Power Strategies and the Occupy movement
In the lecture Mediated Contestation and Systems of Control, Thomas Poell, building on the work of Foucault (2007), Miller and Rose (2008), and Van Dijck (2014), examined different power strategies. He started with a general discussion of the juridical conception of power (you must not). Then, he considered various modern power strategies that can be understood as productive: constructing, targeting, and shaping the soldier, worker, student, population, public, etc. Explain the workings of these productive power strategies on the basis of Poells lecture and the abovementioned readings. Subsequently, discuss how the Occupy protests addressed these power strategies, but why it was and is very difficult to effectively challenge them. Reflect in your answer on the use of social media in the mobilization and communication of the Occupy protests. While developing your answer, you can also consider the rhizomatic approach as explained by Bailey, Cammaerts and Carpentier (and discussed in the first lecture by Emiel Martens).
