The topic of my dissertation is the formation and development of the movement of unemployed since the 1970s in Switzerland. Therefore I am analyzing five committees of unemployed persons: three in the French part of Switzerland and two in the German part. The formation of these committees was strongly related with welfare policies and the general economic situation: After the introduction of the automatic cession in the unemployment insurance first organizations of unemployed were formed, activation measures forced them to professionalise their consulting and occupational structures, and when the unemployment rate was high they could mobilise thousands to protest on the streets and gained a national referendum.

My aim is to study the constitution of a social group in the course of changing welfare policies and the transformations of labour. The actor’s perspective allows a broader sight on unemployment and also includes people depending from welfare benefits and precarious workers. The political discourse and the visible protests as well as the securing function of these organizations shall be analysed. Both include the formation of networks: Manifestations on the European and the Swiss national level made networks between different countries and regions visible. The principle was that people marched from their regions to a common point where a big manifestation took place. Appeals for manifestations were posters with a map connecting different places. To clarify the protest forms, an analysis of interorganizational networks on a national and an international level is necessary.

Through self-organized occupation and consulting structures on a local level, the unemployment organizations can be seen as securing networks on an individual level. To find new ways of working and securing forms the committees formed their own networks, for instance barter communities. The analysis of these self-created networks enlightens the experimental character of the movement and that political activity hasn’t been restricted on street protests, lobbying or publicly visible actions.

Methodologically in my doctorate thesis, I don’t want to focus only on a network analysis, but also on a reconstruction of identity, subjectivity and representations.

Biographical sketch

My name is Anina Zahn. After having studied history and philosophy in Fribourg (Switzerland) and Zurich and completing several internships in the field of migration and an archive I started in January 2015 my dissertation about the unemployment movement at the university of Basel. Already after some months in the archives I recognised that networks within the unemployment movement are very important, something I didn’t expect at the beginning. My motivation to participate on the GRAINES Summer School is to sharpen my understanding of the notion network and know about theories and instruments that help me to analyse interconnected movements and actors in the unemployment field. I would like to share a short presentation on the use of international, national and local networks as a political strategy of social movements using the example of the organization of unemployed of Basel. For my presentation, I want to present you empirical recognisable networks, rather than interconnected discourses. Also I will focus on movement networks, and not on individual mobilisation networks or connections with the State, parties or syndicates.

Readings

That social movements are networks is a very common definition. But I haven’t found very inspirational literature for my own project yet. Many articles are treating networks as recruitment or mobilisation resources on an individual level, which is not the focus of my project. The article collection “Social Movements and Networks. Relational Approaches to Collective Action.” edited by Mario Diani and Doug McAdam (2003, Oxford University Press, 348 p.) gave me an idea of methodology, approaches and the necessary terms and definitions. Especially Mario Diani’s article “Networks and Social Movement. A research Programme” in the book mentioned before convinced me that a network analysis can be very fruitful for my project as it approaches social movements in a more dynamic way. He describes how network approaches are not just treating movements as aggregates of events or actors, but are analysing the connectivity of events and identity dynamics. He argues that this approach needs to consider, that the distinctiveness of social movements from other collective actions is their network character.

Bibliography:

Diani, Mario: Introduction: Social Movements, Contentious Actions, and Social Networks: ‘From Metaphor to Substance’? In: Diani, Mario; McAdam, Doug (ed.): Social Movements and Networks. Relational Approaches to Collective Action. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. P. 1-18.

Diani, Mario: Networks and Social Movements: A Research Programme. McAdam, Doug: Beyond Structural Analysis: Toward a More Dynamic Understanding of Social Movements. In: Diani, Mario; McAdam, Doug (ed.): Social Movements and Networks. Relational Approaches to Collective Action. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. S. 299-319.

Giugni, Marco; Berclaz, Michel; Füglister, Katharina: La politique contestataire en Suisse. Etat-providence, opportunités et revendications politiques. 2014, Editions Seismo, Zürich und Genf.

McAdam, Doug: Beyond Structural Analysis: Toward a More Dynamic Understanding of Social Movements. In: Diani, Mario; McAdam, Doug (ed.): Social Movements and Networks. Relational Approaches to Collective Action. Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. S. 281-298.

Marchart, Oliver: Die Prekarisierungsgesellschaft. Prekäre Proteste. Politik und Ökonomie im Zeichen der Prekarisierung. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2013.