Contentious Storytelling Online: Articulating Activism through Negotiation of Metanarratives

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-607
Author(s):  
Victoria Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
American Dream ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Dominant Strategies

Narratives are one of the primary ways that activists communicate online and as this study shows, they also prove to be a major source of contention. Analysis of two digital social justice campaigns—the #Wearethe99% narratives (associated with the Occupy Wall Street Movement) and the #BelieveinSwanQueen narratives (associated with the Swan Queen Movement)—suggests that strategies of contentious narrative development online largely involve the negotiation of metanarratives. The online narratives appear to rely upon metanarratives as a foundation for expressing broad societal grievances and personal opinions and struggles. The two dominant strategies for expressing grievances throughout the discourses are the (1) reclaiming and (2) rejecting of “The American Dream” (#Wearethe99%) and “Once Upon a Time” (#BelieveinSwanQueen) metanarratives. The negotiation of these metanarratives has led to the development of an alternative “anti-story,” which serves as narrative structure to navigate both personal and social issues.

Bread, dignity and social justice

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Arab Spring

Although they produced vastly more turmoil, the uprisings in the Arab world shared many characteristics with other early 21st-century popular protests on both the left and the right, from Spain’s Indignados and Occupy Wall Street to the anti-elite votes for Brexit and Trump. The conviction that political elites and the states they rule, which were once responsible for welfare and development, now ignore and demean the interests and concerns of ordinary citizens takes many forms, but is virtually universal. The Arab world was only one site of this discontent, but the story of the Arab Spring insurrections provides a cautionary illustration of the perils in abdication of political authority and accountability and provokes questions about how we understand historical moments when passions outstrip interests.

The Case for Social Justice

2018 ◽  
pp. 45-82
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Opposition Movement ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Trayvon Martin

This chapter explains the fomentation of the Black Lives Matter movement, which began as a hashtag in 2013. The chapter explores the ideology and goals of the movement, as well as past and current tactics that the movement participants are utilizing to bring awareness to their cause. The chapter highlights numerous high-profile incidents that propelled Black Lives Matter onto the national stage, including the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Sandra Bland. The chapter juxtaposes Black Lives Matter against other contemporary American social movements such as Occupy Wall Street to better understand the development of an opposition movement in the U.S.

Social Movement Logics—Past, Present, and Future

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
The Core ◽  
Informational Capitalism

This concluding chapter reexamines the Cyber Left against the backdrop of informational capitalism and history. Through this lens, it discusses indymedia as a precursor to Occupy Wall Street and many of the emergent social movements that have developed since the economic crisis of 2008. It also explains how the core logic and strategy of the Cyber Left played a significant role in the inability of the Global Social Justice Movement to build long-term power. It identifies four interrelated, core problems: (1) a retreat from class and capitalism as analytic and political categories; (2) a tendency toward technological determinism; (3) an anti-institutional bias; and (4) no emphasis on political education and leadership development.

scholarly journals William James and the Sustainable Transformation of Values, with a Case Study for Rethinking the American Dream

Human Arenas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Croce
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
American Dream ◽  
William James ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Virus Spread ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

AbstractThis article addresses the call of the Psychology of Global Crises conference for linkage of academic work with social issues in three parts: First, examples from conference participants with their mix of bold calls for social transformation and realization of limits, a combination that generated few clear paths to achieving them. Second, presentation of Jamesian practical idealism with psychological insights for moving past impediments blocking implementation of ideals. And third, a case study of impacts from the most recent prominent crisis, the global pandemic of 2020, which threatens to exacerbate the many crises that had already been plaguing recent history. The tentacles of COVID’s impact into so many problems, starting with economic impacts from virus spread, present an opportunity to rethink the hope for constant economic growth, often expressed as the American Dream, an outlook that has driven so many of the problems surging toward crises. Jamesian awareness of the construction of ideological differences and encouragement of listening to those in disagreement provide not political solutions, but psychological preludes toward improvements in the face of crises.

Diverse Applications of Sociological Imagination: A Qualitative Study of Service-Learning Mentoring

2021 ◽  
pp. 193672442110213
Author(s):  
Laura C. Atkins ◽  
Shelley B. Grant
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
At Risk Youth ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Student Mentors ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
Media And Crime

This project expands discussions regarding critical ways that students’ diverse backgrounds and experiences intertwine with service-learning and social justice. Educators need to empower the next generation to explore their views, apply their skills, and engage with social issues. The research intersects with complex conversations about students’ perspectives regarding media representations, justice system responses, and views of at-risk youth. The project spanned four semesters of a sociology of media and crime course with service-learning mentoring. Qualitative reflection data drawn from 104 participating student mentors provided insights into how service-learners’ unique personal histories and sociological imaginations inform their views of youth, the mentoring experience, and social justice. The findings focus attention upon diversity within classrooms and expand the conversation about social justice praxis and service-learning pedagogy. Through reflexivity, the researchers consider their own social justice and service-learning practices, and add to the call for greater reflexivity within community-engaged sociology classrooms.

Forum on Occupy Wall Street

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-114
Author(s):  
Juliet Dee
Keyword(s):  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street

scholarly journals The Organizational Trace of an Insurgent Moment

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311770065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Reich
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
York City ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Formal Organizations ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between social movements and formal organizations has long been a concern to scholars of collective action. Many have argued that social movement organizations (SMOs) provide resources that facilitate movement emergence, while others have highlighted the ways in which SMOs institutionalize or coopt movement goals. Through an examination of the relationship between Occupy Wall Street and the field of SMOs in New York City, this article illustrates a third possibility: that a moment of insurgency becomes a more enduring movement in part through the changes it induces in the relations among the SMOs in its orbit.

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