Peter Nikolaus Funke

• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at University of South Florida

Recognizing the current conjuncture, this article explores the changing role of media and communications in the cohering of social struggles by antisystemic social movements. Transforming structural relations of media and their tactical uses, the authors argue, are key components to shifting the terrain upon which such movements build. In response...

Across the last decade we have witnessed a growing wave of resistance across the globe. In this article we argue that it is critical to utilise class analysis to understand contemporary social movements. We maintain that class analysis begins with understanding class as a series of relations and/or processes that condition both the objective and su...

Special Section of tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique (http://www.triple-c.at) Edited by Todd Wolfson, Emiliano Treré, Paolo Gerbaudo, Peter FunketripleC 15 (2), 2017, pp. 390-542 Please note that the editors appear in reversed alphabetical order, not in order of importance. This special issue represents a collective effort, and all the...

Surveying the varied contributions to this special issue, this article examines the relationships, points of inspirations and contradictory dynamics that characterize the current epoch of social movement politics and global protest. The authors argue that with the progression of neoliberal capitalism and the explosion of new technologies, a shared...

Surveying the varied contributions to this special issue, this article examines the relationships, points of inspirations and contradictory dynamics that characterize the current epoch of social movement politics and global protest. The authors argue that with the progression of neoliberal capitalism and the explosion of new technologies, a shared...

Cet article s’intéresse au rôle de la communication dans la construction d’une identité de classe contemporaine dans l’Amérique urbaine en explorant les dynamiques en jeu au sein d’un réseau d’organisations à Philadelphie. En particulier, les auteurs se penchent sur l’histoire et les pratiques du Media Mobilizing Project (MMP), une infrastructure c...

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 empoweri...

As urban communities confront the specter of austerity budgets, growing inequality and a diminishing public sector, the question that organizers encounter is how to shift from multiple autonomous movements in a city to one movement for the city. This paper details and analyzes the role of media and communications in the process of developing a unit...

The last three decades have seen massive protests and mobilizations. From the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas in the 1990s to mass demonstrations against war and protests at virtually all gatherings of world leaders to struggles in North Africa and most recently Occupy Wall Street and anti-austerity type mobilizations, protests and social movement or...

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 shi...

This article investigates the movement building dynamics of contemporary social movement milieus (such as particular protests, social forums or occupations). It develops the concept of the "relay" to introduce four ideal-type movement building relays understood as distinct movement milieus: clustering relay, networking relay, coalitioning relay, an...

Understanding class as a process of self-making in relation to a particular, historical form of capitalism, in this article we argue that media and communication (from face-to-face and old mediums such as radio to internet-powered tools) must be conceptualized as an emerging structural dimension for class formation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork...

This work draws on Deleuze and Guattari's image of the 'rhizome' to develop a framework for mapping and understanding the global social forum process and its implications for the broader global left. The image of the rhizome is insightful for analytically accentuating the nature and workings, as well as the challenges and contemporary shortcomings,...

This article begins to theoretically explore today's left social movement formations in relation to shifts in capital and class relations. The article links the emergence of a novel matrix of social movement politics, which it calls the Rhizomatic Left, to the structural shifts from Fordism to neoliberal capitalism. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari,...

Due to the increasingly atomized, isolated nature of social life, as well as the apparent splintering of the working class under neoliberal capitalism, media serve a pivotal infrastructural function for generating the necessary commonality between the fractured sectors of the contemporary working class. This article ethnographically and textually e...

Due to the increasingly atomized, isolated nature of social life, as well as the apparent splintering of the working class under neoliberal capitalism, media serve a pivotal infrastructural function for generating the necessary commonality between the fractured sectors of the contemporary working class. This article ethnographically and textually e...

Using the Philadelphia-based organization Media Mobilizing Project as a case study, this article argues for a more sophisticated understanding of social movement networks. We argue that the fragmentation of the neoliberal city has increased the saliency of networked-based organizing. Contrary to much of the existing scholarly literature, however, w...

This study critically analyzes the social forum process through two intrinsically related dimensions. First, it places the emergence of the social forum phenomenon in the broader transformations towards neoliberal capitalism. It thus puts renewed emphasis on the often side-stepped structuring power of capitalism and class as analytic lenses for a d...

This article examines the World Social Forum and the global social forum process it has spurred by encouraging the creation of autonomous social forums on various levels, from the local to the global. The article argues that social forums, these “open spaces” for groups, movements, and networks opposed to neoliberalism, start to function as “resist...

Abstract will be provided by author.

Abstract will be provided by author.