Immigrants as brokers

Dialogical diffusion from Spanishindignadosto Occupy Wall Street

Bibliographic Data

ID6220179
AuthorsEduardo Romano (0000-0001-9498-4810), Étienne Randier Fraile (0000-0002-0200-3470, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume15
Issue3
Pages247-262
Publication date2016-05-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial movement studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-2829 • E-ISSN: 1474-2837
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14742837.2015.1095084
OpenAlexW2214833625
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited41

This article analyses the role played by Spanish immigrants in the diffusion of the indignados movement in Occupy Wall Street (OWS). I argue that Spanish residents in New York City acted as brokers between the two movements, and that their behaviour had a significant impact on OWS’s understanding of itself as an expansive, inclusive and empathic phenomenon. Building on recent theoretical developments, which stress the importance of dialogue and collective learning in the transnational diffusion of historical social movements, this research produces results at different levels. At the empirical level, the problems faced by the immigrants reveal the cultural complexity of transnational diffusion within the recent wave of contention. At the analytical level, the personal contact and intergroup dialogue established between immigrants and local activists challenge accounts stressing the role of social media and the internet within the transnational diffusion of this protest. At the theoretical level, the article develops a process-oriented perspective on brokerage, improving our understanding of its implications concerning diffusion. I argue that a longitudinal analysis of brokerage shows how interaction can modify role identity and movement diffusion: diffusion develops where brokers maintain a coordinating role in the movement, and ceases to do so where brokers are displaced from this central position

Aesthetics · Dialogical self · Diffusion · Economic geography · Economics · Expansive · Identity (music · Immigration · Media studies · Mobilities · Movement (music · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Social movement · Social science · Sociology · Law · Psychology · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Capital and Networks · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology