Occupy: In Theory and Practice

Abstract

Relations programmes. His work focuses on the following areas interrelated areas: first, the constitution of modes of political subjectivity (in 'radical', liberal, neoliberal and conservative forms), and the relationship with dominant economic structures and forms of social identity, and second, the philosophical understanding of social movements (including anti-globalisation, anti-capitalism, Occupy, etc.) with specific reference to Marxist, post-Marxist, post-anarchist, and autonomist perspectives. Correspondence address:School AbstractThis paper situates the discourse of the Occupy movement within the context of radical political philosophy. Our analysis takes place on two levels. First, we conduct an empirical analysis of the 'official' publications of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and Occupy London (OL). Operationalising core concepts from the framing perspective within social movement theory, we provide a descriptive-comparative analysis of the 'collective action frames' of OWS and OL. Second, we consider the extent to which radical political philosophy speaks to the discourse of Occupy. Our empirical analysis reveals that both movements share diagnostic frames, but there were notable differences in terms of prognostic framing. The philosophical discussion suggests that there are alignments between anarchist, post-anarchist and post-Marxist ideologies at the level of both identity and strategy. Indeed, the absence of totalising anti-capitalist or anti-statist positions in Occupy suggests that -particularly with Occupy Londonalignments are perhaps not so distant from typically social democratic demands.