Media Technologies and Social Movements: Present Challenges and Future Developments
Lead Research Organisation:
Goldsmiths University of London
Department Name: Media and Communications
Abstract
In a media-saturated world, social and political protest is profoundly affected by media practices and processes, raising crucial questions on the complex relationship between social movement actors and different media forms and technologies. With the development of web 2.0 technologies, the rapid growth in the use of social networking sites, and the recent wave of unrest that has affected many countries in Europe and across the world, this relationship has come to play a fundamental role in the understanding of current societal transformations, and needs to be urgently investigated and addressed.
Academic interest in this topic has proliferated especially in recent years. Some scholars have focused on the framing of dissent in mainstream and explored the ways in which mainstream media influence, shape and transform oppositional discourses. Others have instead investigated the production of 'alternative media' and have looked at the ways in which information travels across resistant media networks creating elaborated systems of meanings. Furthermore, many scholars have directed their attention to the analysis of how social movement actors employ media and web technologies in tactical ways, in order to coordinate protest efforts, to gain the attention of potential supporters, to create spaces of resistance such as protest camps and events. Despite the rapid proliferation of research in the field there seems to be a lack of a unified space for interdisciplinary discussion devoted to this field of study. In addition to this, we are confronted with an excessive fragmentation between academic understandings of media, movements and democracy on the one hand, and the perspectives of activists, government think-tanks and civil society organisations on the other.
This seminar series, is intended to overcome this fragmentation not only through the stimulation of interdisciplinary dialogue and international scholarly activity, but also through the creation of a space for dialogue between academic researchers at different stages of their career and non-academic civil society actors and policy makers. In doing so, the seminar series aims to develop meaningful analytical, theoretical and methodological tools, which can have an impact also beyond academic circles, and which will enable us to understand and study the media/movement dynamic across different social, political, cultural and media environments.
To achieve its aims the seminar series will organise six two-day workshops addressing the following issues 1) Researching Media and Movements - Methods and Approaches 2) Social Movements and Mainstream Media: An Oppositional Relationship? 3) Social Movements and 'their' Media - Moving beyond definitions to explore processes? 4) Digital Activism Past and Present - Understanding the New by looking at the Old 5) Mass Mobilisations, Protest Events and Web 2.0 Technologies - Making Sense of Cross-cultural Differences 6) Social Movements and Media - What Next? Hactivism, Datactivism and Surveillance. All written or audiovisual versions of the papers presented in the seminars will be uploaded on an interactive website, which is intended also to become a platform for interactive dialogue and collaboration, which will be accessible to a wide number of potential scholars, activists, and public sector practitioners.
Academic interest in this topic has proliferated especially in recent years. Some scholars have focused on the framing of dissent in mainstream and explored the ways in which mainstream media influence, shape and transform oppositional discourses. Others have instead investigated the production of 'alternative media' and have looked at the ways in which information travels across resistant media networks creating elaborated systems of meanings. Furthermore, many scholars have directed their attention to the analysis of how social movement actors employ media and web technologies in tactical ways, in order to coordinate protest efforts, to gain the attention of potential supporters, to create spaces of resistance such as protest camps and events. Despite the rapid proliferation of research in the field there seems to be a lack of a unified space for interdisciplinary discussion devoted to this field of study. In addition to this, we are confronted with an excessive fragmentation between academic understandings of media, movements and democracy on the one hand, and the perspectives of activists, government think-tanks and civil society organisations on the other.
This seminar series, is intended to overcome this fragmentation not only through the stimulation of interdisciplinary dialogue and international scholarly activity, but also through the creation of a space for dialogue between academic researchers at different stages of their career and non-academic civil society actors and policy makers. In doing so, the seminar series aims to develop meaningful analytical, theoretical and methodological tools, which can have an impact also beyond academic circles, and which will enable us to understand and study the media/movement dynamic across different social, political, cultural and media environments.
To achieve its aims the seminar series will organise six two-day workshops addressing the following issues 1) Researching Media and Movements - Methods and Approaches 2) Social Movements and Mainstream Media: An Oppositional Relationship? 3) Social Movements and 'their' Media - Moving beyond definitions to explore processes? 4) Digital Activism Past and Present - Understanding the New by looking at the Old 5) Mass Mobilisations, Protest Events and Web 2.0 Technologies - Making Sense of Cross-cultural Differences 6) Social Movements and Media - What Next? Hactivism, Datactivism and Surveillance. All written or audiovisual versions of the papers presented in the seminars will be uploaded on an interactive website, which is intended also to become a platform for interactive dialogue and collaboration, which will be accessible to a wide number of potential scholars, activists, and public sector practitioners.
Planned Impact
This seminar series has been designed to generate a broader societal impact and trigger public debate on the complex relationship between social movements, media technologies and democratic processes. As it has been mentioned elsewhere in this application, the seminar series aims to bring together academics with activists, civil society organisations and members of governmental think tanks. There are three different ways in which this seminar series aims to create social impact: a) User Participation b) Public Debate c) Methodological and Theoretical Impact
User Participation:
The relationship between media technologies and political participation and action is an urgent issue of debate, which affects different social realities from civil society practitioners and NGO, to activists and governmental institutions. However, at present there is little space for knowledge exchange between non-academic and academic actors working in the field. The seminar series will offer academics the opportunity to discuss their findings, methods and theoretical approaches with different users. Activists, media experts, civil society practitioners and members of governmental think-tanks will be invited to participate to the seminars. Through user participation our aim is to enable the development of theoretical and methodological approaches that are grounded on practical experience and that can have an impact on the development of strategies for media reform, by raising questions in relation to a broad number of topics, such as media pluralism, media ethics, and the relationship between activist cultures and the new cultures of datavaillence. In addition to this by bringing together academic and non academic participants the seminar series will offer scholars the possibility to explore complex relationship between social research and societal impact, and to critically reflect on the role of the researcher as scholar and as activist.
Impact on Public Debate:
The seminar series proposes to generate further impact by fostering public debate. At the beginning of the series the PI and the Co-investigator will set up an interactive website and different social media accounts. Over the two years, they will update the website on a regular basis, and will upload the audiovisual and written content of the seminars on the website. Academic and non academic users will be encouraged to contribute through online discussions to the website. In addition to this, the PI and the Co-Investigator will work closely with the Press offices and communication departments of their Institutions to ensure that they engage with different media outlets. (Please refer to the attached document titled Pathways to Impact for details)
Theoretical and Methodological Impact:
This seminar series aims to increase the empirical and analytical basis for reflecting on the relationship between social research and societal impact. In particular the aim of the seminar series is to develop theoretical and methodological approaches that draw heavily upon the lived experience of activists, civil society and public sector practitioners. Moreover, the seminar series aims to foster the elaboration of theoretical models able to guide future innovative research at the crossroad of media studies, social movement studies, anthropology and sociology. At the same time, the seminar series will discuss, evaluate and elaborate cutting-edge methodologies to analyse complex communication flows that surround and sustain social movements in contemporary, media-saturated societies. In doing so the seminar series aims to create the grounds for the production of academic knowledge as well as the development of future research projects, which are meaningful to different societal actors.
User Participation:
The relationship between media technologies and political participation and action is an urgent issue of debate, which affects different social realities from civil society practitioners and NGO, to activists and governmental institutions. However, at present there is little space for knowledge exchange between non-academic and academic actors working in the field. The seminar series will offer academics the opportunity to discuss their findings, methods and theoretical approaches with different users. Activists, media experts, civil society practitioners and members of governmental think-tanks will be invited to participate to the seminars. Through user participation our aim is to enable the development of theoretical and methodological approaches that are grounded on practical experience and that can have an impact on the development of strategies for media reform, by raising questions in relation to a broad number of topics, such as media pluralism, media ethics, and the relationship between activist cultures and the new cultures of datavaillence. In addition to this by bringing together academic and non academic participants the seminar series will offer scholars the possibility to explore complex relationship between social research and societal impact, and to critically reflect on the role of the researcher as scholar and as activist.
Impact on Public Debate:
The seminar series proposes to generate further impact by fostering public debate. At the beginning of the series the PI and the Co-investigator will set up an interactive website and different social media accounts. Over the two years, they will update the website on a regular basis, and will upload the audiovisual and written content of the seminars on the website. Academic and non academic users will be encouraged to contribute through online discussions to the website. In addition to this, the PI and the Co-Investigator will work closely with the Press offices and communication departments of their Institutions to ensure that they engage with different media outlets. (Please refer to the attached document titled Pathways to Impact for details)
Theoretical and Methodological Impact:
This seminar series aims to increase the empirical and analytical basis for reflecting on the relationship between social research and societal impact. In particular the aim of the seminar series is to develop theoretical and methodological approaches that draw heavily upon the lived experience of activists, civil society and public sector practitioners. Moreover, the seminar series aims to foster the elaboration of theoretical models able to guide future innovative research at the crossroad of media studies, social movement studies, anthropology and sociology. At the same time, the seminar series will discuss, evaluate and elaborate cutting-edge methodologies to analyse complex communication flows that surround and sustain social movements in contemporary, media-saturated societies. In doing so the seminar series aims to create the grounds for the production of academic knowledge as well as the development of future research projects, which are meaningful to different societal actors.
Publications
Barassi V
(2016)
Datafied Citizens? Social Media Activism, Digital Traces and the Question about Political Profiling
in Communication and the Public
Barassi V
(2016)
Contested visions: Digital discourses as empty signifiers from the 'network' to 'big data'
in Communication and the Public
Treré E
(2015)
Media ecologies and protest movements: main perspectives and key lessons
in Information, Communication & Society
Yesil S
(2023)
Protective effect of cerium oxide on testicular function and oxidative stress after torsion/detorsion in adult male rats.
in Experimental and therapeutic medicine
| Description | The aim of the series is to tackle and critically understand one of the crucial societal changes of our times: the relationship between political participation and media technologies. With the development of web 2.0 technologies, the rapid growth in the use of social networking sites, and the recent wave of unrest that has affected many countries in Europe and across the world, a thorough exploration of how social movements and collective action relate to media forms and processes is more necessary than ever. In the last decade, however, social research has been profoundly affected by techno-deterministic, positivist and ethnocentric analyses. In contrast to these approaches, the series is based on the belief that it is vital to create a space for discussion amongst international academics, activists, and policy makers, which can enable us to develop a more critical and culturally sensitive approach in the understanding of social movements and media technologies. The seminar series consists of six two-day workshops, which take place between May, 2015 and December, 2016. The first seminar of our series Mobilisations: Changing Protest Cultures and Web 2.0 Technologies explored how Web 2.0 technologies are re-shaping protest cultures as well as movements' organisations and networking dynamics. In the second seminar we turned our attention to the complex relationship between social conflict, mainstream media and the issue of visibility. Our second seminar Visibilities: Social Protest, 'The Media', and the Shaping of Public Opinion engaged with critical questions about the extent to which social movements are able to achieve visibility for their political messages and on the continuing role mainstream media play in the shaping of public opinion. In the third seminar, titled The Activist, the Academic and Digital Media: Challenging Research, Re-thinking Theory, we took a step back and reflected on the often under-investigated relationship between academic knowledge, activist practice and digital technologies. Within all three seminars the research presented was of the highest quality, the discussions engaging and the level of interdisciplinary exchange was thought-provoking. During this first year of the series, we are delighted to have brought so many scholars together and have developed different key findings and lines of inquiry that can inform future research. 2015 1) RESEARCH BEYOND AND WITHIN TECHNOLOGICAL STRUCTURES : One of the key aims of the series was to deconstruct the wide spread techno-determinism that defines much of current research. Yet questions about technological structures, political economy and digital surveillance were at the heart of many of the papers discussed, especially during the first and second seminar. The SoME seminars have thus highlighted that although current research in the field needs to understand the importance of moving beyond techno-deterministic approaches when studying political participation and media technologies, scholars need also to take into account the impact of technological structures and consider issues such as censorship, digital noise, visibility struggles, technological affordances and algorithmic logics. When we study the use of communication technologies for political purposes we need to understand that technological structures matter because they create the means through which participation can be enacted. Therefore, for the future, we were left with the challenge of finding ways of tackling this tension and developing approaches that enable us to appreciate the impact of technological structures whilst understanding how people actively negotiate with them. 2) DIGITAL ACTIVISM AND THE VISIBLE INDIVIDUAL: Many of the papers and discussions that took place during the SoME seminars evolved around the question about the dynamic between the individual and collective. Whilst this is not a new issue for social research and especially in the study of social movements, it is becoming clear that critical questions need to be raised on the relationship between the visible activist and the broader social movement. Scholars and activists highlighted the fact that one of the most crucial tensions, which defines social movements' engagement with digital technologies is represented by the explosion of individually centred communication processes via social media. This tension often affects two different yet intrinsically connected political processes. On the one had we have the problem of building politically significant social movements. In fact, 'individual participation' to big protest events, does not necessarily translate into the construction of meaningful political projects, collective identities or social alternatives. On the other hand, scholars reached the conclusion that critical questions need to be raised on the relationship between the visible activist and the broader social movement. In particular we realised that we need to deconstruct the idea that individually centred grassroots forms of organising that are fostered through digital activism are the equivalent of a social movement. 3) MEDIA ECOLOGIES AND COMMUNICATIVE HIERARCHIES Many of the papers presented during the SoME Seminars reached the conclusion that the rapid extension of web 2.0 technologies amongst political activists is triggering new challenges in terms of the communication hierarchies that they need to confront themselves with. These implies that they not only have to come to terms with the new media ecologies that define the mainstream media landscape, but they also need to take into account new constrains that impede the online flow of alternative political messages. These include issues such as information overload and digital noise, cultures of immediacy and time regimes, digital censorship and new communicative elites. Considering the many different communicative hierarchies that are emerging in the current information ecologies, scholars realised that much social movement research is at present lacking data on their social complexities, and on how these communicative hierarchies are re-shaping activists understanding of their mediated practices. In addition to this a particular emphasis, especially during the second seminar, has been placed on the importance of the movement for media reform, a type of reform that target both media institutions and digital corporations, and that is based on a radical project and mission. 4) DEMOCRATISING RESEARCH AND THE ACTIVIST/ACADEMIC: One of the critical questions that we have explored throughout the SoME seminars is the relationship between 'politics of knowledge' and 'political engagement'. At different times throughout the year we discussed the importance of creating participatory research projects that address the needs of social movements rather than simply describe their activities and their interactions with the media. Participatory action research has thus been at the very heart of our discussions and future planning. At the same time during these discussions we have also become increasingly more aware of the fact that - as politically engaged scholars - we need to critically reflect on the systems within which academic research is produced and transmitted. Despite the move to open access or other important steps in making academic research more accessible, we came to the conclusion that many actions need to be taken to ensure that our research is more democratic and available to activist networks. This implies not only that we need to re-think our research design but also that we need to consider redefining our research ethics as well as creating new spaces 'in-between' for the growth of new alternatives for social research. 5) THE SOCIAL COMPLEXITY OF PROTEST CULTURES: Another fundamental theme addressed by the SoME seminars series is the urgent need to tackle existing understandings of 'changing protest cultures', by considering the complex dialectics between the historical dimensions of social movements and their cultural varieties. In the first three seminars of the series we have tried to tackle this need by bringing into conversation different papers with cultural and context specific approaches. We have also engaged in thorough and thought-provoking discussions on communication technologies, social movements and historical memory. Nevertheless, a lot of work needs to be done in defining the way in which we study, understand, and analyse the role of political cultures in movement/media interaction. 2016 The seminars in 2016 developed on from the earlier seminars, and involved a plurality of findings. SOME SEMINAR 4 questioned the role of 'political cultures' when studying interactions between media and movements, which we provocatively identified as the 'missing actor'. Current research on social movements and media technologies has been profoundly affected by techno-deterministic, positivist and ethnocentric analyses. This is to detriment of a thorough understanding of the complex relationship between political cultures, imagination and media/movements interactions. There are 4 Main findings of this seminar 1) THE ROLE OF POLITICAL IMAGINATION The first panel of the seminar largely focused on definitions of 'political imagination' or 'radical imagination' and explored not only the role imagination plays in defining the political cultures of social movements, but also the role it plays in shaping their media interactions. Alex Khasnabish questioned how we can understand the radical imagination. He argued that this is not reducible to ideology and neither to a romanticised idea of utopian transformation. Rather, drawing from Bakthin, Khasnabish argued that imagination is a dialogical process, which is dependent on the material context but also looks at things that are not yet in existence. Although being bound up in the matrix and architecture of power, the concept of radical imagination highlights also the multiple, imaginary ways in which social movements seek radical change and not simply reform. Barassi and Mattoni brought the argument about imagination in another direction by looking not only at how 'imagination' simultaneously defines the visions and practices of social movements, but also how it shapes their understandings of what they can do with the media. In this context Mosca's and Trere's contribution tied in beautifully, by focusing on the specific cases of the 5 Star Movement on the one hand and of Anti-Austerity groups in Italy and Spain. They both shown the complexity social researchers face when trying to analyse and pin down the complex relationship between political visions and practices. 2) THE CULTURAL SPECIFICITIES OF EXTREME RIGHT MOVEMENTS AND MEDIA INTERACTIONS In the last decade a lot of research has emerged that explores the way in which progressive, broadly left-wing social movements use and imagine internet technologies and little attention has been placed on the cultural variety of right wing social movements. In this panel we focused precisely on this topic. Castelli and Bouron focused on the mobilization strategies and agenda-setting potential of social movement organizations of the extreme right in Italy and France. The scholars argued for the importance of an in-depth ethnographic understanding of extreme right groups. Caiani instead focused on a different approach and compared the online content of different extreme-right organisations in six Western Democracies (Italy, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany and the USA), to explore how they organised and mobilised at both national and international levels. Other two different perspectives were brought forward by Khiabany and Titley. Whilst Khiabany focused on the complex media strategy of ISIS and explored their centralization on digital networks, Titley analysed racist narratives and the production of right wing knowledge. 3) THE CULTURAL SPECIFICITY OF LEFT WING MOVEMENTS AND MEDIA INTERACTIONS The main question we were trying to address was whether and how the interent was imagined and used differently by very different right-wing and left-wing social movements. After talking about the extreme-right therefore we moved to the analysis of very different left wing movements. Connecting on Skype Postill talked about the freedom technologists in South-East Asia, he highlighted how their technological visions were deeply interconnected with the search for social change and he also discussed how we could avoid western-centric approaches in the study of social movements and media interactions. Kavada instead focused on the political and communication repertoires of the Occupy movement and argued that The communicative logic of the occupy movement was largely shaped by their political cultures and visions of the 99% presupposes no boundaries. Freedman went on to explore the Corbynism movement in the UK and how it challenge both the established political culture of the Labour Movement and their media repertoires. In fact he has shown how, corbynism was shaped by a profound lack of engagement with the media aggressive politics and created new forms of imagination, which refused to play the media game. Fotopoulou brought into the panel another important perspective: that of feminist movements. She argued that feminism is a complex set of identities and cultures whose different investments in, and practices with media technologies mean different organisational structures. She has also shown how contemporary feminist political action is deeply shaped by the interaction of offline and online activities, feelings and people. All the different papers have thus demonstrated the need for a culturally sensitive and context specific approach. 4) UNDERSTANDING THE POLITICAL Our two keaynotes by Prof. Fenton and Prof. Della Porta focused on two very different understandings of movements media interactions and the meaning of the political. Prof Della Porta discussed a theoretical approach to media and movements that focuses on relations, as a way to overcome the dichotomy between agency and structure. This type of approach, she argued, can enable scholars to appreciate the fact that eventful protests do not only exploit media opportunities but dynamically transform them, working as critical juncture. Prof Fenton instead urged researchers in the field of media and movements to rediscover the political in our work in order to better understand what political transformation might mean. She argued that social, political and economic context is key to appreciate the enormous constraints on the possibilities of being political to effect progressive social change; that organizational factors are vital to comprehend the efforts required to build and sustain a counter-politics; just as individual motivations and political passions are crucial if we are to understand the relationship of social life to political consciousness. All impinge directly on our understandings of what equality is or could be, on how liberty can be claimed and practiced and how solidarity is experienced. In seminar 5 we explore the relationship between Big Data and Social Movements and focused on four main findings 1) DATAFICATION, SURVEILLANCE AND ACTIVISM The first key issue that emerged during the workshop was the very process of datafication and how we can understand it as an encompassing social process that might change the ways we perceive social reality. Several speakers dealt with this problem, connecting it to the world of social movements, political participation and the very definition of citizenship. Relate to this, Arne Hints opened the floor with a thought provoking talk on the emerging digital conception of citizenship according to which citizens' agency and civic activities are increasingly mediated by digital technologies today. While this certainly evokes an optimistic view of technology as a tool for liberation, the talk suggests that in datafied society, digital citizens are confronted daily with those who manage and control data, having and unprecedented power on the minds and bodies of digital citizens. There is the need, then, to deconstruct datafication as a powerful social process. Along this line, in her talk Stefania Milan argued that a paradigm shift is on its way as a result of datafication, that radically transform the relationship that we have with the social realities we inhabit: knowledge produced through big data alters the way in which we understand our (social) world. And this, inevitably, also has consequences for social movements that face yet another terrain of contestation related to digital technologies. According to Stefania Milan, there is the rise of a specific type of activism, that she names as data activism and defines as social mobilizations taking a critical stance towards datafication, either reacting to such phenomena or engaging in the proactive production of big data for the needs of social movements. From a different perspective, Lina Dencik asked to what extent the debate on datafication risks to remain within the restricted circles of activism. In her talk, she pointed out that the Snowden revelations were crucial in sparking a debate of datafication and surveillance in the UK, since such processes ceased to be opaque and became a lot more evident among ordinary citizens and activists alike. That said, though, Lina Dencik underlined how non-tech activists did not become fully involved in this debate and considered the need to protect their own privacy as a minor problem to face. In short, datafication and surveillance risk to remain at the margins of the social movement debate and, Lina Dencik argued, there is the urgent need to reframe datafication and surveillance as a social and economic justice issues. 2) HOW BIG DATA CHALLENGES SOCIAL MOVEMENTSThe high level of technological knowledge required to understand, produce and employ big data to enhance activism, risk to create a severe imbalance in the realm of grassroots politics. Also in this sense, then, big data might constitute a fascinating challenge for activists who want to embed them in their daily practices. This is indeed the second key issue that emerged in our seminar, especially when we dealt with concrete examples of big data activists' use. Sebastian Kubitschko discussed the case of the Chaos Computer Club, one of the world largest and older hackers organizations in the world, founded in 1984 and with about 5500 affiliates today. This example sparked a discussion on the relevance of acting on media technologies and infrastructures, that are a fundamental part of what politics is today and inform surveillance capitalism. While the urge to engage with big data from such a perspective is quite obvious, we must ask who are the political subjects that actually have the resources, expertise and interest to act on these technologies. Many among the speakers talked about how big data might be useful for activists, but at the same time also challenging in terms of the resources they require to be used by social movement actors. Alberto Cossu illustrated how politically engaged artists might act on contemporary data flows generated through big data. Discussing two projects of the Macao collective based in Milan, Alberto Cossu showed how big data can be included into complex media-related political performances to create some noise in the flows of information surrounding contested institutional events, like the Salone del Mobile and the Universal Exposition in Milan. In his talk, Alberto Cossu also underlined that the learning curve might be high for non-tech activists who decide to include big data in their repertoire of action and that time is crucial to develop an empowering and critical use of big data. Elena Pavan examined the value of big data for the production of knowledge in social movements. Moreover, through the example of the platform Map It designed by the transnational feminist collective Take Back the Tech, Elena Pavan engaged with an evaluative deconstruction of data in grassroots political participation: beyond the relevance of big data, it is also important to recognize that the production, visualization and circulation of data on relevant contentious issues requires a big effort to activists. The technical skills and material resources needed to engage with big data in activist circles was also a topic covered during Lonneke van der Velden presentation on the mobile app InformaCam that produces two versions of the same image, a data-poor image without metadata and a data-rich image will all the contextual metadata related to it. While the former allows for anonymity and privacy protection, the latter presents all the information to validate the reality of images in an age of visuals digital manipulation. The point, in this case, is also that big data also change the way in which visuals are used in activism: although very powerful, images alone are not enough to tell a story or prove a fact; the data associated to them are also crucial and new forms of expertise are needed within social movements to embrace this shift. MOVEMENTS CULTURES AND BIG DATA Another crucial topic that we discussed during the seminar is the link among activists' media imaginations, their movement cultures and the way in which they approach - and challenge - big data and their paradigm. Three speakers in particular addressed this theme from different viewpoints. Marco Deseriis discussed big data in relationship with Anonymous. Big data can be conceived as a way of rendering the common and the community as something that can be counted and quantified, leaving no room for ambiguity and instability in the political. Ultimately, indeed, the digital is the capacity to divide things, make distinction among them and reduce social reality to binary oppositions. Anonymous, then, can be read as a process of subjectivation that put into question the way in which big data, and algorithms, operate on social reality in that they are a-subjective, con-dividual and ephemeral. The very existence of Anonymous, and their performances across the world, deeply challenges the capacity of the digital to make distinctions. Stefaan Back spoke of big data with regard to a much more structured form of activism than Anonymous: he introduced us to the world of civic techs and data journalists, two overlapping phenomena that are expanding in recent times. His talk offered an innovative viewpoint on one of the most famous civic tech initiatives in the world: My Society, based in the UK and with almost 10 million users spread in more than 30 countries around the world. While the mission of Civic Tech is to empower citizens to engage with governments in a more direct way, Stefaan Back also showed us the relationship between civic tech practices related to big data and the imagined affordances that substantiate them. It is indeed the way in which we imagine the affordances of structured data - what we can do with them and how - that also orient the practices through which big data are created and used in social movements. Finally, Alessandra Renzi discussed what happens when environmental activists engage in the creation of their own big data to support mobilizations. Alessandra Renzi presented the work of the Coalition of Urban Poors in Jakarta and other Indonesian cities to fight against the construction of infrastructures to sustain the expansions of mega-cities. Through a form of data-activism mixing small and big data about their urban context, activists targeted mainstream media, local administrations and other stakeholders. Through her research, Alessandra Renzi also reflects on the role that big-data might have in participatory action research and, more specifically, for the post-operaist tradition of co-research. Co-researchers working with activists might indeed have an important role in reflecting on the distribution of power also with regard to the affordances of the technologies that are used to produce and construct data. 4) EMPOWERMENT AND INVESTIGATION IN BIG DATA The very process of datafication and its consequences for grassroots politics was one of the key issues touched during our seminar. While throughout the three panels we discussed many cases in which activists embed data - and big data - in their mobilizing activities, it was thanks to our keynote speaker that we reflected more on the methods to approach datafication in a critical way. Mark Coté from Kings College gave an inspiring final lecture in which he deconstructed the notion of datafication and asked how we can investigate datafication so that to empower ourselves and our communities with regard to big data. To answer such question, he presented his project Our Data, Ourselves that involved teen coders in devising apps for smartphones that rendered visible the production of (big) data during the ordinary use of such devices. Mark Cotè reflected with us on this project from a methodological perspective, discussing the techno-cultural methods employed to investigate big data as a powerful way to critically unpack the data materiality and to understand how the socio-technical objects that capture and compile our data - like for instance smartphones - work. In the age of datafication, such techno-cultural methods are key to increase our agency towards big data and to recognize the contextual nature of the socio-technical objects that we use daily in our lives. |
| Exploitation Route | During the seminars we have had the chance to invite different activist groups and networks and to establish a ground of collaboration with them. Whilst it is clear that our findings have talked directly to their experience, we need to still fully appreciate the impact achieved. At present the findings have been taken further by different academic participants and influencing new research designs and publications. We are also establishing new collaborations with activist networks. We have also agreed a Special Issue Proposal with the To Ranked Journal like Media, Culture and Society and working on another proposal about Big Data and Activism |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/ |
| Description | The seminar series has brought different academic and activist networks together, which are now working on new collaborations and projects ideas. One example of this is the Feminist Library who has decided to organise a new event on 'women and technologies', whilst drawing on the SoME network of academics to seek support for their cause. Another example is provided if we consider the fact that the PI and other academics are getting involved with a grassroots activist research network and offering support in the publicity of their research as well as in the development of future projects. Unfortunately it is not clear as yet if these actions will have a proper impact in the future, but we will be monitoring these activities closely. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Collaboration between two Internationally Renown Research Centres |
| Organisation | Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa |
| Country | Italy |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The series has been jointly organised by the Centre for Global Media and Democracy (CGMD) at Goldsmiths University of London and the Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS) at Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa (formally at European University Institute Florence). The seminar series consists of six two-day workshops, between May, 2015 and January, 2017 in London and Florence. This award has established a ground of collaboration between these two centres of research, which are internationally renowned for their research excellence and engagement with the field: the Centre for Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmiths University of London (CGMD) and Centre on Social Movements Studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore (previously based at the European University Institute in Florence). |
| Collaborator Contribution | My partner organisation, especially thanks to the outstanding work of my co-investigator Dr Alice Mattoni but also to the participation of other key scolars such as Professor Donatella Della Porta, Dr Emiliano Trere and Dr Elena Pavan, has actively contributed to the design and organisation of all the seminars of 2015. It also acted host institution for Seminar 2. |
| Impact | This collaboration has resulted in the organisation and completion of the following outcomes: a) Seminar 3 - The Activist, the Academic and Digital Media: Challenging Research, Re-thinking Theory, Goldsmiths University of London 14-15 December 2015 b) Seminar - 2 Visibilities: Social Protest, 'The Media', and the Shaping of Public Opinion, Scuola Normale Florence, Italy 3-4 September 2015 c) Seminar 1 - Mobilisations: Changing Protest Cultures and Web 2.0 Technologies Goldsmiths, University of London 14-15 May In addition to that we organised a further seminar, which is due to take place this year 22nd/23rd of April, 2016 The Missing Actor: The Meaning of Political Cultures for Media/Movements Interactions The Collaboration resulted also in creation of a Website and in the publication of three seminars reports. At the moment we are also working on a Special Issue Proposal for Media, Culture and Society |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Dark Futures? Media and Movements in the Age of Post-Truth Politics |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Organisation of the Dark Futures Event. When the SoME seminar series started at the beginning of 2015 little did we know that the international political context would change so dramatically, that we would witness a new wave of right-wing populism in Europe and the U.S. coupled with the rise of 'post-truth' politics. In this last seminar of the series we want to focus on the challenges faced by progressive social movements and media activists in the age of 'post-truth' politics, and seek a critical and political response against the rise of right wing populism and xenophobia in Europe and the U.S. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminar-six/ |
| Description | Seminar The Missing Actor: The Meaning of Political Cultures for Media/Movements Interactions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This seminar questioned the role of 'political cultures' when studying interactions between media and movements, which we provocatively identified as the 'missing actor'. Current research on social movements and media technologies has been profoundly affected by techno-deterministic, positivist and ethnocentric analyses. This is to detriment of a thorough understanding of the complex relationship between political cultures, imagination and media/movements interactions. The aim of this seminar was to shed light on this complexity through three different panels a) political imaginations in media/movements interactions b) extreme-right political cultures and media/movement interactions c) left-wing political cultures and media/movement interactions. Scholars and activists will be invited to explore culturally and context specific examples, and to create a space in which we can re-think the role of the political in contemporary research on activism when it comes to interactions between different types of media technologies and social movements. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminars/seminar-four/ |
| Description | SoME Seminar 1 : Mobilisations, Changing Protest Cultures and Web 2.0 Technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Centre for Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths University of London, UK - 14th and 15th of May, 2015 (Professor Stuart Hall Building, LG02 and 314 This first seminar of our series looked at contemporary 'protest cultures' and explored the changing relationship between political participation and media technologies in the age of social media by considering three different dimensions a) organisation b) political imaginations c) lived experience. Scholars and activists discussed this relationship by considering culturally and context specific examples. We launched the first event of our SoME Seminars with a mission in mind. This first workshop aimed to set the tone for the entire seminar series. What is new or old of contemporary protest cultures? How can we understand the relationship between web technologies and new forms of political imagination and organization without falling into the pitfall of techno-determinism? How can we develop a culturally sensitive approach in the study of digital activism? Our mission was broad and inquisitive in nature. The research presented was of the highest quality, the discussions engaging and the level of interdisciplinary exchange was thought-provoking. At the end of the second day we were left with some important lines of inquiry for future research, which have influenced and defined our other activities. A complete report of the key findings and development of future lines of inquiry is listed under 'other research outputs'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminars/seminar-one/abstracts/ |
| Description | SoME Seminar 2: Visibilities: Social Protest, 'The Media', and the Shaping of Public Opinion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The first seminar of our series explored how Web 2.0 technologies are re-shaping protest cultures as well as movements' organisations and networking dynamics. In this second seminar we turned our attention to the complex relationship between social conflict, mainstream media and the issue of visibility. The rapid extension in use of Web 2.0 technologies has transformed the way in which social movements mobilise and organise, yet critical questions need to be addressed on the extent to which social movements are able to achieve visibility for their political messages and on the continuing role mainstream media play in the shaping of public opinion. This seminar engaged with these questions by looking at different albeit interconnected dimensions a) mediated tactics and media appropriation b)alternative media and other platforms c) mainstream media and the shaping of public opinion. Our challenge this time was to explore the often neglected and multidimensional relationship between different forms of media (alternative media, social media, and mainstream media etc.) when we understand social movements mediated experiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminars/seminar-two/abstracts/ |
| Description | SoME Seminar 3: The Activist, The Academic and Digital Media |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In the third seminar our aim was to take a step back and to reflect on the often under-investigated relationship between academic knowledge, activist practice and digital technologies. Academics researching social movements and media technologies often find themselves either working in close contact with social movement actors and becoming advocates of specific causes, or they find themselves dealing with a dual identity: the one of the academic and the one of the activist. This seminar created a space where this dual identity could surface with its complexity and contradictions through the exploration of the relationship between theoretical involvement, activist practice and digital media. Invited speakers focused on three dimensions of this relationship a) the disconnection between academic theory and political activism b) the dual identities of activist academics c) participatory research projects. The seminar resulted in the finding that the boundary between political and research practices, is of fundamental importance in the analysis of the relationship between social movements and media technologies and in the development of new possibilities for social research. This is particularly true if we consider the fact that much of contemporary research in the field seems to be constrained by an excessive reliance on theoretical frameworks that are developed without a careful consideration of the lived experience on the ground. In contrast to that invited scholars and activists have engaged in thorough explorations of the relationship between research and activist practice, and on the meaning of participatory action research. All these debates have resulted in the making of some crucial collaborations between scholars as well as with activists who were present at the event. In particular collaborations have been established between the SoME Seminar network and the Feminist Library and the Grassroots Activist Research Skills Network. In addition to that different scholars are starting to talk about the possibility of creating research outputs that could achieve a greater impact, as well about a possible research project aimed at democratising research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminars/seminar-three/programme/ |
| Description | SoME Seminars Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | At the beginning of the series we launched our someseminars.org website, which was directed not only to our students, staff, research networks and colleagues, but it was also designed to appeal to networks of activists, civil organisations and general public. To date we had more than 4000 views. The website offers a general description of our mission, and a detail description of all the seminars organised including programme, abstracts and reports. It is also used as the base for all our social media interactions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/ |
| Description | The Subversion of Big Data. Cultures, Discourses and Practices of Big Data in Social Movements Contexts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our 5th SoME Seminar The Subversion of Big Data. Cultures, Discourses and Practices of Big Data in Social Movements Contexts took place at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, on the 17th and 18th of November, 2016. The aim of the seminar was to address the concept of big data as a contested terrain of imagination and practice which is understood in different ways by economic and political powers on the one hand and political activists on the other. This seminar focuses on these discursive tensions by exploring activists practices and beliefs about big data. In particular, we aim at deconstructing the concept of big data from an activist perspective and at discussing how social movement actors related to big data. More specifically, we explore big data in three different panels: a) activists' data cultures and big data b) activists' discourses on big data; and c) activists' practices involving big data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://someseminars.org/seminars/seminar-five/ |