Lexington Books Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement

Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement is a critical, participant observation study of the Philadelphia branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement. John Leveille spent over nine months with Occupy Philadelphia as the members organized and carried out their protests. This book describes and analyzes the rise, the organization, and the demise of this group. The important events and activities of Occupy Philadelphia are discussed and dissected, with specific attention given to the confusions and chaos that permeated this group, and Occupy Wall Street more generally, which contributed to its rather rapid decline. A revisionist Marxism, informed loosely by the critical theory of the Frankfurt school, is used here to understand and explain the happenings of this protest group. The theory provides an epistemological and methodological framework for this study, and it is also used to account for the observed behaviors. Leveille argues that an essential conflict between humanism and the forces of rational capitalism lies at the heart of this protest movement. This conflict contributed both to the rise of Occupy and to its operations. It was manifested in two intersecting ways. One of these concerns the destabilization of the self in contemporary capitalism, which provided fuel for the movement. The second revolves around the limited abilities of existing institutional arrangements to manage or channel the essential conflicts related to values that are produced by rational capitalism. Ultimately, Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement makes a controversial claim that the movement was as much, if not more, about democracy, morality, and the organization and experience of the self and of social life as it was about economic matters. The argument is made that Occupy was as much an expressive movement as it was an instrumental one. It was expressing contradictions produced by capitalism through extra-institutional means because the existing institutional arrangements have been and continue to be unable to manage or contain them. Review Leveille's description of movement meetings, personal conversations, tensions and conflicts, and recorded impressions from participants will interest social movement scholars who are likely to recognize many dynamics within [Occupy Philadelphia]. . . .Leveille's analysis raises interesting questions about the forces influencing contemporary global justice movements.--Social Forces The book has a clear activist character. Leveille is aware of the risk of producing a social movement theory that is disconnected from the knowledge interests of the activists and, as a result, does well to stay away from it. Particularly because of its methodological approach - which goes to great lengths to engage with the concerns and challenges of those directly involved with the movement - the book succeeds in being more than a scholastic dissection of the character and dynamics of Occupy. . . Searching for Marx in the Occupy Movement has the potential to be of interest not only to scholars who are searching for Marxist alternatives to mainstream social movement theory, but also to activists who are preoccupied with advancing their radical political projects.--Marx and Philosophy Review of Books This ambitious book seeks to situate the Occupy movement in the larger context of social movement literature. The author employs an ethnographic approach to detail the many facets of the Occupy Philadelphia movement. Spending between 20 and 40 hours a week at the Occupy Philly encampment, sociologist Leveille (West Chester Univ.) is able to drill down and sketch a compelling picture of Occupy Philly. In so doing, he not only provides a rich account of the debates and fissures within Occupy Philly, but also examines how the movement fits into theories of social movements. Leveille is at his best in describing the schisms that emerged in the movement, and its relationship to outside forces. He also provide