Netfluence.org: Do Networked Technologies Influence Political Power Structures?
Welcome to Gauravonomics Blog! Subscribe to my feed now and you'll never miss a single post!
DigiActive co-founder Mary Joyce and I are delighted to announce our new co-authored blog Netfluence.org, which is an investigation into whether and how networked technologies influence political power structures.
The debate on whether internet and mobile technologies are transforming traditional power structures is dominated by three divergent narratives.
According to the first, utopian, narrative, internet and mobile technologies enable individuals to publish and distribute content, self-organize into communities of interest and participate in collective action. As a result, they can create new types of media outlets, build new types of civil society organizations, and monitor, protest against and even bring down governments. Even though these new degrees of freedom are far from universal, they are fundamentally changing political power structures. The future has already arrived, this narrative insists, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.
According to the second, status quo, narrative, power structures are ingrained into our society’s institutions, and internet and mobile technologies don’t really change these institutions, or create new ones. The case studies compiled by the utopians constitute anecdotal evidence, at best, and the influence of networked technologies will always be limited because of issues related to access or ability. So, internet and mobile technologies are a minor influence on political power structures, at best.
According to the third, dystopian, narrative, internet and mobile technologies are, in fact, enabling traditional institutions to further consolidate their power through censorship, surveillance and propaganda. So, even though they give us the illusion of greater power, they have, indeed, compromised our ability to protect our privacy, have access to diverse views, and build real institutions.
Both of us have roots in the digital activism community, so our natural bias is towards the first narrative. However, we have seen enough evidence for and against all three narratives that we felt the need to objectively investigate their relative merits.
We will look at the interplay between networked technologies and political power structure through different lenses. We will explore if the power dynamics between individuals and institutions is changing. We will ask if power is shifting from states to non-state actors. We will also investigate if these technologies are leading to the formation of new types of (non-commercial) (non-)institutions.
By delving into books, academic papers, and news articles, by engaging in formal and informal conversations with thinkers and practitioners, and through first hand involvement in projects that seek to subvert political power through the use of internet and mobile technologies, we will compile a collage of perspectives that will hopefully result in a book worthy of your attention.
Our first big question, and the topic of our next post: how are internet and mobile technologies changing diplomacy?