Abstract
This article interogates Manuel Castell's Network society using the Egyptian Revolution and Occupy Wall Street as case studies. It looks at key shared characteristics: the call for transformational change, using a network structure and creating a self-conscious identity all of which nearly reflect the social theorist Manuel Castells’ definition of a social movement in a network society. Using the Egyptian revolution’s January 25th movement (the Jan 25 movement) and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) as case studies, I argue that Castells’ theory of a network society successfully describes how social movements are empowered by the network structure to create social change. However, I also argue that Castells’ binary conception of power does not account for how the overarching power structures shape each movement. Instead, Foucault’s analytics of power clarifies how conditions of domination, in the case of Egypt, or subjugation, in the case of OWS, influences the identity created by the protest movement. The constructed identity, in turn, determines the role of the individual within a greater movement. By using Foucault and Castells in tandem, it is possible to better understand both the mechanics of these networked social movements as well as how they differ in mounting resistance to their respective political-economic system.
First Advisor
Emelie Peine
Second Advisor
Michael Veseth
Degree Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Rights
Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2012
Recommended Citation
Balleria, Marina, "Power in Networks: Considering Castells’ Network Society in Egypt’s January 25th Movement and America’s Occupy Wall Street Movement" (2012). International Political Economy Theses. 7.
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/ipe_theses/7
Included in
Comparative Politics Commons, International Economics Commons, Political Economy Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons