Talk -

bristol | protests | event notice Friday November 16, 2012 10:08 by John Moore

SOCIAL SCIENCE IN THE CITY ™ UWE presents

Samantha Fletcher

"These grievances are not all inclusive": challenges for Occupy and an alternative future

5 December 2012

From 6.30pm

Boston Tea Party

156 Cheltenham Road,

Stokescroft, Bristol,
BS6 5RL

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City has been broadly adopted by Occupy movements globally. The list of grievances included in the document are many but perhaps the most important feature to the document is the final statement which states that ‘*These grievances are not all-inclusive'. Day (2005:6 cited in: Bourke et al, 2011:11) states that, “state domination, class antagonism, and capitalist exploitation are possible because of the division of neoliberal societies along multiple lines of inequality” and subsequently this paper discusses challenges for the Occupy where grievances are as diverse as they are plentiful. This paper will explore these issues and more through a critical reading of Gramscian theorectical framework and draws upon examples from a specific local Occupy movement in the Northwest of England. Furthermore, the paper in aims to open a discussion about the role of coercive state powers and manifestations of state violence and asks what next for Occupy as a form of contestation against a dominant neoliberal agenda.

Samantha is a Lecturer in Sociology at Staffordshire University teaching on modules regarding state and surveillance and crimes of the powerful. She is currently undertaking her PhD thesis critically exploring the role of the state and challenges for the Occupy movement.