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Digital Activism: A New Means of and a New Meaning of Being Political

Introduction: Online and Oppositional

Digital media have undoubtedly changed the way radical politics is communicated across the globe, but it is also claimed, in turn, that they have changed the nature of radical politics itself (Klein, 2000; Salter, 2003; Castells, 2009, 2015). This chapter considers the debates that surround the relationship between the form of media, in particular in relation to the internet, and the nature of political activism.

The forms of mediation, the means of organizing protest and demonstration and communicating one's political passions and desires, are connected to the claims of a revival of radical politics of the twenty-first century (e.g., Roberts, 2014; Hands, 2011; Alexander, 2011; Juris, 2008; Gerbaudo, 2012; Castells, 2015). This is partly to do with the straightforward yet dramatic increase in speed and ease of communication brought about through online mobilization. But claims go beyond a simple premise of enhanced communication linking new technology to shifts in political ontology - a transformation in the very nature and practice of politics. So, there are those that argue that we are entering an era of post-foundational politics (Marchart, 2007) that corresponds to the hybridity, reflexivity, mobility and performativity characteristic of networked society (Dean et al., 2006; Terranova, 2004). From such perspectives, digital media are seen as the perfect means for a more fluid, issue-based and institution-less politics that crosses boundaries of both identity and territory. Such approaches criticize those who view the field of political practices as separate from culture and the economy and argue instead that networked technologies accelerate, intensify and hybridize political, cultural and economic practices to (re)configure and produce new political spaces, fronts and opportunities, producing assemblages of power that coalesce in often unpredictable ways (Terranova, 2004). Others have even gone so far as to claim that the nature of the internet as a technological system offers a semantic and social web composed of networked people and technologies that could bring forth a new economy of contribution (Benkler, 2006) with the potential for a new public and a new commons (Hardt and Negri 2004; Castells, 2009).

This chapter begins by discussing some of the key technological characteristics that have been claimed to mark out the internet as particularly suited to contemporary transnational radical political activism. Assessing a range of literature, it organizes approaches to online activism and radical politics into three dual and interconnected themes:

• speed and space - the internet is claimed to facilitate international communication among political activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grassroots organizations and other political groups, allowing protesters to respond rapidly on an international level to local events while requiring minimal resources and bureaucracy;
• connectivity and participation - the internet is described as a mediated activity that seeks to raise people's awareness, give a voice to those who do not have one, offer social empowerment through participation, allow disparate people and causes to organize themselves and form alliances on a transnational level and, ultimately, be used as a tool for social change; and
• diversity and horizontality - where the internet is also claimed to be more than an organizing tool. It is an organizing model for a new form of political protest that is not only international but decentralized, with diverse interests but common targets, although the targets may be perpetually contested.

These three dual themes point to a heady mix of ingredients that is argued to correspond to an integral affinity between the global, interactive technology of the internet and the development of the more internationalist, decentred and participatory form of radical politics seen in the likes of the Occupy movement, which is said to lead to a new means of and a new meaning of being political. Radical politics of the moment are also connected indelibly to the political history of any one place or context. Technology is embedded in deep-rooted normative, social, political and economic forces. Thus, the chapter ends by putting radical politics in a radical context and asking not just: What is the relationship between digital media and radical politics?, but also, as the end of chapter 1 signals: What are the circumstances in which politics are rendered open to contestation and revision today?

Increasing the Speed and Expanding the Space of Political Activism

There seems little doubt that spaces for political engagement have expanded in a digital mediascape and that the internet is now central to an understanding of the mediation of political identities and enactments of political belief. Klein (2000) was one of the first to argue that the internet facilitates international communication among NGOs and allows protesters to respond on an international level to local events while requiring minimal resources and bureaucracy. This occurs through the sharing of experience and tactics on a transnational basis to inform and increase the capacity of local campaigns. According to Klein, the internet is not simply a technical aid to political mobilization. It is much more than that. Klein argues that the internet has enabled a whole new type of politics to emerge based on forms of protest which travel easily across geographic borders - a politics that is organizationally dispersed and embraces a diverse range of interests while also retaining a sense of commonality in the things that are being protested against (see the section on diversity and horizontality below). Since Klein's description, similar claims have been made for the Indignado movement in Spain (Castells, 2015). This was a movement that developed out of the neoliberal politics of austerity enforced in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008. It led to an array of protests across the country which were communicated via the internet to the rest of the world. These protests were said to have inspired the Occupy movement, which began on Wall Street in the heart of New York City's financial district to protest against social and economic inequality and then, via the internet, spread to many parts of the globe. The internet was also instilled with the revolutionary prowess that gave rise to the falling dominoes of revolts across the Arab and North African world in 2011 (Mason, 2012) - all linking new media to radical political possibilities in a manner termed by Diamond (2012: xi-xii) as 'liberation technology', which can 'empower individuals, facilitate independent communication and mobilization and strengthen an emergent civil society'.

The use of the internet for such radical oppositional purposes is said to alert people to issues they would not otherwise know about; to give a means of expression to those who previously had no way of making their dissent known; then to enable this diverse array of dissenting voices to come together in a connective form of politics, facilitated by the internet, that will ultimately, it is claimed, lead to social change. It is the ability to form networks and build alliances at the click of a mouse that is felt to be conducive to the building of radical political movements which can spread across national borders and merge a variety of topics under broadly common themes, though the themes may be subject to frequent change. Sometimes, such radical politics take the form of new social movements that are themselves often hybrid, contradictory and contingent and include a huge variety of voices and experiences. At other times, the radical politics on display is better described as an alliance of groups, organizations and individuals with a political affinity that coalesces at a particular moment in time.

The internet has another characteristic that is well suited to radical politics - it is a medium that is more readily associated with young people (e.g., Ester and Vinken 2003; Livingstone and Bovill, 2002; Loader 2007); and young people, in particular, are increasingly associated with disengagement from mainstream politics (e.g., Park 2004; Wilkinson and Mulgan 1995; Sloam, 2014) and engagement with the internet (Livingstone et al., 2005; Ofcom, 2010). The extensive literature that discusses young people and politics falls largely into two camps: one that talks of a disaffected youth and the other of citizen displacement (Loader, 2007). In the former, studies speak of the decline of young people voting in conventional national party political elections as indicative of their extensive alienation from society's central institutions and warn of the long-term dangers this may have. In the latter, an engagement with traditional politics based on a sovereign nation-state is displaced: 'Young people are not necessarily any less interested in politics than previous generations, but . traditional political activity no longer appears appropriate to address the concerns associated with contemporary youth cultures' (ibid.: 1).

Rather, civil society, or certain parts of it, comes to the fore as an alternative arena of public engagement (Sloam, 2014). It is argued that politically motivated young people tend to look to non-mainstream political arenas often populated by...