Jeffrey S. Juris

Jeffrey Juris is an American professor, currently teaching anthropology at Northeastern University. Juris received a Ph.D in anthropology from UC Berkeley.^[1] Beyond being an educator, Juris is an author, political activist, and researcher. Juris specializes in social movements, transnational networks, new media activism, and political protests. He has a number of published books and maintains his own website, where he updates his latest publications and political activism.^[2] Juris has been cited and referenced many times for his research on the Occupy movement and other anti-globalization movements.

Political activity

Juris was involved with the Boston Occupy on Dewey Square, both as a protester and as an academic observer.^[3] Juris recalls seeing a large rowdy young crowd of protesters walking the streets and chanting things like 'We are the 99%' and even encouraging bystanders by calling them the 99%. He also recalls seeing police brutality against peaceful veterans who were part of the occupy movement. The same violent images that followed the disencampment of Occupy Wall Street. In his article, "Reflections on #Occupy Everywhere", Juris asserts that websites and listservs were a big part of the inception of Occupy, but the movement took a turn towards a more decentralized, social media led organization.^[4] He believes this was for the best as their online presence allows for the movement to maintain some sort of media influence. Juris notes that social media outlets, such as Facebook and Twitter, were an important part of organizing movements at the initial stages, but have since slowed their presence on internet platforms. Jeffrey also noted that the modeling of the movement was based on the structure of social media. It was no longer about getting people to join the movement, but rather to bring as many groups of people together for their unique agenda. For example, one group could have a successful peaceful non-violent protest and then afterward, more violent protesters can come thru and express themselves. Juris asserts that new radical democracy does not depend on a consensus among everyone, but rather a respect for other people's point of view.^[5] He says the new social media platforms call for new types of political, social, and economic organizations.^[6][7] The old systems are no longer serving our society as best as they could and Jeffrey says it is time for major reform.

Recently, Juris has been working on a new project that explores the topic of pirate radio in Mexico City and Beyond. This is going to be based on his 15-months of research both academically and in the field.

Works

Juris is the author of Networking Futures: the Movements Against Corporate Globalization,^[8] co-author of Global Democracy and the World Social Forums,^[9] co-editor of Insurgent Encounters: Transnational Activism, Ethnography, and the Political,^[10] and written many more articles on related topics.

His latest and most popular work is Networking Futures, which focuses on his ethnographic research into the Barcelona-based Movement for Global Resistance. He has done extensive work to understand the movement. Along with his first-hand experience, interviews with key actors, social media networking, and involvement in organizing protests, Jeffrey has created theories and proposals on why these movements have been successful.^[11]

Juris and other OWS activists created a website called Occupy Research that allows researchers to share tools and data sets for the Occupy Movement.^[12] The website was taken down for lack of activity, but Juris maintains the records.

References