Resisting the Markets. Economic Actors and Issues in Global Uprisings from the Middle-East to North-America

Abstract

Economic issues such as inequality, financial regulation, or unemployment have played central roles in recent mobilizations in Europe, the US and the Middle East, and so have groups mobilized according to economic categories, amongst which precarious workers, the unemployed, union members. Revolutionary processes in Arab countries were animated by calls for economic justice and job opportunities for young people. The Occupy Wall Street mobilizations raised the issue of income inequality through its slogan of the 99% and targeted investment banks. Indignados in European countries protested against austerity policies, youth unemployment or property seizing. The prominent place of economic issues raises a number of questions that this panel wants to address, thus bringing the study of labor movements and recent mobilizations closer together. Two issues seem particularly interesting: the problematic role of unions in mobilizations and the emergence of frames and actions linked to the economic /financial realm. We encourage proposals dealing with the relationship between different components of mobilizations (precarious workers, university and high school students, union members, and the unemployed) looking at processes of coalition-building and at the intertwining of different forms of action and organization. The role of union integration into corporatist institutions also seems to be a promising path when inquiring into the fate of protests in different countries. Moreover, contributions may also deal with specific economic issues the movements address like conflicts around housing, the rescue of specific industry sectors, or the targeting of institutions associated to the “power of financial markets”, such as banks, the ECB, or audit firms. Contributions might also deal with the building up of alternative systems of exchange or distribution within the movement as they occupied central squares. We welcome both qualitative and quantitative papers. And we encourage papers comparing mobilizations in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

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