Towards a typology of grassroots political movements

Towards a taxonomy or typology of decentralized grassroots political movements

Dr Rob Busby (Liverpool Hope University)Dr Paddy Hoey (Edge Hill University)Edge Hill University media research seminarMar 18, 2015

Mediated mobilizationA movement mobilizes because it has gathered the legacy and the resources of preexisting social structures and has re-oriented them towards new goals of transformation. (Melucci, 1996: 292)

Communication networks constitute, by and large, the public space in society Politics is media politics Therefore the process of social change requires the reprogramming of the communications networks in terms of their cultural codes and in terms of the implicit social and political values and interests that they convey. (Castells, 2009: 300)(Lievrouw, 2011: 149)

KEY WORDS: mediated mobilization, representation, protest movements, community action, activist media, old v new media, media strategy, participatory media, environmentalism, populist movements, anti-government, identity politics,media imprint, social capital, political economy

3

Decentralized, non-governmental, grassroots, social movementse.g. Tea Party in USA, les Bonnets Rouges in Brittany, non-SNP Scottish Independence groups, environmental campaigners in Lancashire, food bank/ anti-poverty campaignersInternal and external catalysts and sustenance History, theory, practice, context: Who? What? How?INTERNAL:Aims and aspirations: democratic representation/ protest politicsRecruitment and catalysts towards activismInternal coherence and salienceMeans and methods: repertoires of activismFunding and resources

EXTERNAL:Immediate political context: contested terrains: nation state and protestAreas of common ideology and divergence: are attitudes to protest divergent?Global geo-political contextsGlobal salience/ resonanceInfluence of communication

Context (1): politics and technologyTechnological and liberal determinist: Fukuyama and the End of History, technology and the triumph of liberal democracyGillmor (2006), Shirky (2008), Jarvis et al as generation of Internet determinists have re-confirmed a McLuhanite medium is the message agenda Internet WILL change the world democraticallyPerhaps sees the world backwardly and ignores social constructivism of scholars like Brian Winston, Raymond WilliamsMorozov (2011): perhaps majority of online political action is slacktivism, Internet is merely a place where activists go

What we may be witnessing in not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankinds ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. This is not to summaries of international relations, for the victory of liberalism has occurred primarily in the realm of ideas or consciousness and is as yet incomplete in the real or material world. But there are powerful reasons for believing that it is the ideal that will govern the material world in the long run.Fukuyama, The End of History, National Interest,(Summer, 1989)

Western-centric rationalizationWestern liberal democracy and technology seen as the arbiters for global democratic participation and progressThe revolution will be twittered. Andrew Sullivan (2009)Participation = democracy, (er, no)Superficial, almost colonial misunderstanding of the native reception and uses of technologyWillful propagandizing of transformative powers of Western technologies: From Seattle to ShanghaiMorozov: the dark side of the Internet, conveniently forget the threats

Activist MediaSuccessive waves of scholarship in activism and the Internet centralize net as a space of participationZone of public spheres (Habermas, 1991; Keane, 2000), multiplicity of public sphericules (Gitlin,1998)Public spheres and mediated spheres are spatially important give opportunity to map grassroots movements on wider polities (Keane, 2000)Macro global/ national spheres (Tea Party)Meso national/ sub nation state (Bonnets Rouges)Macro local/special interest (Frack Off/ food poverty)

Context (2)Facet of the democratic deficit and the fall out from the slowly receding post-WWII social democracy projects (Norris, 2001)Linked to the second (third) waves of democratic engagement of New Social Movements (equality)Globalisation and development of global networks of politically congruent movements and creation of resistance networksPost modernity: Contestation of the hegemony of the nation state and the effects of the increased assertion of sub-state regional identity networksCeltic Fringe and Catalonia

Les Bonnets Rouges

Les Bonnets RougesMassive mobilization of Bretons since 2014Red bonnets symbolise revolutionary French Jacobins and anti-tax protests of late 18thCInitial mobilization was economic: protest against eco taxes, unemployment and threats to the Breton economy (agriculture, food processing, fishing & tourism)Overarching aims for decentralization of French politics, recognition of Breton language, economic equality transformed towards devolution, Links with 44=BZH Breton reunification campaignBroadly left wing (reflecting Breton politics) but culturally (conservative) nationalist (Breton pride)

Explaining movementsDecentralized: local, regional with national (diaspora) offshoots, BUT,Existing, rather than new, social capitalHistoric separatist/ cultural organisations - EmgannOrganized locally around political parties in local and national governmentUnion Dmocratique Bretonne, Parti Breton, Breizhistance, Mouvement Bretagne et progrs, Europe Ecologie les Verts, Bretagne Runie, 44=BreizhCrucial factor is opportunity:Economic downturn is important dynamicInfluence of the Celtic fringe Scots, Basque (and Catalonian) devolution movementsFrench counterparts - Corsican independents