O ccupy Movements

Abstract

Starting in September 2011 the Occupy movement was an international protest movement that focused on issues of social and economic inequality. Local groups had differing foci based on their location and the particular issues that affected them, but a main concern of the movement was that large corporations, the global financial system, and colluding governments all work together in a way that gives a disproportionate amount of power to the few, creates an uneven distribution of wealth and resources, and undermines structures of representative democracy. The movement was characterized through the occupation of (mostly urban) public spaces; in these public spaces participants used direct democracy, assemblies, and consensus decision‐making to live and work together. The first Occupy protest that took place was Occupy Wall Street in New York City's Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011. By October 9, Occupy protests had appeared in 82 countries around the world, although the movement was most active in the United States. The movement was inspired by the occupations of Tahrir Square in Egypt, the Arab Spring more generally, the Indignado movement in Spain and Portugal, and the occupation of public spaces in Greece.