Global Divestment Day Berlin 2015. Reinhard Bütikofer/ Flickr. Some rights reserved.In Manuel Castell’s Networks of Outrage and Hope – an analysis of distributed movements from the Arab Spring and the Indignados through Occupy Wall Street – the author attempts to map the forces behind new horizontal uprisings. Castells first talks of emotional triggers built into the causes themselves as important drivers of spontaneous mobilization. Beyond the causes, Castells focuses on technology (social networks) as an enabler of remote organizing and the autonomy of self-starting groups as being key factors behind the momentum these movements have generated.
The movements Castells writes about rose and fell quickly, while the climate campaigning organization 350.org and anti-street harassment network Hollaback! are still going strong years later. These two campaign-based organizations seem to draw from the horizontal logic and tactics of Occupy while capitalizing on new networked technologies. Both also claim to be facilitating the rise of grassroots-led movements.
Despite the relative autonomy of their local chapters, however, a closer look at the operational structures behind Hollaback! and 350.org reveals a good amount of top-down framing and central leadership.
