The Arab Spring, chat forums, political leaders tweeting, online petitions, and protestors in the Occupy Movement – new media public spheres have without doubt radically altered social and political activism in society. But to what extent is this new activist public sphere stifled by the neoliberal economy and workfare state? Have we in fact become transformed into subjects of online consumption and orderly surveillance, rather than committed social and political campaigners? In this highly topical book, John Michael Roberts employs a political economy perspective to explore the relationship between financial neoliberal capitalism and digital publics. He assesses the extent to which they provide new forms of radical protest in civil society and offers an indispensable guide to understanding the relationship between the state, new media activism and neoliberal practices.
Table of Content
Introducing New Media and Public Activism;
Creative Digital Capitalism? Exploitation, Information and Finance;
Neoliberalism and New Public Management: The Rise of the Competent Public Sphere;
E-democracy and Public Deliberation in the Competent Public Sphere;
Social Media and the Neoliberal Subject;
Zoning Public Space 1: Hybrid Surveillance and State Power;
Zoning Public Space 2: Gentrification, Community Publics and CCTV;
Global Social Movements: Beyond the Competent Public Sphere?;
Conclusion: The Occupy Movement, Community Activism and ‘Incompetent’ Public Spheres.
About the author
John Michael Roberts is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Communications at Brunel University, London. He has researched and written on the topics of free speech and the public sphere, voluntary activity, philosophy of social science, global political economy and the information society, and management discourse in the workplace.
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