Espaces transnationaux de mobilisation post-2011 : propositions pour une analyse complexe

This dissertation aims to contribute to the thinking on certain transnational forms of social mobilization in the second decade of the 21st Century. To do so, it proposes three articles that examine different phenomena using an ethnographic approach: Occupy Montreal, Global Square, and the World Social Forum.  The inspiration for this doctoral dissertation are the insights offered by critical geography on the importance of spatiality (Auyero, 2005; Massey, 1984; Therborn, 2006). It also explores “open space,” as presented in the literature on the World Social Forums (Keraghel and Sen, 2004; Sen, 2008; Teivainen, 2004; Wallerstein, 2004; Whitaker, 2000). Furthermore, my approach engages with the sociology literature on social movements (Fraser, 1990; Negt, 2007; Tilly, 2004) and contributes a complementary analysis – recognizing the desire for unity within the initiatives discussed as well as their complex and dynamic natures. The first article offers an interpretation of Occupy Montreal, which occupied Victoria Square in the fall of 2011. Observing two specific locations in the occupation, it questions whether observation of the spatiality of a so-called transnational social mobilization can teach us about the dynamics developed there. The second article of this thesis presents an analysis of two mobilizations that occurred in 2013 – the World Social Forum, held in Tunis, and Global Square. It therefor facilitates a dialogue between this emblematic alter-globalist phenomenon and an initiative comprised of activists from movements such as Occupy, Indignados, and the Jasmine Revolution – which organized on-line to participate in WSF 2013. This article explores the argument that transnational mobilization spaces are propelled by certain inherent tensions. The third article, co-authored with Nikolas Schall – uses the prism of “assemblage thinking” (DeLanda, 2006, 2016; Nail, 2017; Rabinow, 2011) to advance the understanding of transnational spaces, particularly the 2016 World Social Forum in Montreal. Assemblage thinking renews the possibilities for analyzing the constitutive heterogeneity of these complex transnational phenomena, which appear as the fruit of the interaction of multiple autonomous components (they themselves potentially being “assemblages of assemblages”), leading to the emergence of an ever-evolving “fragmentary whole” (DeLanda, 2006). The conclusion of this doctoral research offers a synthesis of these contributions. In the first instance it is shown how the theoretical dimensions presented in the introduction (illustrating the tensions between transnationality/anchorage, heterogeneity/unity, and horizontality/power relationships) are visible in each article. Then in the second instance, wishing to provide a response to the general question posed by this dissertation – how to account for complex transnational phenomena – I propose an analytical matrix for illustrating their emergence at the intersection of the various dimensions analyzed. The limitations of this dissertation are likewise presented. Finally, I suggest the relevance of expanding the concept of civil society to include the plurality of perspectives present in transnational spaces of mobilization.

Keyphrases: Global Square, Occupy, Local and global mobilization spaces, Space and place, Transnational social movements, World Social Forum