The Prefigurative Politics of Tahrir Square–An Alternative Perspective on the 2011 Revolutions

Sande, Mathijs van de

doi:10.1007/s11158-013-9215-9

Cited by 111 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…As we have noted, anarchism has featured in several accounts of OWS and other recent movements and uprisings (e.g., Bray 2013;Gibson 2013;Hammond 2015;Taylor 2013;van de Sande 2013). As Franks notes (2006, 196-200), historical examples of anarchist organisation can in fact be quite distinct from one another, ranging from workplace organisation to social movement organisation and affinity groups, on the one hand, and from highly participatory to highly centralised organisational structures, on the other.…”

Section: Anarchist Organisationmentioning

confidence: 82%

Undermining anarchy: Facebook's influence on anarchist principles of organization in Occupy Wall Street

Swann

Husted

2017

The Information Society

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This paper contributes to debates around the political potential of social media by examining Occupy Wall Street and activist's use of Facebook. Drawing on concepts rooted in cybernetics and anarchist political theory, the paper argues that the shift in Occupy Wall Street from being a physical protest camp in late 2011 to an online movement in 2012 coincided with a shift in social media activity. On the one hand, analysis of Facebook activity suggests a move from functional to anatomical hierarchy; on the other, it points towards a move from many-to-many communication to one-to-many communication. In conclusion, we argue that this development has served to undermine the movement's anarchist principles of organisation. IntroductionMuch has been written about the role of social media in social movements. Particularly since the Ultimately, we argue that the shift in OWS from physical camp to online movement signalled a corresponding move from participatory and democratic engagement to an organisational form less reflective of these anarchist organisational principles.First, we provide a brief overview of non-hierarchical and anarchist organisational practices, how a meeting of anarchism and cybernetics can help shine light on these organisational practices and, finally, the potential in social media for facilitating these practices. Following this, we introduce the case study of OWS, describing how it came to exist primarily as an online movement clustered around the OWS Facebook page. Focusing on a comparison of "likes," "shares," and "comments" on more than 1,400 posts on the Facebook page in three periods, our discussion points towards the shift of the organisational and communication dynamics of OWS 3 and will be characterised as a move from participatory practices, on the one hand, to centralised practices, on the other. The analysis presented here, while limited in scope and in need of elaboration in further research, thus aims to provide a contribution to discussions of the communicative and organisational form of social media-backed political movements. This goes beyond a focus on communication or organisation in isolation from one another and, as Bennett and Segerberg (2012) have called for, sees communication and organisation as intimately linked and requiring analysis on that basis.

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Section: Anarchist Organisationmentioning

confidence: 82%

Undermining anarchy: Facebook's influence on anarchist principles of organization in Occupy Wall Street

Swann

Husted

2017

The Information Society

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“…A third prefigurative approach emphasises constant revaluation and experimentation in relation to both means and ends. Van de Sande (2013, p. 232) refers to ‘an inherently experimental and experiential practice’ where ‘both the envisioned ends and means of prefigurative practice are continuously subjected to evaluation and reformulation’. Finally, a fourth rejects the notion of ‘future’ ends, with its depiction of a time to come that can be meaningfully planned for and rehearsed, in favour of an uncertain insurgent now.…”

Section: From Reassembling Means and Ends To The ‘As If’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an adventurous institutional politics: The prefigurative ‘as if’ and the reposing of what’s real

Cooper

2020

The Sociological Review

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Discussion of prefigurative politics typically focuses on the revisioning of means to ends within grass-roots activities taking shape against or apart from the state. This article takes a different approach. Addressing prefiguration through the terms of the ‘as if’, it explores the assertion of counterhegemonic meanings, facts, norms and authority both by and about institutions, including state ones. Through four contentious acts: municipal expressions of international solidarity; legislating new gender categories; role-playing micro-states and new money; and acting like a law reform commission, the article considers what prefiguration, and reading for prefiguration, can contribute to a progressive transformative politics. While rehearsing, anticipating and representing alternatives are important, well-recognised prefigurative attributes, this article also addresses less explored dimensions. Specifically, it considers how institutional prefiguration retroactively constitutes its conditions of legitimacy and authority, its depiction as fiction, the performative constraints it faces from diffuse and unequal circuits of power, and the work done by recognition (and non-recognition) of new facts, rules and norms. Together, these dimensions speak to the complicated and plural character of what is real when institutions are enacted as if they were otherwise. This quality of being both real and not real, in conditions of wider opposition, support and torpidity, constitutes the crux of prefiguration’s efforts and promise.

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“…Los conceptos de prefiguración abordan la cuestión de cómo se puede lograr el cambio social (Epstein, 2002;McCowan, 2010;Siltanen et al, 2014;van de Sande, 2013;Yates, 2014). El término "prefiguración" se refiere a la encarnación, dentro de la práctica política actual de un movimiento, de formas de relaciones sociales, toma de decisiones, cultura y experiencia humana que son el objetivo final (Boggs, 1977).…”

Section: Prefiguración Y Enfoques Anarquistas De Las Omsunclassified

“La forma sigue a la función”. Organizaciones Parciales de Movimientos Sociales para la realización prefigurativa del cambio

Simsa¹,

Totter²

2018

Gobernar

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La forma sigue a la función". Organizaciones Parciales de Movimientos Sociales para la realización prefigurativa del cambio Ruth Simsa & Marion Totter * Resumen. El propósito de este artículo es analizar cómo los activistas del movimiento español de protesta 15M conceptualizan las prácticas organizativas en relación con los objetivos del movimiento. Ubicamos el concepto "organización parcial" en el contexto de la política de prefiguración. Empíricamente, el trabajo se basa en la investigación de campo realizada en España durante tres años (2014-2016), que incluyó 36 entrevistas cualitativas y observaciones participantes. Los hallazgos indican que los activistas consideran, de un lado, a las prácticas organizacionales como medios cruciales para lograr el cambio social y, de otro lado, a las organizaciones como organizaciones parciales, específicamente, para lograr una membresía abierta y estructuras no jerárquicas. Al hacer esto para implementar las metas del movimiento de manera prefigurativa en sus prácticas organizativas diarias, son ampliamente aceptados los límites y restricciones de las prácticas de auto-organización. Al contribuir a una comprensión más profunda de la filosofía subyacente de organizaciones de movimientos sociales, este artículo debería ser útil para activistas y académicos del movimiento social. Palabras clave: movimientos sociales, organizaciones de movimientos sociales, prefiguración, organización parcial. "Form follows function". Partial Organizations of social movements to prefigurative fulfillment of change Abstract. The purpose of this article is to analyze how activists of the Spanish protest movement 15M conceptualize their organizational practices in relation to the objectives of the movement. We situate the concept of "partial organization" in the context of the so-called politics of prefiguration. Empirically, this work is based on field research conducted in Spain over three years (2014-2016), including 36 qualitative interviews and participatory observation. The findings indicate that activists consider organizational practices as crucial means to achieve social change. Further, they use the form of partial organization, specifically open membership and non-hierarchical structures, to implement the goals of the movement in a prefigurative way in daily organizational practices. Furthermore, the limits and restrictions of self-organizing practices are widely accepted. By contributing to a deeper understanding of the underlying philosophy of social movement organizations, this article might be useful for social movement activists and academics.

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The Prefigurative Politics of Tahrir Square–An Alternative Perspective on the 2011 Revolutions

Cited by 111 publications

References 3 publications

Undermining anarchy: Facebook's influence on anarchist principles of organization in Occupy Wall Street

Undermining anarchy: Facebook's influence on anarchist principles of organization in Occupy Wall Street

Towards an adventurous institutional politics: The prefigurative ‘as if’ and the reposing of what’s real

“La forma sigue a la función”. Organizaciones Parciales de Movimientos Sociales para la realización prefigurativa del cambio

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