Abstract
What is the legacy of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and associated protests? This is the question at the heart of this paper. To answer it, I will argue that these protests are indicative of an international mobilization that together shared both a horizontal structure and pseudo-utopian philosophy, which, in turn, affected how activists understood their own movements. To begin, this paper traces the precursors of these horizontal protests within the literature, analyzing their origins in events such as the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle (1999) and the World Social Forums since then. Next, I use Giorgio Agamben’s theorization of the “Coming Community” and Richard Day’s critique of this same concept to interpret these as “coming movements,” which afford new potentialities without fully realizing Agamben’s pseudo-Utopian vision. Lastly, through analysis of interviews with Moroccan activists who participated in the February 20th Movement—an offshoot of the Arab Spring—I will demonstrate that the lived experience of activists within this movement fits the structure and philosophy analyzed above.
Advisor
Matsuzawa, Setsuko
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Recommended Citation
Ambord, Paige I., "The Moroccan Example: “Coming Movements,” Communities, and Lived Experience in Contemporary Protest" (2014). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 5766.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/5766
Disciplines
Other Sociology | Politics and Social Change
Keywords
Social Movements, Arab Spring, Morocco, February 20th Movement, Giorgio Agamben, Community
Publication Date
2014
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis Exemplar
© Copyright 2014 Paige I. Ambord