Description
Book SynopsisSearching for Marx in the Occupy Movement is a critical, participant observation study of the Philadelphia branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement. John Leveille spent over nine months with Occupy Philadelphia as the members organized and carried out their protests. This book describes and analyzes the rise, the organization, and the demise of this group. The important events and activities of Occupy Philadelphia are discussed and dissected, with specific attention given to the confusions and chaos that permeated this group, and Occupy Wall Street more generally, which contributed to its rather rapid decline. A revisionist Marxism, informed loosely by the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, is used here to understand and explain the happenings of this protest group. The theory provides an epistemological and methodological framework for this study, and it is also used to account for the observed behaviors. Leveille argues that an essential conflict between humanism and the force
Trade ReviewThis ambitious book seeks to situate the Occupy movement in the larger context of social movement literature. The author employs an ethnographic approach to detail the many facets of the Occupy Philadelphia movement. Spending between 20 and 40 hours a week at the Occupy Philly encampment, sociologist Leveille (West Chester Univ.) is able to drill down and sketch a compelling picture of Occupy Philly. In so doing, he not only provides a rich account of the debates and fissures within Occupy Philly, but also examines how the movement fits into theories of social movements. Leveille is at his best in describing the schisms that emerged in the movement, and its relationship to outside forces. He also provides an interesting analysis of how the mainstream media framed it, and how it resisted these frames. Claiming that a rebooted version of Marxism that fits a postmodern age is the best approach to understanding the movement, the author combines a number of theoretical strands, from Adorno to Althusser. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *
The book has a clear activist character. Leveille is aware of the risk of producing a social movement theory that is disconnected from the knowledge interests of the activists and, as a result, does well to stay away from it. Particularly because of its methodological approach – which goes to great lengths to engage with the concerns and challenges of those directly involved with the movement – the book succeeds in being more than a scholastic dissection of the character and dynamics of Occupy. . . Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement has the potential to be of interest not only to scholars who are searching for Marxist alternatives to mainstream social movement theory, but also to activists who are preoccupied with advancing their radical political projects. * Marx and Philosophy Review of Books *
In 2011, Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements throughout world captured global attention with their championing of the interests of the 99% against the 1% which controlled the world's wealth. John Leveille's timely new book, Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement, explores in great detail the rise and explosion of the Occupy movements, and argues for the need for a reconstructed Marxism to give the movement focus and vision. Grounded in his experiences of Occupy Philly, Leveille presents an important contribution to social movement theory. -- Douglas Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Marxism and Social Movements: Reconstructed, Post-, and New Social Movements 2. Marxism and the Occupy Movement 3. Overview of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Philadelphia 4. The Occupying Context: History and the Macro Context 5. The Proximate Context 6. Organizational Structures; Hierarchies and Power; Autonomy and Authenticities in Occupy 7. Ideologies and the Conflicts of Humanism and Rationality 8. Schisms Part One - Race, Liberals and Anarchy 9. Schisms Part Two - More Ideological Divides 10. Relations with the Outside 11. The Many Faces of Framing 12. Emergent Craziness: Frustrations, Hope, and Trust Conclusion
