Big Be
Page 91 and 92: 80 States fight back ran out. The p
Page 93 and 94: 82 States fight back The attempt to
Page 95 and 96: 84 States fight back Accounts of th
Page 97 and 98: 86 States fight back hair, infringe
Page 99 and 100: 88 States fight back crisis is in e
Page 101 and 102: 5 Ecologies of action within global
Page 103 and 104: 92 Ecologies of action attractor wi
Page 105 and 106:
94 Ecologies of action embedded in
Page 107 and 108:
96 Ecologies of action The assimila
Page 109 and 110:
98 Ecologies of action compatibilit
Page 111 and 112:
100 Ecologies of action linking up
Page 113 and 114:
102 Ecologies of action occurred wi
Page 115 and 116:
104 Ecologies of action leading to
Page 117 and 118:
106 Ecologies of action siege of in
Page 119 and 120:
108 Beyond resistance to global nex
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
7 The death of collective identity?
Page 141 and 142:
130 Global movement as a parallelog
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
148 The map is not the territory th
Page 161 and 162:
150 The map is not the territory of
Page 163 and 164:
152 The map is not the territory Ne
Page 165 and 166:
154 The map is not the territory mi
Page 167 and 168:
156 The map is not the territory or
Page 169 and 170:
158 The map is not the territory mo
Page 171 and 172:
160 The map is not the territory of
Page 173 and 174:
162 The map is not the territory ne
Page 175 and 176:
Notes 1 Introducing global movement
Page 177 and 178:
166 Notes 12 Ya Basta’s! subseque
Page 179 and 180:
168 Notes 19 This practice has been
Page 181 and 182:
170 Notes Afro Bloc parading drum b
Page 183 and 184:
172 Bibliography Barker, C., Johnso
Page 185 and 186:
174 Bibliography De Sousa Santos, B
Page 187 and 188:
176 Bibliography Grubacic, A. (2003
Page 189 and 190:
178 Bibliography Lash, S. (2002) Cr
Page 191 and 192:
180 Bibliography O’Neill, J. (200
Page 193 and 194:
182 Bibliography Thompson, E.P. (19
Page 195 and 196:
Index Note: Page numbers in italics
Page 197 and 198:
186 Index class: affinities 93; and
Page 199 and 200:
188 Index G7 23 G8 23, 100; meeting
Page 201 and 202:
190 Index London 52, 63, 69, 116; E
Page 203 and 204:
192 Index Poland 44, 45; ‘Orange
Page 205 and 206:
194 Index Taylor, P. 168 n.2; call
show all

Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?