Towards a reconceptualisation of the lumpenproletariat: The collective organisation of poverty for social change through participatory media

Abstract

This study examines the activist-oriented participatory media processes of those who arguably could be classified as contemporary lumpenproletariat in San Francisco, California. Based on ethnographic research conducted at POOR Magazine in San Francisco, this article argues that, despite obstacles of disenfranchisement and disindividuation, people living in poverty and homelessness can organise collectively for social change via participatory media processes. Working with POOR Magazine, I conducted a qualitative analysis of the process of participatory media production and the media artefacts of people living in poverty and homelessness. The data are analysed through a critical/cultural theoretical lens to help reframe and redefine the conception of the lumpenproletariat. The findings of this study saw the possibility for collective organisation emerge in four ways: ideology, leadership, organisation and collective identity; this gives us a better understanding of the power and potential of lumpenproletariat media.