From Occupy to Uncut, from the Arab Spring to the Slutwalk movement, few questions about recent activism raise as much controversy as the role of the internet. This book suggests that the internet is a tool, not a cause, of social change. It has profoundly affected the way people communicate, making it easier to find the truth, to learn from activists on the other side of the world, to co-ordinate campaigns without hierarchy and to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. But it has also helped those same governments and corporations to spy on activists, to disrupt campaigns and to create illusions of popular support.
Focused on the real-life experiences of activists rather than theory or abstract statistics,
Digital Revolutions asks how the internet has affected activism, how it has allowed movements to go global more quickly and what the future holds for corporations and social movements that are doing battle online.
Symon Hill has campaigned on the arms trade, religious liberty, same-sex marriage, disability rights, and economic injustice. He has worked with the Campaign Against Arms Trade and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and was a founding member of Christianity Uncut. He has trained hundreds of activists in campaigning skills and media engagement. In February 2012 he was dragged by police from the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral during the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange. He is associate director of the Ekklesia think tank and associate tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He writes for
The Guardian, Morningstar,
The Friend, and
Third Way. His first book was
The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion.
Spis treści
Social media and other communication technologies have been a feature of recent protest movements. The mainstream media moved from ignoring them altogether to presenting them as revolutionary. But just how central has the internet been to recent resistance?
2009: in Iran and Britain two individual deaths are transformed by social media into events of massive political significance. And both governments and media barons realize the game has changed.
The Uncut movement against tax-dodging that went viral. The Slutwalks that became a global phenomenon. Two very different forms of protest that took off thanks in part to a simple Twitter device called the hashtag.
Catalyst or tool? What part did the internet play in the cascading revolutions and rebellions that became known as the Arab Spring or Arab Awakening?
From Climate Camps to Tahrir Square, from Indignados to Occupy, the humble tent has become a vital accessory to modern resistance movements. But just as integral to these protests has been cutting-edge communications technology – and their success may lie in the creative tension between online and physical space.
From mass online petitions by the likes of Avaaz and 38 Degrees to You Tube protests like Pussy Riot, cyberactivism is breaking new ground. But even as it takes us into virgin territory, it throws up important new questions – not least about the value of ‘clicktivism’ and about the impact of the internet on minority languages.
The new communications technology may be used by protesters – but all the tricks of the trade are of course also available to transnational corporations and governments. ‘Astroturfers’ are infesting online debates, emails are being harvested and websites are being shut down. Battle in the ether has well and truly been joined.
Cyberactivism is not a magical cure-all – it is a tool like any other that can be put to good use or bad. But it is impossible to ignore – and much about our collective
future will depend on how we harness the power of the internet to inspire resistance.
O autorze
Symon Hill has been an activist since his teens. He has campaigned on issues including the arms trade, religious liberty, same-sex marriage, disability rights and economic injustice. He has worked with NGOs including the Campaign Against Arms Trade, People & Planet and the Fellowship of Reconciliation and was a founding member of Christianity Uncut. He has trained hundreds of grassroots activists in campaigning skills and media engagement. In February 2012, he was dragged by police from the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral during the eviction of Occupy London Stock Exchange. He is associate director of the Ekklesia thinktank and an associate tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He writes regularly for the
Guardian, Morning Star, The Friend and
Third Way. His first book was the
No-Nonsense Guide to Religion.
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