Democracy of the many? Occupy Wall Street and the dead end of prefiguration
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12848232 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jan Rohgalf (University of Rostock, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 151-167 |
| Publication date | 2013-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Distinktion Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1600-910X • E-ISSN: 2159-9149 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1600910x.2013.816637 |
| OpenAlex | W1982510211 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 14 |
This article discusses prefigurative practices of Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Although OWS cannot be reduced to this aspect, the idea of creating 'a microcosm of what democracy really looks like' next to Wall Street played an important role for the attractiveness of this new movement. Following Claude Lefort, OWS's criticism of representative government and the practice of general assemblies can be understood as a reaction to the 'dissolution of the markers of certainty' in modern democracies. Having recourse to assemblies of citizens and bodily experiences is a way to make 'the people', i.e. the invisible sovereign of modern democracies, visible and tangible. However, OWS does not fall back on fantasies of the people as a body with a unitary will: the 'People-as-One' (Lefort). Instead 'the people' is imagined as a crowd, a gathering of the many, as multitudes, swarms, or networks. The prefiguration of a democracy of the many entails practices of consensus decision-making that accommodate and maintain plurality and difference. Yet, while the democracy of the many can work in social movements it cannot serve as a model for a democracy at a larger scale. At the worst, prefiguration can even prevent fruitful social analysis and effective political struggle
Certainty · Criticism · Democracy · Epistemology · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Representative democracy · Sociology · Law · Marxism and Critical Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy, Sociology, Political Theory · Political Theory and Influence
Against Prefiguration
Translation and solidarity in the century with no future
Transforming Markets? Activists’ Strategic Orientations and Engagement With Private Governance
Emancipatory struggles and their political organisation
Navigating transformations
Reimagining energy futures
From the End of History to the Populist Turn and Beyond
Prefigurative imaginaries
Spatial dialectics and the geography of social movements
Prefiguration, strategic interaction and political belonging in undocumented migrant and solidarity movements
The last colony
Signs and banners of O ccupy W all S treet
O ccupy W all S treet
The space of occupation
‘Why am I talking?’ Reflecting on language and privilege at O ccupy W all S treet
A note on the human microphone
Solidarity and Occupy Wall Street
Democracy and political theory
Why Does Occupy Matter
Between Facts and Norms
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,11 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2024 (8) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |