Abstract:
In September 2011 a social movement began with an occupation of Zuccotti Park, Wall Street, downtown New York. Within a month's time, Occupy protests had been held in hundreds of cities across 80 countries. The causes for which the movement rallied were extremely diverse and ultimately the movement could not chisel out from them a more determined set of priorities or a clear raison d’être. Considering this fact, it has been difficult to grasp the widespread influence of the movement. In the current thesis I address this issue directly and I follow Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri to see Occupy as an example of the multitude acting as constituent power. In particular I am interested in the role of affect in the organisation of the multitude – this concept designates a fully material force of compulsion which is active in the sway of bodily relations and communal activities. The feeling of affect is an untranslatable experience felt in the nuance of the physical experience of the body. Although Hardt and Negri give the concept some attention in their Empire trilogy, it is particularly relevant in the most recent moments of social resistance which they have only addressed quite shortly. The concept of affect itself, which was elaborated by the distinguished and radical French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, has also received a good deal of interest in recent years that will be useful in supplying to Hardt and Negri’s framework of thought. Looking at the concept directly can help us to understand the motivations of Occupy which could not be articulated, and which consistently left onlookers confounded.
