Cracks, reforms, and bursts in the violet air

Abstract

This thesis examines the mutual scalar impact of the globalizing city and social movement framings. It examines Atlanta’s discursive politics from 1990-1996, focused on discourse between the urban regime and various social movements in the city opposing Olympic-related urban displacement. Two points drive the theoretical perspective: first, a focus on displacement as a strategy for reifying the regime’s power, and second, the interpretation of social movement scale frames as essential to urban discursive production and contestation. Data analysis examines activist interviews while summarizing the methods of redevelopment and displacement of the urban poor. Finally, this thesis concludes that the globalizing city is neither inherently oppositional nor promotional of social movement scale framing strategies. Instead, globalizing cities necessitate discursive consideration by social movements of a number of different scale framing strategies to shape the material and discursive conditions of the city.