Convergence as Organization: Blockupy against the ECB

On 18 March 2015, the transnational anti-austerity Blockupy coalition protested the inauguration of the new European Central Bank premises in Frankfurt. This article analyzes this mass protest event by highlighting the organizational differences, possibilities, and conflicts that was involved. The article is based on participant observation of the Blockupy event and interviews with a group of Danish activists who also participated. The article constructs sociospatial narrative that unfolds through three different scales of organization: the Blockupy coalition, the participating formal and informal organizations, and the activist subject. This narrative explicates the mode of organization as a ‘convergence space’ (cf. Routledge, 2003), with different ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ of organization (cf. Davies, 2012). Thus, through an analysis of the modes of organization constituting this mass protest event, this article restates the relevance of the concept of organization, which have recently been ignored or understated in favour of master-narratives of networks or the dichotomy of horizontalism and verticality. It concludes by posing a set of questions for further discussion among both activists and sociologists.