The Icelandic Kitchenware Revolution (Communications & Media Research Paper)

The Icelandic Kitchenware Revolution
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The Icelandic Kitchenware Revolution
Introduction
In the aftermath of the financial crisis in Iceland, the 2009-2011 Icelandic protests, also termed as Kitchen Implement, Kitchenware, or Pots and Pans Revolution, emerged to address the financial crisis. From October 2008, there were demonstrations against how the governments of Iceland handled the financial turmoil (Grenier & Hafsteinsson, 2016). In 2009, the demonstrations reached the parliament in Reyjavik with the thousands who gathered at the parliament on 20th January marked as the highest protests in the history of the nation. This marked a crucial step in the history of the country, marking its first ever revolution. As such, deeper analysis and understanding of the revolution is presented in this analysis. The analysis presents the following; an historical analysis of how and why the social movement emerged; an explanation of how the participants of the social movement understood or interpreted the oppression they sought to challenge; the activities of the social movement, its participants, visions, strategies, dissemination of information and mobilization; what the social movement achieved, didn’t achieve or has yet to achieve in terms of the movement itself, and its communicative properties; and also presents a detailed explanation of what adversaries say about the social movement, and whether or not I agree/disagree with their perspective and what I have discounted as merely rhetoric.
Historical Analysis of how and why the social movements you have chosen has emerged.
The major grievances addressed by angry protesters included government officials vacate offices for new elections. Therefore, demonstrations continued until key old government resignations occurred in the Independence Party’s right wing. The changes led to formation of a new left left-wing government in 2009, whose reforms included prosecution of government officials such as former Prime Minister Geir Haarde before Landsdуmur (Hall, 2017). There followed referenda that sought to know if the Icelandic people would support financial settlement of the Icesave debt. These changes started with formation of an independent board of 25 elected citizens who formed a Constitutional Assembly to formulate Iceland’s new constitution. Despite facing several legal complications, on 29 July 2011, the Constitutional Council formed by some of the 25 member non-political party representatives wrote and presented a Constitutional Draft.
Explain how the participants of the social movement understood or interpreted the oppression they sought to challenge. Who were the dominate and subordinate groups.
The protests majorly focused on the financial turmoil of 2008 where three main commercial banks collapsed. According to the Economist, this failure was the largest of its kind globally in history compared to the population size of Iceland (Landstrцm, 2015). The real protests of 2009 highlighted government pressure to restore major sectors of the economy. For instance, the first day in parliament for the Icelandic coalition government convened after Christmas to discuss issues such as smoking areas in food joints...