OWS and the Occupation of Place

            The Occupy Wall Street movement has been one of the more intriguing stories to take place since the fall. An interesting part of this movement is its use of place and space. The encampment at Zucotti Park in the Wall Street section of New York City provided a central location for people to gather at the heart of the problem: Wall Street. With tents, sleeping bags and a large concentration of people, Zucotti Park resembled a refugee camp. Make no mistake, though, even though they had temporarily left their homes, the 99% were able to enjoy many of the comforts of home including, free wi-fi Internet, a library, and a five-star soup kitchen that turned out organic chicken and spaghetti Bolognese one night. Many of the cities neediest 99%, the homeless, began showing up in the camps primarily for the food, only to be kicked out by the protestors. This creates a place that the bookends of society – the wealthy and the poor – are shunned from.

            The police have a noticeable presence at a lot of the bigger Occupy locations and often clash with the protestors. Earlier this week, these two groups had a confrontation at McPherson Square in D.C. This was sparked by protestors’ refusal to dismantle a wooden structure they had set up without a permit. This is very interesting because it brings up and important development with place and space. Often symbolized by objects that represented movement, or a fleeting nature – tents, sleeping bags, tarps, etc. – the Occupy movement is now attempting to create more permanent structures. These Occupy camps have become incredibly important because they are as important as the people in them. Like the bigger cities around them, these camps have their own character and a unique sense of place, one founded more on an idea than anything else. It will be interesting to see what new structures pop up and what clues they offer to regarding the direction of this movement.