As the word occupy achieved a forefront position in 2011 thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, several #Occupy experiences directly referring to OWS spread internationally. Yet, different practices of and against occupation had long been circulating in many areas of the world before the so-called #Occupy movement. The present paper will examine the recent entering of the word occupy in the Italian socio-political scene vis-à-vis the equivalent occupare, as used in the past and current practices of Italian social movements. It will first trace the different ideologies and discourses supporting the practices of and against occupation in Italy since the Twenties up to the present days. It will show that the word occupazione has been saturated by multiple conflicting meanings, deriving from social movements’ long-standing practices of occupation for different purposes (e.g., housing, social spaces, happenings and protests), coupled with practices of resistance against perceived forms of oppressive occupation, e.g. in the Partisan Resistance against the Nazis-fascist military troupes in WWII and in more recent community-based protests against the construction of high-impact infrastructures. The paper will then analyze the use of the English word occupy in Italy and the ideological functions it performs. It will investigate the symbolic power of occupy in the light of (a) the genealogy of its Italian equivalent occupare, and (b) the distinctive media representations of the international #Occupy movement circulating in Italy, which make occupy apt to be appropriated also by non-radical or even ultraconservative political actors (e.g. #OccupyPD, launched by young reformists of the center-left-wing party and #OccupySantoro, by a right-wing member of parliament). The conclusions will offer some reflections on the dynamics of language appropriation, and on the drawbacks and possibilities it opens in term of social movements’ politics of representation.
I sensi di occupy. una lettura sincronico-linguistica e storico-sociale di occupy e occupazione in Italia
ADAMI, Elisabetta;
2014-01-01
Abstract
As the word occupy achieved a forefront position in 2011 thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, several #Occupy experiences directly referring to OWS spread internationally. Yet, different practices of and against occupation had long been circulating in many areas of the world before the so-called #Occupy movement. The present paper will examine the recent entering of the word occupy in the Italian socio-political scene vis-à-vis the equivalent occupare, as used in the past and current practices of Italian social movements. It will first trace the different ideologies and discourses supporting the practices of and against occupation in Italy since the Twenties up to the present days. It will show that the word occupazione has been saturated by multiple conflicting meanings, deriving from social movements’ long-standing practices of occupation for different purposes (e.g., housing, social spaces, happenings and protests), coupled with practices of resistance against perceived forms of oppressive occupation, e.g. in the Partisan Resistance against the Nazis-fascist military troupes in WWII and in more recent community-based protests against the construction of high-impact infrastructures. The paper will then analyze the use of the English word occupy in Italy and the ideological functions it performs. It will investigate the symbolic power of occupy in the light of (a) the genealogy of its Italian equivalent occupare, and (b) the distinctive media representations of the international #Occupy movement circulating in Italy, which make occupy apt to be appropriated also by non-radical or even ultraconservative political actors (e.g. #OccupyPD, launched by young reformists of the center-left-wing party and #OccupySantoro, by a right-wing member of parliament). The conclusions will offer some reflections on the dynamics of language appropriation, and on the drawbacks and possibilities it opens in term of social movements’ politics of representation.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
