On September 17, 2011, protestors set up camp in Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district, initiating a 59-day social and political movement known as Occupy Wall Street. Writing about the protest, James C. McKinley Jr. of the New York Times declared that the movement "lacks a melody" compared with protest movements of the previous century. Despite the common perception that little music accompanied the movement, organizers released Occupy This Album: 99 Songs for the 99%, a collection of songs connected with, written for, or written about the Occupy Wall Street movement. This thesis investigates the place of Occupy Wall Street in society through its musicking and through Occupy This Album: 99 Songs or the 99%. Building upon the sociomusicological work of R. Serge Denisoff and the work of Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, I propose a framework for a categorization of songs through their lyrical content and apply it to the music found on Occupy This Album. Then, using this framework, I determine the potential "progressiveness" of Occupy Wall Street through the modernization theory of Talcott Parsons. I contend that Occupy this Album: 99 Songs for the 99% shows Occupy Wall Street to be a modernizing movement as indicated through its large output of propaganda songs, showing a commitment to communication of diverse knowledge and ideologies and a generalization of value sets. This analysis and its conclusion situate Occupy Wall Street in society through its musical output rather than through its cultural and political effects

"Occupying Memory: Rhetorical Studies for the 99%" revitalizes rhetorical memory by emphasizing memory's rhetorical production and non-declinable relationship to forgetting, the persuasive force of local genealogy, and the capacity of memory to spur invention and civic intervention. "Occupying Memory" performs its revival of memory through theorization of the contemporary Occupy Movement. The first chapter, "Becoming Activist," argues that memories are rhetorically produced, and supports this supposition by analyzing various activist practices, icons, and experiences. I consider the discursive production of memory through Occupy's practice of the "human microphone," and the imagistic production of memory through images such as the Guy Fawkes Mask. I also consider forgetting in the production of memory, and analyze how subjects are compelled to action through "forgotten" affects and traumas that drive one to compose self-narratives. "Giving an Account of One's Wealth," strives to develop a strategy for teaching writing called "im-personal writing," and employs Percentile Narratives from the Occupy Movement throughout its implementation. I analyze existing narratives from multiple theoretical perspectives, and focus on how students can consider the rhetorical production of their memories while avoiding the pitfalls associated with "personal writing" such as the quest for authenticity. "The Infinite Archive," considers how the binary opposition between so-called "live" and "technological" memory deconstructs, and avers that the digitization of memory is an instance of "hyper-extension" rather than "externalization." I consider multiple cases of such extension in the form of social media archives including Twitter, live streaming video, and viral memes. The problem of digital forgetting and networked multitudes is likewise engaged. "Stiller than Still" contends that (singular) bodies and specific living structures can function as monuments oriented toward the future. I argue that the type of memory such monuments produce is a "common" rather than "public" memory, one that entails resistance to state control, participatory democracy, and the preservation of difference. I also consider the nature of "common" forgetting in relation to affirmation. The text culminates with "Beginning(s)," as I consider how rhetorical memory and the Occupy Movement open onto the future, as well as the relation between memory, social movements, nostalgia, and hope. / text

In September of 2011 Zuccotti Park, located in the heart of downtown Manhattan, became a site of political contestation when several hundred activists pitched their tents, set up their signs, and began to occupy the park, in what later became known as Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street became part of the larger Occupy moment, in which public parks in most major cities and college towns across the nation were occupied for several months by protestors contesting a range of issues including the growing disparity in wealth, corporate influence on democracy, and deepening social injustices. By the end of 2011 the nationwide eviction of most Occupy encampments resulted in the assumed failure of Occupy to challenge successfully contemporary politics and to organize a clear list of demands. In this thesis, I draw on ethnographic material collected in 2012 to interpret the spatial strategies and spatialities of Occupy and argue that for Occupy, this lack of focus is a strength in that it creates a space for alternative political discussions and practices otherwise less visible or nonexistent in the current political system. I examine the spatialities of Occupy, by which I mean the networks, mobilities, and places of Occupy, and argue that such an analysis offers an entry point in which to consider the ways in which space and politics are co-produced. In order to examine the relations between space and politics, I locate the specific spatial practices and strategies utilized by participants both in the highly visible occupation of public parks and direct actions and less visible organization spaces.

Mainstream media use “the protest paradigm” in framing social movements. The protest paradigm frames protests negatively by marginalizing protesters, trivializing their demands, focusing more on violent and dramatic issues instead of trying to establish a rational discussion around the reasons behind the protests and by neglecting the existence of their presence by simply not covering the protests at all. . The main function of a social movement is to challenge the status quo, while a main function of the mainstream media is arguably to contribute to the governance of society and the maintenance of public order; in a sense, to maintain the status quo. Thus, a main reason behind the consistent usage of the protest paradigm in covering protests is the conflict between social movements and mainstream media in society. But is it easier for mainstream Canadian media to challenge the status quo abroad than at home? Are Canadian media more reliant on the protest paradigm for covering global protest than local ones? Grounded in the theory of Media Framing, particularly the works of Entman (1993) this thesis compares the framing strategy that various Canadian media outlets applied while covering the 2011 Egyptian Uprising and the Occupy Toronto Movement. Empirical data collected by conducting deductive content analysis is applied to the coverage of the Toronto Edition of the Toronto Star, The Global and Mail and The Toronto Sun during the 18 days of the Egyptian uprising in January and February 2011 and the 42 days of Occupy Toronto from October 14th till November 24th, 2011 . The main argument of this thesis is that the Canadian media did not follow consist framing strategy in covering the two protests’ activities. The literature of the protest and media only focus on the notion of challenging the status quo without taking into consideration the factor of the location of the protests. Consequently, this paper is trying to add the location factor to the literature by trying to discover if the Canadian media is taking the same position from social movements that challenge the status quo regardless of where it is taking place or not.

The goal of the thesis was to describe protests against ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) that took place in Czech Republic in the first half of year 2012. The research consists in analysis of individual protests. While writing this thesis I've focused on describing the role of civil sector organizations, what frames their organizers used and also what was the role of new medias in organizing and dispersing these protests.

The goal of the thesis was to describe protests against ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) that took place in Czech Republic in the first half of year 2012. The research consists in analysis of individual protests. While writing this thesis I've focused on describing the role of civil sector organizations, what frames their organizers used and also what was the role of new medias in organizing and dispersing these protests.

This exploratory study set out to uncover views from the Occupy Movement’s Johannesburg leg. The Occupy Movement arose in late 2011, aiming to occupy public space and challenge conventional economics, politics, and governance. Data were collected by means of an online survey amongst 39 ‘core’ members of the group. The study took up a mixed methods approach underpinned by critical realism. Basic descriptive statistics and cross tabulations were used to analyse 6 closed-ended survey items in a quantitative fashion; thereafter, 4 open-ended items were qualitatively examined by delineating responses into discursive themes based on response content and positions taken up by respondents in their claims and statements. Finally, a cluster analysis was performed in order to cluster or profile significant groups that emerged from the data based on demographics, selection of closed-ended items, and quantitatively transformed response content to qualitatively examined open-ended items. It was found that the sample mirrored the demographics present in foreign movements as it was primarily male (61.5%), white (87.2%), highly educated (51.4% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher) and young (74.4% in the 21 to 40 age range). Furthermore, it was found that within a group that stood against various macro-level social systems, confidence in all social institutions was extremely low, in particular for big corporations, national government, and political parties. This sample was highly comparable to a representative South African sample as regards their views on the causes of social division; the factors that were seen as most socially divisive (in descending order) were: (1) socio-economic status; (2) race; (3) politics; (4) cultural differences; (5) language; (6) religion; (7) AIDS/disease. Qualitatively, the first item asked whether or not they believed that their movement lacked focus. Upon analysis it was found that four distinct themes existed in response: (1) duality (those revealing support for the movement but disdain for its processes); (2) aggressive justification (vehement justification and defense of the Occupy stance); (3) denial (lacking full knowledge of Occupy processes but ardently defending them while moving away from the difficult questions); (4) straddling the fence (vague and contradictory positions). Members responded to the question of whether their movement differed from foreign movements by stating that it did, based primarily on local socio-historical, economic, and contemporary issues peculiar to South Africa – these members sought a special place for their movement and acted in contradiction to the global Occupy stances; others said no and based this on appeals to homogeneity of cause, global concerns, and an Occupy solidarity. When asked why they, personally, were motivated to engage with the movement, the sample maintained either: (1) the unfair world argument (a strong theme in which perceived ‘systemic unfairness’ proved motivation enough); (2) socialist argument (a string of socialist-based positions connected to classic socialist disdain for the creation of capital, accruing of personal wealth, estrangement of labourers from produce etc.); (3) personal plight argument (exclusively personal standpoints appealing to individual socio-economic woes). Finally, pressure was placed upon the Occupy protestors to reveal what their ideal, utopian society would look like, given the option. The sample called for: (1) orthodox anarchy (stark calls for 4 absolute anarchy); (2) anarchic socialism (marrying socialism and anarchy – less extreme than anarchy, more equal than capitalism, incorporating multiple freedoms and backed by orthodox socialist rhetoric); (3) advancing through decentralized civil society (no clear ideology, rather providing a special place for civil society with few central power structures; driving forth through family and community); (4) fundamental equality and freedom (emphasis of final desires over process and ideology with a belief that society does not require strict regulation, it rather holds its own ‘homeostatic’ capabilities). The hierarchical cluster analysis for this study found 4 distinct clusters; each cluster was defined by a generally homogeneous set of responses and demographics. Significantly, cluster 3 included 50% of the cases analysed (50% of the sample) and uncovered a common profile (homogeneous demographics, vastly similar stances on sources of social division, similarity in terms of confidence in social institutions, and agreement on the rationale and motivation to be personally involvement in Occupy). Cluster 4 consisted of so-called outliers. / Psychology / M. A.( Psychology with specialisation in Research Consultation)

This exploratory study set out to uncover views from the Occupy Movement’s Johannesburg leg. The Occupy Movement arose in late 2011, aiming to occupy public space and challenge conventional economics, politics, and governance. Data were collected by means of an online survey amongst 39 ‘core’ members of the group. The study took up a mixed methods approach underpinned by critical realism. Basic descriptive statistics and cross tabulations were used to analyse 6 closed-ended survey items in a quantitative fashion; thereafter, 4 open-ended items were qualitatively examined by delineating responses into discursive themes based on response content and positions taken up by respondents in their claims and statements. Finally, a cluster analysis was performed in order to cluster or profile significant groups that emerged from the data based on demographics, selection of closed-ended items, and quantitatively transformed response content to qualitatively examined open-ended items. It was found that the sample mirrored the demographics present in foreign movements as it was primarily male (61.5%), white (87.2%), highly educated (51.4% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher) and young (74.4% in the 21 to 40 age range). Furthermore, it was found that within a group that stood against various macro-level social systems, confidence in all social institutions was extremely low, in particular for big corporations, national government, and political parties. This sample was highly comparable to a representative South African sample as regards their views on the causes of social division; the factors that were seen as most socially divisive (in descending order) were: (1) socio-economic status; (2) race; (3) politics; (4) cultural differences; (5) language; (6) religion; (7) AIDS/disease. Qualitatively, the first item asked whether or not they believed that their movement lacked focus. Upon analysis it was found that four distinct themes existed in response: (1) duality (those revealing support for the movement but disdain for its processes); (2) aggressive justification (vehement justification and defense of the Occupy stance); (3) denial (lacking full knowledge of Occupy processes but ardently defending them while moving away from the difficult questions); (4) straddling the fence (vague and contradictory positions). Members responded to the question of whether their movement differed from foreign movements by stating that it did, based primarily on local socio-historical, economic, and contemporary issues peculiar to South Africa – these members sought a special place for their movement and acted in contradiction to the global Occupy stances; others said no and based this on appeals to homogeneity of cause, global concerns, and an Occupy solidarity. When asked why they, personally, were motivated to engage with the movement, the sample maintained either: (1) the unfair world argument (a strong theme in which perceived ‘systemic unfairness’ proved motivation enough); (2) socialist argument (a string of socialist-based positions connected to classic socialist disdain for the creation of capital, accruing of personal wealth, estrangement of labourers from produce etc.); (3) personal plight argument (exclusively personal standpoints appealing to individual socio-economic woes). Finally, pressure was placed upon the Occupy protestors to reveal what their ideal, utopian society would look like, given the option. The sample called for: (1) orthodox anarchy (stark calls for 4 absolute anarchy); (2) anarchic socialism (marrying socialism and anarchy – less extreme than anarchy, more equal than capitalism, incorporating multiple freedoms and backed by orthodox socialist rhetoric); (3) advancing through decentralized civil society (no clear ideology, rather providing a special place for civil society with few central power structures; driving forth through family and community); (4) fundamental equality and freedom (emphasis of final desires over process and ideology with a belief that society does not require strict regulation, it rather holds its own ‘homeostatic’ capabilities). The hierarchical cluster analysis for this study found 4 distinct clusters; each cluster was defined by a generally homogeneous set of responses and demographics. Significantly, cluster 3 included 50% of the cases analysed (50% of the sample) and uncovered a common profile (homogeneous demographics, vastly similar stances on sources of social division, similarity in terms of confidence in social institutions, and agreement on the rationale and motivation to be personally involvement in Occupy). Cluster 4 consisted of so-called outliers. / Psychology / M. A.( Psychology with specialisation in Research Consultation)

Amid the 2011 Arab Revolts, and the subsequent worldwide Occupy movement, social movement scholars faced sudden, powerful mass mobilisations without easily identifiable resources, networks, or forms of organisation underlying them. These instances of mobilisation beyond the scope of what we traditionally consider ‘the movement’ have stretched existing theories of social movements to their limits, defying both conventional theoretical frameworks and existing approaches. This work undertakes a novel analysis of mobilisation which accounts for these new, disruptive cases. It advances the concept of Affinity: a predisposition to participate in certain causes based on social or psychological traits. Alongside this concept, it outlines conditions of Convergence: emergent situations, frames and spaces which encourage those with such Affinity to temporarily participate in mass mobilisations. These two concepts are advanced and developed through a study of the 2011 Egyptian Revolt and Occupy Wall Street movement, alongside the classic case of the 1789 French Revolution. These cases are analysed in comparative perspective to develop a powerful analytical tool with which scholars can augment conventional analyses: The Affinity-Convergence Model of Mobilisation.

Using quantitative content analysis, this study explores social movement (SM) framing in commercial news media -- by comparing how leading newspapers covered prominent protest occupations in 2011 and 2016. More than other SMs, anti-systemic protests like the 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and the 2016 Malheur Refuge Occupation (MRO) only have partial frame-setting agency, raising a broad theory question (to inform the research questions below): If SMs and media relate as interacting systems, are protest news frames more movement- or more media- driven; and do media not just enable but also constrain SMs? With the movement-media theory question above, the study design adapts media opportunity structure (MOS) to model a hierarchy of influences on news coverage of ideologically opposed or "distant twin" OWS and MRO, as 40- to 60-day protest occupations. The focused research question -- exploring media's constraining potential -- asks if commercial news framing of collective action: i) commercially frames or "sells" even anti-corporate protest; or ii) instead marginalizes or neutralizes such protest? Coverage from three top national or state newspapers (The New York Times, USA Today, and The Oregonian) was analyzed randomly from all protest stories during the occupations. Sampled time periods in 2011 and 2016, during actual encampments/ occupations in Portland, OR and New York City (OWS) and in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon (MRO), also correspond with transitional years in print news. The inductive-based comparative results, from 15 coding dimensions for news framing of collective action, dispersed passivity, and commercially-framed activism, showed some evidence for the "selling protest" question. And the compiled summary Framing Advantages and Disadvantages yield this study's key finding: Although anti-corporate OWS was far larger, with more widespread media coverage, the comparative overall media frame for the small, remote, anti-government MRO was far more potent and resonant. Comparing media-and-movement framing of these distant twin 40-day protest occupations finds some support for the "selling (or underselling) protest" question. This comparative frame analysis helps bridge micro- and macro-theory levels, addressing an enduring dual gap in movement-media research literature -- to yield insight on SMs' and media's respective roles in protest news framing and then identify potential mechanisms for future research.