| My dissertation examines the movement to defend public education at the University of California; it explores the connections between the UC Movement and the Occupy Movement, as well as the relationship between these movements and global resistance struggles in the face of neoliberal policies and practices. The contemporary era, or what Bauman (2000) terms "liquid modernity," is marked by the diffusion of power through globalization, the decline of the nation state, and the spread of market fundamentalism. Resistance is becoming more "liquid" as well; the boundaries between dispersed struggles have begun to erode, facilitated by the growth of decentralized, informal networks within and between movements. Analyses that examine any one manifestation of these struggles are increasingly insufficient. Scholars must develop new meso-level understandings of resistance that account for the complex connections between dispersed resistance struggles in the contemporary age. Based on more than two years experience as both an activist and ethnographer in the UC Movement and connected occupations, my research captures the diffuse, decentralized, and informal networks within and between the UC and Occupy Movements and the larger struggles in which they are embedded.;A number of internal tensions emerged as participants in the UC and Occupy Movements strove to address the complex and diffuse nature of power and oppression in the liquid age. I identify four specific dimensions of struggle faced by participants: goals and grievances, organization and leadership, tactics, and identity work. Some participants pursued reform-oriented goals and expressed a preference for more structured and traditional forms of mobilization while others found reform inadequate and advocated revolutionary goals and more fluid and informal mobilization styles. These preferences were determined by a combination of micro and macro level factors including participants' different ideologies and understandings of democracy and social change, affinity groups and informal networks within the UC and Occupy Movements, and the relationship between these movements and the global resistance struggles of which they are a part. Through a grounded analysis of the complex mesostructure connecting these struggles, my research provides a window onto new challenges and opportunities faced by social movements in the age of liquid modernity. |
