Negotiating the Resistance: Catch 22s, brokering and contention in Occupy Safer Spaces Policy

Fletcher, Samantha (2015). Negotiating the Resistance: Catch 22s, brokering and contention in Occupy Safer Spaces Policy. Contention: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Social Protest, 3(2) pp. 5–16.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/cont.2015.030202

Abstract

In the post 2008 financial crisis climate we have seen a plethora of protest movements emerge globally with one of the most recognisable, particularly in the western context, being that of the Occupy movement, which sought to contest the global accumulation of wealth by the few, at the expense of the many. Such protest movements have paved the way for old and new, often contentious, dialogues pertinent for a variety of disciplines and subject matters. Drawing upon both emerging narratives from the movement within the published literature and the authors own empirical interview data with participants at a variety of Occupy sites, this article discusses to what extent the Occupy movement negotiates its existence with the hegemonic state-corporate nexus through its Safer Spaces Policy. The paper concludes that the counter-hegemonic endeavours of resistance movements can be compromised, through the coercion and consent strategies of the powerful working in tandem, resulting in a movement that both opposes and emulates what it seeks to contest. Such discussion can ultimately contribute to the longevous discourses pertaining to how hegemonic power operates not just on but through people.

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