Workshop on Alternative Ways of Participation. 7th and 8th of February 2014 in Istanbul http://www.sebeke.org.tr/

1. The Mediation of Dissensus
Dr. Bart Cammaerts
London School of Economics and Political Science

2. Opportunity Structures
Social Movement Theory:
the agentic opportunities as
well as structural constraints
that impact on the success or
failure of social movements
fits with structuration theory
(Giddens), but also with the
idea that resistance is integral
to understand the dynamic
between generative and
restrictive power (Foucault)

3. Mediation
Media and Communication Studies:
dialectic concept as well:
Production/Reception
Alternative/Mainstream
Public/Private
Traditional Media/New Media
Symbolic/Material
also implicates the (active) audiences and
the user of technology in the mediation
process

4. Mediation
Opportunity
Structure
Made up of four inter-connected components:
Performance of resistance
Self-mediation practices
Mainstream media representations
Resonance and public opinion

5. Performance of Resistance
The Spectacle of Protest in the
Society of the Spectacle (Guy
Debord)
Disruption of elite-organised
media events
Creation of DIY-Spectacles
Resistance and the
Carnivalesque (Mikhail Bakhtin)
Temporary transgressions
world upside-down
Mockery

6. Performance of Resistance
Performing Dissensus
Insurrectionary Symbolic Violence
Antithesis of Bourdieu’s Symbolic
Violence
Isolated, Targetted and
insignificant without its
mediation
Occupations of elite spaces,
damage of property, disruption
and seeking confrontations with
police

7. Self-Mediation Practices
Technologies of Self (Foucault, 1997:
234-47)
Disclosure of Self: : ‘the cultivation of
the self’
Examination of Self: ‘taking stock’ and
self-reflexivity
Remembrance of Self: ‘memorizations of
deeds’

8. Technologies of Self-Mediation
Logics of Self-Mediation
Disseminate movement frames
Mobilise for direct actions
Organise the movement
Coordinate direct actions
Record protest events
Archive protest artefacts
Disclosur
e
Examinatio
n
Remembranc
e
Media Center - Occupy Wall Street
(US)
Twitter-Graffiti - Gezi
(Turkey)

9. Technologies of Self-Mediation
Real Time/Fleeting Asynchronous/Permanent
Public/Outward Radio
TV
Streaming
Social Media
Essays/Manifestos
Posters, Stickers and Flyers
Paintings, Murals and Street Art
Film, Video and Photographs
Social Media and Website
Private/Inward Telephone
Internet Relay Chat
VoIP
Letters
Email
Text Messages
Private Messages on SNS

10. Mainstream Media
Representation
Mainstream media remains important
(cf. Rucht, 2013)
To reach beyond the like-minded
To increase the scope of conflict
To legitimise a struggle
Processes of adaptation to the media
logic

11. Mainstream Media
Representation
Negative Bias?
Usually yes, but…mainstream
media is not a unified actor
Construction of dichotomy of the
good - peaceful - protester and the
bad - violent - protester
Also a focus on police violence
Activists increasingly develop
strategies to manage the media

12. Reception and Audiences as
Publics
Mediation is not merely constituted in the
production of frames in text and images, but
crucially also in the way in which these are
received.
Those in whose name protests are
organised and democratic decisions taken
Black-boxed
Often represented as passive actors,
juxtaposed by the active audience and the
user of technology
The Spivakean Subaltern which is
heterogeneous, disparate; ceases to be
subaltern when they speak

13. The Mediation
Opportunity
Structure
• Should be seen as semi-independent
from other opportunity structures
• Relates to discursive struggles (war of
position)
• Includes the production, dissemination,
and reception of movement frames
• Is dialectic and has a spatial as well as
temporal dimension