Marina Sitrin

Bio: Marina Sitrin is an academic researcher from Binghamton University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Horizontalism & Democracy. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 15 publications receiving 510 citations. Previous affiliations of Marina Sitrin include New College of Florida & State University of New York at Delhi.

Horizontalism : voices of popular power in Argentina

Abstract: Are you fighting for change? Are you losing faith in your politicians? This book might be just what you need. Horizontalism: Voices of popular power in Argentina. Edited by Marina Sitriin AK Press, 2006. Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire: 'The movements in Argentina have been among the most creative and inspirational in recent years. Marina Sitrin's collection allows us to learn from the activists themselves and continue the experiments in autonomy and democracy they have begun.' Marie Kennedy, co-editor of Radical Politics of Place in America and Chris Tilly, co-author of Gl ass ceilings and Bottomless Pits :

They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy From Greece To Occupy

Abstract: Mass protest movements in disparate places such as Greece, Argentina, and the United States ultimately share an agenda - to raise the question of what democracy should mean. These horizontalist movements, including Occupy, exercise and claim participatory democracy as the ground of revolutionary social change today. Written by two international activist intellectuals and based on extensive interviews with movement participants in Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, across the United States, and elsewhere, this book is an expansive portrait of the assemblies, direct democracy forums, and organizational forms championed by the new movements, as well as an analytical history of direct and participatory democracy from ancient Athens to Zuccotti Park. The new movements put forward the idea that liberal democracy is not democratic, nor was it ever.

Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina

Abstract: * Preface * Introduction * 1: A brief history of movements and repression in Argentina * 2: From rupture to creation: new movements emerge * 3: Horizontalidad * 4: New subjectivities and affective politics * 5: Power and autonomy: against and beyond the state * 6: Autogestion, territory, and alternative values * 7: The state rises: incorporation, cooptation, and autonomy * 8: Measuring success: affective or contentious politics? * Notes * Bibliography * Index

Horizontalism and the Occupy Movements

Abstract: This essay puts forward the basic premises around which the Occupy movements in the United States are organized, locates the movement globally, argues that the movements themselves are the ones that should determine their own success, and then distinguishes these positions from those that Michael Kazin puts forward in his article, "The Fall and Rise of the U.S. Populist Left." Kazin argues that the way to determine if the Occupy movements will be successful is if they articulate "what a better country would look like and what it would take to get there." This, however, is the wrong way to evaluate the Occupy movements. The intention of the thousands of assemblies taking place around the United States, as well as in Greece and Spain, where I have been most recently, is to open spaces for people to voice their concerns and desires—and to do so in a directly democratic way. These movements emerged in response to a growing crisis, the heart of which is a lack of democracy. People do not feel represented by the governments that claim to speak in their name. The Occupy movements are not based on creating either a program or a political party that will put forward a plan for others to follow. Their purpose is not to determine "the" path that a particular country should take but to create the space for a conversation in which all can participate and in which all can deter-mine together what the future should look like. At the same time, these movements are attempting to prefigure that future society in their present social relationships.

Doing is Believing: Prefiguration as Strategic Practice in the Alterglobalization Movement

Abstract: In most accounts of social movements, prefiguration and strategy are treated as separate movement practices that are either contradictory or complementary to each other. In this article I argue that in the case of the alterglobalization movement, we have to understand prefiguration itself as strategic. When movement goals are multiple and not predetermined, then prefiguration becomes the best strategy, because it is based in practice. By literally trying out new political structures in large-scale, inter-cultural decision-making processes in matters ranging from global politics to daily life, movement actors are learning how to govern the world in a manner that fundamentally redesigns the way power operates. This process constitutes a prefigurative strategy in which movement actors pursue the goal of transforming global politics, not by appealing to multilateral organizations or nation-states, but by actively developing the alternative political structures needed to transform the way power operates.

Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest

Abstract: A firsthand account and incisive analysis of modern protest, revealing internet-fueled social movements greatest strengths and frequent challenges To understand a thwarted Turkish coup, an antiWall Street encampment, and a packed Tahrir Square, we must first comprehend the power and the weaknesses of using new technologies to mobilize large numbers of people. An incisive observer, writer, and participant in todays social movements, Zeynep Tufekci explains in this accessible and compelling book the nuanced trajectories of modern protestshow they form, how they operate differently from past protests, and why they have difficulty persisting in their long-term quests for change. Tufekci speaks from direct experience, combining on-the-ground interviews with insightful analysis. She describes how the internet helped the Zapatista uprisings in Mexico, the necessity of remote Twitter users to organize medical supplies during Arab Spring, the refusal to use bullhorns in the Occupy Movement that started in New York, and the empowering effect of tear gas in Istanbuls Gezi Park. These details from life inside social movements complete a moving investigation of authority, technology, and cultureand offer essential insights into the future of governance.

Routine Politics and Violence in Argentina: The Gray Zone of State Power

Abstract: Close to three hundred stores and supermarkets were looted during week-long food riots in Argentina in December 2001. Thirty-four people were reported dead and hundreds were injured. Among the looting crowds, activists from the Peronist party (the main political party in the country) were quite prominent. During the lootings, police officers were conspicuously absent - particularly when small stores were sacked. Through a combination of archival research, statistical analysis, multi-sited fieldwork, and taking heed of the perspective of contentious politics, this book provides an analytic description of the origins, course, meanings, and outcomes of the December 2001 wave of lootings in Argentina.

Omnia Sunt Communia: On the Commons and the Transformation to Postcapitalism

Abstract: In Omnia Sunt Communia, Massimo de Angelis offers a radical political economy, illuminating the steps necessary to arrive at a post-capitalist world. By conceptualizing the idea of commons not just as common goods but as a set of social systems, de Angelis shows their pervasive presence in everyday life, and he maps out a strategy for total social transformation. From the micro to the macro, de Angelis unveils the commons as fields of power relations—shared space, objects, and subjects—that explode the limits of daily life under capitalism. He exposes attempts to co-opt the commons, through the use of seemingly innocuous words such as “participation” and “governance,” and he reveals the potential for radical transformation rooted in the social reproduction of our communities, life, work, and society as a whole.