CYBER ACTIVISIM AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

CYBER ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: TOWARD A NEW POLITICS

The nature of social mobilization is changing before our eyes. “Cyber activism,” the extensive use of the Internet to provide counter-hegemonic information and inspire social mobilizations, is a new phenomenon in which a variety of new forms of movements and protests are using the most modern information technologies. Some organizations and efforts have been local, such as the Zapatistas. Some movements have focused on specific issues, such as in the Landmine Treaty or dolphin safe tuna fishing. Some of the net-mediated alternative globalization mobilizations have had a major impact, such as the widely publicized mobilizations in Seattle, Washington DC, Prague, Porto Alegre, Quebec City, Genoa, etc. The emergence of such movements requires us to take a descriptive survey to understand how the Internet is used that may help explain the movements and what shall the fate of such movements be. Hence, we focus here on the actual use of the Internet.

         It is necessary to note a plurality of types of sites from local to global extent of cultural, political, economic, environmental, and social justice based democratic action. To organize a democratic information society, Dyer-With ford (1999:193) distinguishes four distinct moments, “a guaranteed annual income, the creation of universal communication networks, the use of these in decentralized participatory counter planning, and the democratic control of decisions about techno scientific development.” While struggles in each of these areas might in Dyer-With ford’s terms establish its own “beachhead,” the Internet allows these beachheads to share some intelligence and personnel and, on many occasions, join together as a progressive force contesting neo-liberal globalization. Social movements and projects in civil society are working in all of these spheres and more.

         We would like to suggest that there are six main types of “cyber activism." These are a combination of two factors: first, type of social action in regards to the net either “through the net” (the net as a tool) or “in the net” (the net as a social space or site of contestation); and second, type of social sphere (economic, political-relational, and cultural). Hence, cyber activism through the Net is seen in:  1) Internetworking, 2) Capital and information flows, and 3) Alternative media and theory: A. Alternative media and B. Alternative theory networks. Cyber activism in the Net is seen in: 4) Direct cyber activism (hacktivism), 5) Contesting and constructing the Internet, and 6) Online alternative community formation. We define the types of cyber activism preliminarily as follows.

            Regarding this typology, please note: While the following ideal typical categories are distinguished for analytical purposes, many of these phenomena develop in tandem, in synergy and/or dialectically. Also note: While we focus on AGMs here, a caveat is that many actions, movements and communities on the Net are reactionary, directly reproducing various types of oppression or ascetic withdrawal or ludic in cannibalistic abandon, ritualized primal furor, or pop alternative cultural consumption, not challenging structures of power.

By: Ulaya Sijali A.

BAPRM 42681