Caring for the whole: Spatial organization at the G20 protests in Hamburg

Abstract

Recounting the events of the #NoG20 protests in Hamburg in 2017, particularly the effects of the ban of one large scale protest camp by the authorities, this paper investigates how the protest was re-organized after the ban. Within a wide variety of existing forms of social movement organization (SMO), protest camps are increasingly visible and important, occurring on all continents and with increasing frequency. It appears that making a camp can be a strategy for network-based organization to materialize spatially where formal organizing is absent or eschewed. Based on interviews with participants and document analysis, the paper analyses the emergence of alternative hospitality structures, and of a new antagonism helping to forge a collective identity of the #NoG20 mobilisation. We structure our analysis through the notion of “care for the whole,” in which Rodrigo Nunes describes parameters of strategic action in networked SMO. We advance organizational thinking by extending this notion with two further dimensions: the literal caring for participants needs and its infrastructures; and the creation of a sense of community in narrative and representation. This can be applied in the analysis in any networked organization aspiring to be more democratic and open.