RESEARCH ARTICLE Being the change: protest as performative discourse in the Occupy Portland encampment Lois Ruskai Melina* Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies, Union Institute & University, Cincinnati, OH, USA A study of the lived experience of seven protesters who participated in the encamp- ment associated with the Occupy movement in Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2011 revealed that the encampment functioned as both performance intended to engage external audiences in the goals of the movement and as a performative discourse that constituted a caring
Introduction As a form of protest, encampments are places both where participants strive for horizontal organising and a different way of living outside the neoliberal order, and where the hierarchies, violence and inequalities of wider society are reproduced on a small scale. In my chapter, I focus on this tension as it was made visible in the anti-austerity movement in May 2011 in Spain, when thousands of people took to the streets and camped in the squares of the country’s main cities, and when feminists and queer movements were also vocal critics of the
a specific characteristic of the encampments. Others, however, committed themselves to addressing the gendered violence, through direct and indirect action. The varied strategies to construct ‘safe’ or ‘safer’ spaces, however, demonstrated a varied understanding of gendered violence, including who it impacts and the way it might intersect with other forms of oppression. Complicating this struggle further was the external co-optation of these allegations to discredit the movement and justify eviction. Conservative media outlets seized on the spectre of sexual
their daily lives, including food, medical support and entertainment – and based in the digital sphere, with participants amplifying the movement online and dialoguing across camps and across spaces on social media. Some scholars and journalists argued that the Occupy movement was dominated by White men, that sexism was rampant but ignored in the encampments and movement organisations, and that feminism was peripheral to the movement ( Butler, 2011 ; McVeigh, 2011 ; Pickerill and Krinsky, 2012 ; Reger, 2015 ; Eschle, 2018 ; Montoya, 2019 ). Yet others took the
labour force. These three postcolonial settings represent different historic, political and socio-economic contexts. Yet it is striking that in spite of local specificities, the colonial legacies of mobility management appear in all cases in contemporary migration policies. Reviewing mobility related practices such as collective refoulement , massive forced removals and strict encampment policies, we aim at debunking the narrative of exceptionalism that is often associated with such policies and oftentimes mobilized to legitimate harsh measures and strict regulations
This ground-breaking collection interrogates protest camps as sites of gendered politics and feminist activism.
Drawing on case studies that range from Cold War women-only peace camps to more recent mixed-gender examples from around the world, diverse contributors reflect on the recurrence of gendered, racialised and heteronormative structures in protest camps, and their potency and politics as feminist spaces.
While developing an intersectional analysis of the possibilities and limitations of protest camps, this book also tells new and inspiring stories of feminist organising and agency. It will appeal to feminist theorists and activists, as well as to social movement scholars.
Since the Conservative government’s reform of the law and policy relating to accommodation for Travelling People (Gypsies and Travellers) in 1992, there have been no changes to the legislation, despite a major review of housing law and policy commenced by the current Labour government in 2000. A primary motive given for the 1992 legal reforms was financial: that the cost to the public purse of providing sites for Travelling People was unjustifiably high. Yet no study was ever done into the costs of not providing sites.
In addition to exploration of the financial costs experienced by local authorities in the UK, both as landowners and as providers of public services, the book also examines the financial, human and social costs suffered by private landowners, police services and Travelling People themselves. The book places these costs in context both by exploring the process of change to law and policy in this field in 1992, and the issues now raised by the ‘Best Value’ regime and other new obligations placed on public bodies by human rights and race relations laws.
The book will be invaluable reading for practitioners and policy makers in housing, planning, equality issues, education, welfare and policing at local and national levels. It will also be of interest to social policy and social work academics and students, and to Travelling People themselves.
From the squares of Spain to indigenous land in Canada, protest camps are a tactic used around the world. Since 2011 they have gained prominence in recent waves of contentious politics, deployed by movements with wide-ranging demands for social change. Through a series of international and interdisciplinary case studies from five continents, this topical collection is the first to focus on protest camps as unique organisational forms that transcend particular social movements’ contexts. Whether erected in a park in Istanbul or a street in Mexico City, the significance of political encampments rests in their position as distinctive spaces where people come together to imagine alternative worlds and articulate contentious politics, often in confrontation with the state.
Written by a wide range of experts in the field the book offers a critical understanding of current protest events and will help better understanding of new global forms of democracy in action.
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.
How can Archaeology help us understand our contemporary world? This ground-breaking book reflects on material, visual and digital culture from the Calais “Jungle” – the informal camp where, before its destruction in October 2016, more than 10,000 displaced people lived.
LANDE: The Calais ‘Jungle’ and Beyond reassesses how we understand ‘crisis’, activism, and the infrastructure of national borders in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, foregrounding the politics of environments, time, and the ongoing legacies of empire.
Introducing a major collaborative exhibit at Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, the book argues that an anthropological focus on duration, impermanence and traces of the most recent past can recentre the ongoing human experiences of displacement in Europe today.
This original and timely text is the first published research from the UK to address the neglected topic of the increasing (and largely enforced) settlement of Gypsies and Travellers in conventional housing. It highlights the complex and emergent tensions and dynamics inherent when policy and popular discourse combine to frame ethnic populations within a narrative of movement.
The authors have extensive knowledge of the communities and experience as policy practitioners and researchers and consider the changing culture and dynamics experienced by ethnic Gypsies and Travellers. They explore the gendered social, health and economic impacts of settlement and demonstrate the tenacity of cultural formations and their adaptability in the face of policy-driven constraints that are antithetical to traditional lifestyles.
The groundbreaking book is essential reading for policy makers; professionals and practitioners working with housed Gypsies and Travellers. It will also be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, social policy and housing specialists and anybody interested in the experiences and responses of marginalized communities in urban and rural settings.
Royalties for this book are to be divided equally between the Gypsy Council and Travellers Aid Trust.
