Learning Consensus Decision-Making in Occupy: Uncertainty, Responsibility, Commitment

Abstract

Occupy was a leaderless, resistance movement that started as Occupy Wall Street in New York City on September 17, 2011 but soon spread around the world, becoming a truly global movement. This chapter provides a detailed description and analysis of the processes of learning consensus decision-making in Occupy Dame Street in Dublin, Ireland.The analysis draws on more than five months of “militant ethnographic” and participatory action research within the Occupy movement. The chapter points to the ways in which uncertainty impacted on the processes of learning in Occupy and how it intersected with responsibility and commitment of the participants.

Citation

Szolucha, A. (2013), "Learning Consensus Decision-Making in Occupy: Uncertainty, Responsibility, Commitment", Coy, P.G. (Ed.) Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 36), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 205-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X(2013)0000036010