The Occupy Movement

This research taps into several fundamental questions about social movements, neoliberalism, and environmental justice.  For example, social movement theory continues to house inquiries into how people form and join social movements; and the nature of the Occupy movement’s concerns with social inequality are especially relevant to neoliberal theories which assert that the culprit for rising social inequality is related to trends in deregulation and the dominance of the free market ideology (to name a few).  Finally, the contestation over space and the discourse on solutions within the emerging movement indicate that this movement, among other things, is a call for environmental justice.