Patrick McCurdy circulated our research collective’s response to Eric Kluitenberg’s post on The Tactics of Camping over <nettime> on July 1, 2011. In our preliminary framework for understanding Protest Camps we argue that protest camps must be seen–and studied–as a unique organisational form of politics. We suggest that there are four key attributes that appear generalisable to all protest camps: (1) domestic infrastructures (food supply, shelter, sanitation, maintenance of communal and private space); (2) action infrastructures (direct action tactics, police negotiations, legal aid, medical support, transportation networks);(3) communication infrastructures (media strategies, distribution networks, production techniques); and (4) governance infrastructures (formal and informal decision-making processes). As these organisational dimensions dynamically interact, they enable and hinder each other, creating specifically configured protest camps. This framework is based on our research to date. More responses to Eric’s post can be read on the nettime archives.
