Todd Wolfson

Class In-Formation: The Intersection of Old and New Media in Contemporary Urban Social Movements

This starts out by distinguishing between communication and communication mediums when examining social movement-powered formations of collective identity and collective action. We then focus on communication mediums to examine the different ways that old and new media are utilized in urban social movements under neoliberal capitalism. Based on shifts in the political economy and correspondingly in the contemporary composition of the working class, we focus on the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia to argue that contemporary urban social movements and networks utilize a multi-media platform to further class-based politics. The respective use of old or new media depends on important contextual questions, regarding technology access and geographic aspects of movement building work.

Rewiring the Apparatus: Screen Theory, Media Activism, and Working-Class Subjectivities

This essay utilizes concepts from screen theory to better understand the function of socially engaged documentaries. In particular, it explores how the media practices of the Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) allow us to refocus our analysis to take account of the utilization of media by social movements in ways that stress the collective and empowering role it can have for fostering class-based identities. As such, we aim to highlight the materiality of ideology and the possibility of collective class-based political projects that employ various film and media practices. MMPs video work indicates opportunities for employing video to establish broader working-class subjectivities. We hold that utilizing screen theory accordingly helps to augment our understanding of activist documentary forms. Moreover, linking activist documentary forms with the media practices of contemporary social movements allows us to gain a newfound appreciation for the emancipatory role of media as such.

Constitutive Communications and the Shimmering Project of the Multitude

In Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (2004), Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri analyze the major shifts in the inner workings of capitalism and class that have taken place across the last forty years. Building on these global transformations they offer a compelling vision for a new political project, which relies on the growing power of a new political subject, the multitude. They argue that this new political subject is irreducible to a singular identity or project, and therefore demands new horizontal networked, organizational forms, held together by communication technologies, in an effort to forge a radical democratic praxis. In this essay I argue that while their vision for a new logic of contemporary class-based social movements takes us in important new directions ultimately they are unable to deliver on the pledge of a meaningful political program because they rely to heavily on communications as a tool to bind the multitude.