Re: Just a few questions

What were the "steps" preceding Arab Spring?

Many of the large "people power" revolutions happening in Third World and Former Communist countries.

Georgia and the Ukraine were very diffused; Madagascar and Thailand do seem similar in several respects (in turn, Thailand was influenced by the Philippines and Indonesia), and of course, Kyrgyzstan happened in a Muslim country. But the definitive inspirations were the Iranian protests - including on what to do to diffuse their movement inside and abroad; and the modern Palestinian forms of resistance.

What were the "steps" preceding Occupy Wall Street?

As Baldur said, the Tea Party.
As much as the ideology is different (and I am not really all that sure - they also speak against the bailouts!), nearly everything else is similar.
It rests to see if they will also become an insurgent movement devoted to influencing the Democratic party choices of candidates.

Or are those not emancipation movements?

No, they aren't. None of them has called for paedo-liberation.