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Inequality, Egalitarianism, and Occupy Atlanta

Brettschneider, Phillip T
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397578866

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
This research seeks to answer whether knowledge of critical social science allows protesters in egalitarian, utopian movements to subvert the reproduction of inequality. Ethnographic research, including semi-structured interviews and participant observation, as well as artifact analysis, was conducted at the Occupy Wall Street protests in Atlanta during their tenure in Woodruff Park, from October 7th, 2011 to October 25th, 2011. Preliminary observations and interpretations were posted online for informants to read on a Wordpress blog. Data were analyzed with a qualitative, interpretive lens. This thesis argues that critical social science produces inequality rather than subverting it, and that it is necessary for anthropologists to shift the lens of analysis in order to support egalitarian action. This thesis argues that critical social science perspectives construct inequality in the present and construct a privileged role for social scientists as the sole analysts of inequality. Within the lens of critical social science, inequality will necessarily be reproduced and multiplied as a consequence of misrecognizing cultural capital. By contrast, this thesis argues for analyzing egalitarian social movements in terms of their practice of equality rather than their end goals. This thesis also argues for opening the fieldwork process and disseminating interpretations and observations to informants in order to produce a more equitable academic discourse.
Jeffrey Cohen (Advisor)
Kendra McSweeney (Committee Member)
Anna Willow (Committee Member)
83 p.
Cultural Anthropology
social movements; equality; utopianism; occupy wall street; occupy atlanta, atlanta

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brettschneider, P. T. (2014). Inequality, Egalitarianism, and Occupy Atlanta [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397578866

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brettschneider, Phillip. Inequality, Egalitarianism, and Occupy Atlanta. 2014. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397578866.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brettschneider, Phillip. "Inequality, Egalitarianism, and Occupy Atlanta." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397578866

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1397578866
906
© 2014, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Inequality, Egalitarianism, and Occupy Atlanta by Phillip T Brettschneider is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.