Presider: Jay Owens (@hautepop)

Hashmod: Andrew Dever (@andrewdever)

This is one post in a series of Panel Previews for the upcoming Theorizing the Web conference (#TtW14) in NYC. The panel under review is titled Ref(user): Movements of Resistance

Fredrika Thelandersson (@Fredrikaaa) Subversive Online Identities – Tumblr, Feminism, and the Radical Potential of Unrestricted Social Network Sites
The utopian dream of Internet as a space where one can experiment with multiple identities regardless of material constraints, has since long been revised and reformed, if not completely debunked. Sherry Turkle is just one of many scholars who have dismissed previously optimistic views of identity-building online (a view most clearly expressed in her 1995 book “”Life on the Screen”” and subsequently refuted in her 2011 book “”Alone Together””). The disembodied aspect of Internet-mediated life, and the possibility it gives marginalized subjects to express and organize themselves outside of their physical and often oppressive surroundings, has been largely forgotten in favor of Facebook and Twitter style self-presentations that directly reflect the physical self. While the debate around these “real life” online presentations and the frequent loss of privacy attached to them is crucial, it is also important to remember that there still are online spaces which allow for less controlled and more radical identity constructions. More open platforms such as Tumblr enable users to explore different identities in various community formations while controlling how much of their information they want to share.

Part of a larger project, this paper focuses on a subgroup of self-identified feminists on Tumblr, who are dominating a large part of the site’s discourse with their political and theoretical discussions. Raised in theories of gender performativity and intersectionality, they’re creating their own intellectual and practical frame of reference, influenced by academic theory as well as activism, and inextricably connected to a digital way of life and online self-expression.

The culture of this particular platform, at this particular moment, together with the blog and social network aspects of the site, encourages a form of self-narrating that draws on political opinions, affective bonds and aesthetic preferences. For the users I’m looking at, identity-building is inherently imbued with a feminist perspective.

This paper explores Tumblr as a site for feminist world building, that on the one hand functions as a safe space, free from harassment and discrimination for those who are at risk of it in their everyday surroundings; and on the other hand functions as a place for nuanced political discussion among the already politically engaged. I wonder if and how Tumblr (and other sites with similar structures) can function as sites for radical identity practices with the aim of subverting heteronormative, sexist, racist, cisgendered, and ableist conformities.

Wendy Wong (Co-authored by Peter A. Brown) (@wendyhwong) Trust No One: Anonymizing Technology, E-Bandits, and the Future of Activism
In this paper, we contend that anonymizing Internet technologies have negated the need for trust among those who seek to reveal private and secret information. Modern day activists can in fact steal, reveal, and spread information about governments, corporations, and other entities without the need to trust anyone, and in fact, it is this lack of trust that allows anonymous individuals to cooperate in largely electronically-based activism. Elsewhere, we label such activists as “extraordinary bandits” (e-bandits) to point out the centrality of anonymizing technologies in the work of actors such as Anonymous and Wikileaks (Wong and Brown 2013). Here, we demonstrate how anonymizing technologies, such as encryption tools and TOR networks, run headlong into the received wisdom we have regarding those who choose to resist power. Unlike research on criminal networks, drug traffickers, and patronage networks, which emphasizes personal relationships’ role in greasing the wheels of activity, we claim that it is the lack of trust that provides the lubricant for action by e-bandits. Given new technologies, e-bandits can operate in an environment where a lack of trust, and indeed, knowledge of “real” individuals, is essential to the success of e-bandits. Thus, the democratizing effects of the Internet in terms of expanding who can be an activist also has the counter-effect of eliminating the need for personal trust in or relations among fellow activists precisely because technology can help mitigate those concerns. Anonymizing technologies both democratize protest and resistance while creating new challenges in building trust, accountability, and transparency in transnational politics.

Our argument challenges the assumption and assertion that trust and politics necessarily have to mesh. In studies of democracies, political scientists have often used trust as a variable for determining the durability, responsiveness, and future of states, and indeed, largely view trust as an important component for healthy state-society relations. Trust plays an critical role in determining how resources are divided, as in the tragedy of the commons, and indeed, how governance institutions should be built to mitigate selfish tendencies in an environment where trust is lacking. Trust seems to underlie many of the most prominent theories of political science. In our conception, trust is not a necessary component 1) for drawing participants to political activism or 2) creating conditions under which they can coordinate their actions into campaign efforts. These actions can be subversive or illegal, but they are also mostly designed to disrupt normal political, economic, and social activity and to create attention around a set of concerns. We claim that e-bandits intentionally operate in the absence of trust. While they do form networks and operate as cohesive units, they employ anonymizing tools that mask their identities, not just from authorities, but from each other as well. This allows these groups to operate with a level of transience and anonymity that make disruption and capture by authorities extremely difficult. Infiltration by policing agencies, and the potential for co-offenders to reveal the identities of other group members becomes almost non-existent when encryption works perfectly.

Carla Ilten & Hector Postigo (@hectorpostigo) Activism 2.0: The Politics and Business of Platforms Built for Social Change
In recent years, Social Movement studies have started taking note of ICT, the web and of activism organized via online platforms. Garrett’s (2006) oft-cited review of the literature on ICTs and Social Movement Organizations (SMO) showcases research focusing on internet-enhanced activism and e-mobilizations. Myers (1994) has pointed to possible organizational shifts even before Web 2.0 was a coined term by describing dedicated “clearing house”” organizations that offer tactics, not causes and their function as a breeding ground for activists. Going beyond this “”enhancement paradigm””, recent work investigates web-based activism as genuinely online architectures of participation in Social Movements using the concept of affordances (Earl & Kimport 2011).

While those analyses focus mostly on traditional Social Movements with regard to causes, this present contribution investigates the tactics of a new niche of activism for social change that does not fit easily into existing definitions which highlight contentious activism as the hallmark of participation. “”Micro-volunteering”” focuses on non-profit and non-governmental provision of labor for social change and employs a socio-technical innovation: it is based in Web 2.0 architectures of participation, entirely online, and features Social Networking-type affordances such as profiles and portfolios to engage participants.

Building on Social Movement Theory, Science and Technology Studies, and Media Studies, our study analyzes two such non-contentious micro-participation platforms with regard to their Social Network-like architectures and their specific affordances and dynamics. The cases studied in early 2011 are 1) Kiva.org, an online micro-lending organization and 2) Sparked.com, an online volunteering clearinghouse. Our analysis of the two platforms is based in 1) a qualitative analysis of website structure and affordances using Atlas.ti, and 2) in in-depth interviews with the founders of the platforms.

We note some important similarities and differences between the organizations that have been characterized in the SM research and those in our case studies. The lack of contentious action gives them a distinct dynamic, which is both technologically contingent and socially fostered: Both Kiva and Sparked are architectures built on the Social Networking-type paradigm of harmony, micro-celebrity (here: individual activist branding through profiles), and employ a complex game structure around volunteering portfolios to engage participants. On top of this, individual utilitarian goals are implicit in Sparked’s highly skilled volunteering: professionalization, training and self-marketization for individuals as well as for companies who send volunteers are important motivations for participation. At Kiva, an entrepreneurial value system uncritical of capitalist economic structures is the baseline for micro-lending. These organizations represent true new hybrids when it comes to activism — both with regard to causes and socio-technical tactics.

This study has been funded under the National Science Foundation award no. SES-0748400, “The Digital Universe and Web 2.0: Proposal for Studying the Construction of Synergistic Expert/Non Expert Knowledge Networks for Human Rights.”