Occupy Action! Collective Actions and Emotions in Public Places

Abstract

In recent times there is an accelerated movement in the privatization of public land. Some representative cases are the names of subway stops and central squares being associated with the brands of large corporations. Consequently the city centers are becoming an ambiguous territory making it unclear what is public and private. Additionally these newly established social practices have consequences and poses questions as where private ground begins (and ends) and how the freedom to use such spaces are affected? The privatization of public land appears to be an encroaching process and standard as similar patterns were found in other European cities. In our research, we have observed that a chronotope has been generated and repeated in this process. Similarities in London and Madrid were found during our ethnographic work allowing us to assert that any change or social transformation happens as a product of its historical context. The purpose of this paper is to present the Occupy Movement as a collective action and to create an archive that supports collective actions and emotions. The results of this analysis will show how to recognize if a square is private, public or almost–public.