Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portland

Reviews / Votes

Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portland is strongest in chapters where contributors closely follow the contours of Occupy Portland to deliver ethnography-derived insight into the Occupy movement and the immediate environment within which it operated. . . .For communication, political science, or social movement scholars or students, as for those who are now continuing Occupy's work in other arenas, Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portland presents a useful sociological description of Occupy Portland and its communication and consensus-building successes, as well as a cogent analysis of some of the rewards and challenges that accompany Occupy's participatory, leaderless model of social movement organizing. * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly * This book on Occupy reminds us of the important ways the movement connected local to global issues and vice versa. The collection of chapters appropriately represent diverse voices from and perspectives on the movement. This volume will provide a valuable resource for students, scholars, and all those who are considering Occupy's influences on movements to come. -- George Cheney, Kent State University Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portland uses multiple communication perspectives to understand this critically important development in social movements. One of the many strengths of the volume is that it investigates Occupy at the broader cultural and economic context, the mediated context, and at the level of everyday, on-the-ground organizing. The book is a must-read for students and scholars in communication, social movements, organizational studies, political science, and economics, and anyone else interested in the dynamics of social contention in late capitalism. -- Heather M. Zoller, University of Cincinnati The "Occupy" movement presents novel and rich complexities as the first postmodern social movement. This volume goes significantly beyond popular commentary on the movement and typical social movement analyses to the internal micro-practices of development and struggle. The results are fresh, insightful and compelling. -- Stanley A. Deetz, University of Colorado