Todd Wolfson
Biographic Data
| ID | 640402 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Todd Wolfson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Todd |
| FAMILY NAME | Wolfson |
| SIGNATURE | WOLFSON T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6753-4571 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Narrative Power in an Era of Crisis and Convergence
Recognizing the current conjuncture, this article explores the changing role of media and communications in the cohering of social struggles by antisystemic social movements. Transforming structural relations of media and their tactical uses, the authors argue, are key components to shifting the terrain upon which such movements build. In response to a deepening organic crisis, the authors argue for the importance of organizing against and beyond…
‘Alongside but not in front’
This article starts by summarising the history of socially-engaged research on disadvantaged groups, pointing out that many of the social research methods currently in use in the field originated outside the academy, carried out by protagonists with a mission to draw attention to injustices and bring about social change. It then discusses the often-problematic relationship between researchers and the people whose working lives they research, espe…
The Gig Economy
Reflections on the inheritances of Indymedia in the age of surveillance and social media
Despite certain structural limitations, Indymedia provided three vital functions for movement-based media coverage: (1) it established a secure website that shielded its users’ identities when navigating it or producing content, (2) its platform united sympathetic reporting on local and global struggles that fueled an imaginary of worldwide struggle, and (3) it established behind-the-scenes momentum in engaging new participants in independent med…
Introduction
Research Article| April 01 2020 Introduction: Class Struggle before Class Todd Wolfson Todd Wolfson Todd Wolfson is Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and Co-director of the Mic Center at Rutgers University. An anthropologist by training, his research focuses on the intersection of new media and contemporary social movements. Wolfson is author of Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left (2014) and co-editor of The Great Ref…
“The History of all Hitherto Existing Society
Across the last decade we have witnessed a growing wave of resistance across the globe. In this article we argue that it is critical to utilise class analysis to understand contemporary social movements. We maintain that class analysis begins with understanding class as a series of relations and/or processes that condition both the objective and subjective dimensions of class. Following this, we illustrate how sectors of the contemporary working …
Populism, Anarchism and the Movement of the Squares
This reflection is a review of Paolo Gerbaudo’s book The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism, and Global Protest (2017)
From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos
Surveying the varied contributions to this special issue, this article examines the relationships, points of inspirations and contradictory dynamics that characterize the current epoch of social movement politics and global protest. The authors argue that with the progression of neoliberal capitalism and the explosion of new technologies, a shared logic of social movement politics has emerged. This logic spans from the Zapatistas and the Global J…
From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos
Special Section of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (http://www.triple-c.at) Edited by Todd Wolfson, Emiliano Treré, Paolo Gerbaudo, Peter FunketripleC 15 (2), 2017, pp. 390-542 Please note that the editors appear in reversed alphabetical order, not in order of importance. This special issue represents a collective effort, and all the four editors contributed equally to it
The Great Refusal
Rewiring the Apparatus
This essay utilizes concepts from screen theory to better understand the function of socially engaged documentaries. In particular, it explores how the media practices of the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) allow us to refocus our analysis to take account of the utilization of media by social movements in ways that stress the collective and empowering role it can have for fostering class-based identities. As such, we aim to highlight the materiali…
Urban Social Movements in the Age of Neoliberal Austerity
Webcam by Daniel Miller and Jolynna Sinanan. Cambridge
Translating Dissent
Graffiti, a tool for change Bahia Shehab for translating emotions during the Egyptian revolution, art sublimated violence and translated emotions. Music, theatre, video art, graffiti and cartoons are few examples of media of protest that overtook the streets and cyberspace. Strong emotions brought about intense creativity, and in the process graffti artists and laymen alike provide people with exceptional examples of how to express dissidence and…
Activist Laboratories of the 1990's
In the 1990s, as the Internet went public, a throng of technological utopianists began declaring the coming of an authentic social, political and democratic revolution. In the reflection of instantaneous, unregulated flows of information and countless self-generating channels of communication, a growing group of pundits saw the promise of an empowered and engaged citizenry that could rewrite the balance of power in society. Breathing life into th…
Class In-Formation
This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working clas…
Sanday, Peggy Reeves
Digital Human Capital
Are universal access and computer literacy the keys to ending the digital divide? No, argue Bach, Shaffer and Wolfson. Socio-economic inequality and social exclusion demand a more aggressive and nuanced plan to address this problem. They argue for a Digital Human Capital framework, taking into account the complex nature of social exclusion in the informational age. Based on a year of qualitative research on BTOP programs in Philadelphia aimed at …
Communication, class and concentric media practices
Understanding class as a process of self-making in relation to a particular, historical form of capitalism, in this article we argue that media and communication (from face-to-face and old mediums such as radio to internet-powered tools) must be conceptualized as an emerging structural dimension for class formation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia, a community-based media and communications infrastr…
Democracy or autonomy? Indymedia and the contradictions of global social movement networks
In this article, I examine the indymedia movement as exemplar of a transnational network where the dynamics of democracy and local autonomy come into tension. Indymedia was launched during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. Since 1999, indymedia has mushroomed into a transnational social movement based network. Through the lens of indymedia's networked structure, I examine the tension between participatory decision-making a…
Suturing Working Class Subjectivities
Due to the increasingly atomized, isolated nature of social life, as well as the apparent splintering of the working class under neoliberal capitalism, media serve a pivotal infrastructural function for generating the necessary commonality between the fractured sectors of the contemporary working class. This article ethnographically and textually examines how the media driven practices of the Philadelphia-based Media Mobilizing Project helps coll…
Communications Networks, Movements and the Neoliberal City
Using the Philadelphia-based organization Media Mobilizing Project as a case study, this article argues for a more sophisticated understanding of social movement networks. We argue that the fragmentation of the neoliberal city has increased the saliency of networked-based organizing. Contrary to much of the existing scholarly literature, however, we argue that such networks combine horizontal and vertical forms of organization, as well as online …
Constitutive Communications and the Shimmering Project of the Multitude
In Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (2004), Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri analyze the major shifts in the inner workings of capitalism and class that have taken place across the last forty years. Building on these global transformations they offer a compelling vision for a new political project, which relies on the growing power of a new political subject, the multitude. They argue that this new political subject is irreducible…
Class In-Formation
This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working clas…
Digital Human Capital
Are universal access and computer literacy the keys to ending the digital divide? No, argue Bach, Shaffer and Wolfson. Socio-economic inequality and social exclusion demand a more aggressive and nuanced plan to address this problem. They argue for a Digital Human Capital framework, taking into account the complex nature of social exclusion in the informational age. Based on a year of qualitative research on BTOP programs in Philadelphia aimed at …
Communication, class and concentric media practices
Understanding class as a process of self-making in relation to a particular, historical form of capitalism, in this article we argue that media and communication (from face-to-face and old mediums such as radio to internet-powered tools) must be conceptualized as an emerging structural dimension for class formation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia, a community-based media and communications infrastr…
Democracy or autonomy? Indymedia and the contradictions of global social movement networks
In this article, I examine the indymedia movement as exemplar of a transnational network where the dynamics of democracy and local autonomy come into tension. Indymedia was launched during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. Since 1999, indymedia has mushroomed into a transnational social movement based network. Through the lens of indymedia's networked structure, I examine the tension between participatory decision-making a…
Reflections on the inheritances of Indymedia in the age of surveillance and social media
Despite certain structural limitations, Indymedia provided three vital functions for movement-based media coverage: (1) it established a secure website that shielded its users’ identities when navigating it or producing content, (2) its platform united sympathetic reporting on local and global struggles that fueled an imaginary of worldwide struggle, and (3) it established behind-the-scenes momentum in engaging new participants in independent med…
Rewiring the Apparatus
This essay utilizes concepts from screen theory to better understand the function of socially engaged documentaries. In particular, it explores how the media practices of the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) allow us to refocus our analysis to take account of the utilization of media by social movements in ways that stress the collective and empowering role it can have for fostering class-based identities. As such, we aim to highlight the materiali…
Communications Networks, Movements and the Neoliberal City
Using the Philadelphia-based organization Media Mobilizing Project as a case study, this article argues for a more sophisticated understanding of social movement networks. We argue that the fragmentation of the neoliberal city has increased the saliency of networked-based organizing. Contrary to much of the existing scholarly literature, however, we argue that such networks combine horizontal and vertical forms of organization, as well as online …
Constitutive Communications and the Shimmering Project of the Multitude
In Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (2004), Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri analyze the major shifts in the inner workings of capitalism and class that have taken place across the last forty years. Building on these global transformations they offer a compelling vision for a new political project, which relies on the growing power of a new political subject, the multitude. They argue that this new political subject is irreducible…
Suturing Working Class Subjectivities
Due to the increasingly atomized, isolated nature of social life, as well as the apparent splintering of the working class under neoliberal capitalism, media serve a pivotal infrastructural function for generating the necessary commonality between the fractured sectors of the contemporary working class. This article ethnographically and textually examines how the media driven practices of the Philadelphia-based Media Mobilizing Project helps coll…
Sanday, Peggy Reeves
Digital Human Capital
Are universal access and computer literacy the keys to ending the digital divide? No, argue Bach, Shaffer and Wolfson. Socio-economic inequality and social exclusion demand a more aggressive and nuanced plan to address this problem. They argue for a Digital Human Capital framework, taking into account the complex nature of social exclusion in the informational age. Based on a year of qualitative research on BTOP programs in Philadelphia aimed at …
Communication, class and concentric media practices
Understanding class as a process of self-making in relation to a particular, historical form of capitalism, in this article we argue that media and communication (from face-to-face and old mediums such as radio to internet-powered tools) must be conceptualized as an emerging structural dimension for class formation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia, a community-based media and communications infrastr…
Democracy or autonomy? Indymedia and the contradictions of global social movement networks
In this article, I examine the indymedia movement as exemplar of a transnational network where the dynamics of democracy and local autonomy come into tension. Indymedia was launched during the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999. Since 1999, indymedia has mushroomed into a transnational social movement based network. Through the lens of indymedia's networked structure, I examine the tension between participatory decision-making a…
Activist Laboratories of the 1990's
In the 1990s, as the Internet went public, a throng of technological utopianists began declaring the coming of an authentic social, political and democratic revolution. In the reflection of instantaneous, unregulated flows of information and countless self-generating channels of communication, a growing group of pundits saw the promise of an empowered and engaged citizenry that could rewrite the balance of power in society. Breathing life into th…
Class In-Formation
This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working clas…
Translating Dissent
Graffiti, a tool for change Bahia Shehab for translating emotions during the Egyptian revolution, art sublimated violence and translated emotions. Music, theatre, video art, graffiti and cartoons are few examples of media of protest that overtook the streets and cyberspace. Strong emotions brought about intense creativity, and in the process graffti artists and laymen alike provide people with exceptional examples of how to express dissidence and…
Rewiring the Apparatus
This essay utilizes concepts from screen theory to better understand the function of socially engaged documentaries. In particular, it explores how the media practices of the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) allow us to refocus our analysis to take account of the utilization of media by social movements in ways that stress the collective and empowering role it can have for fostering class-based identities. As such, we aim to highlight the materiali…
Urban Social Movements in the Age of Neoliberal Austerity
Webcam by Daniel Miller and Jolynna Sinanan. Cambridge
Populism, Anarchism and the Movement of the Squares
This reflection is a review of Paolo Gerbaudo’s book The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism, and Global Protest (2017)
From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos
Surveying the varied contributions to this special issue, this article examines the relationships, points of inspirations and contradictory dynamics that characterize the current epoch of social movement politics and global protest. The authors argue that with the progression of neoliberal capitalism and the explosion of new technologies, a shared logic of social movement politics has emerged. This logic spans from the Zapatistas and the Global J…
From Global Justice to Occupy and Podemos
Special Section of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (http://www.triple-c.at) Edited by Todd Wolfson, Emiliano Treré, Paolo Gerbaudo, Peter FunketripleC 15 (2), 2017, pp. 390-542 Please note that the editors appear in reversed alphabetical order, not in order of importance. This special issue represents a collective effort, and all the four editors contributed equally to it
The Great Refusal
“The History of all Hitherto Existing Society
Across the last decade we have witnessed a growing wave of resistance across the globe. In this article we argue that it is critical to utilise class analysis to understand contemporary social movements. We maintain that class analysis begins with understanding class as a series of relations and/or processes that condition both the objective and subjective dimensions of class. Following this, we illustrate how sectors of the contemporary working …
Reflections on the inheritances of Indymedia in the age of surveillance and social media
Despite certain structural limitations, Indymedia provided three vital functions for movement-based media coverage: (1) it established a secure website that shielded its users’ identities when navigating it or producing content, (2) its platform united sympathetic reporting on local and global struggles that fueled an imaginary of worldwide struggle, and (3) it established behind-the-scenes momentum in engaging new participants in independent med…
Introduction
Research Article| April 01 2020 Introduction: Class Struggle before Class Todd Wolfson Todd Wolfson Todd Wolfson is Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and Co-director of the Mic Center at Rutgers University. An anthropologist by training, his research focuses on the intersection of new media and contemporary social movements. Wolfson is author of Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left (2014) and co-editor of The Great Ref…
The Gig Economy
‘Alongside but not in front’
This article starts by summarising the history of socially-engaged research on disadvantaged groups, pointing out that many of the social research methods currently in use in the field originated outside the academy, carried out by protagonists with a mission to draw attention to injustices and bring about social change. It then discusses the often-problematic relationship between researchers and the people whose working lives they research, espe…
Narrative Power in an Era of Crisis and Convergence
Recognizing the current conjuncture, this article explores the changing role of media and communications in the cohering of social struggles by antisystemic social movements. Transforming structural relations of media and their tactical uses, the authors argue, are key components to shifting the terrain upon which such movements build. In response to a deepening organic crisis, the authors argue for the importance of organizing against and beyond…
Political science (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Media studies (10 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Social media (7 works) · Social Media and Politics (7 works) · Social movement (7 works)