Dispatches from the occupation : a history of change / Stephen Collis.

Author/creator Collis, Stephen, 1965-
Format Book
Publication InfoVancouver, B.C. : Talonbooks, 2012.
Descriptionxv, 235 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
Subjects
Occupy movement--British Columbia. --Vancouver.
Protest movements--British Columbia. --Vancouver.
Social change--History.

Contents Repetition and difference : occupying the history of change. -- Dispatches from the occupation: Occupy Vancouver : we move in! ; Occupy Earth ; All power to the occupations ; The form is the content (I) ; Poem for Oakland ; Whose side are you on? ; We demand we don't demand anything (yet) ; Right to the future ; The form is the content (II), or, Don't take my tent, bro! ; Tragedy on the commons ; Turning tides and sacred fires ; Bites, lies, and videotape ; Spirit of the occupation ; Occupy 101 ; A history of change (I) : solidarity forever ; A history of change (II) : the question of cities ; Our end is our beginning ; A history of change (III) : tents not guns ; Occupy Vancouver : where were we? Where are we now? Where are we headed? ; What is the idea whose time has come? ; Occutopia : seven visions of a new society ; The metabolic commons, or, From occupying to commoning through decolonization ; Ten questions (and answers) on Occupy Vancouver ; A show of hands : art and revolution in public space ; Casserole ; From State shift to "shift state" : resistance to civil government 2012. -- Letter from Rome.
Abstract "Somewhere at the core of almost every intellectual discipline is an attempt to explain change -- why and how things change, and how we negotiate these transformations. These are among the most ancient of philosophical questions. In this collection of essays, award-winning poet Stephen Collis investigates how the Occupy movement grapples with these questions as it once again takes up the cause of social, economic and political change. Dispatches from the Occupation opens with a meditation on the Occupy movement and its place in the history of recent social movements. Strategies, tactics and the experiments with participatory democracy and direct action are carefully parsed and explained. How a movement for social, economic and political change emerges, and how it might be sustained, are at the heart of this exploration. Comprising the second section of the book is a series of "dispatches" from the day-to-day unfolding of the occupation in Vancouver's city centre as the author witnessed it -- and participated in it -- first hand: short manifestos, theoretical musings and utopian proposals. The global Occupy movement has only just begun, and as such this book presents an important first report from the frontlines. Finally, Dispatches from the Occupation closes with a reflection on the city of Rome, written in the shadows of the Pantheon (the oldest continually-in-use building in the world). In something of a long prose-poem, Collis traces the trope of Rome as the "eternal (unchanging?) city," from its imperial past (as one of the "cradles of civilization") to the rebirth of Roman republicanism during the French Revolution and the era of modern social movements -- right up to the explosive riots of October 2011. Woven throughout is the story of the idea of change as it moves through intellectual history."--Publisher's website.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Other formsAlso issued in electronic format.
LCCN 2012493459
ISBN9780889226951 (pbk.)
ISBN0889226954 (pbk.)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks HN110 .V3 C64 2012 ✔ Available Place Hold