Year: 2008
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Research within the last fifteen years on global advocacy networks has often focused \non their accomplishments through the linking of similar groups. The majority of this \nresearch while being useful to examine transnational political dynamics has two \ndeficiencies. The first is that there is little or no consideration of the network \ninfrastructure (from code to cables) that allows the aforementioned linkage to occur. \nIt is therefore important to investigate the politics of infrastructure, architecture and \ndesign and the power and control thereof. Secondly, prior to Web 2.0. technologies, \nadvocacy networks were nodes of information distribution, rather than nodes to which \ninformation was directed, and then subsequently collected, compiled and used for \npolitical purposes. It is quite reasonable to argue that Web 2.0. technologies (again \ndue to considerations of code, digital architecture and design) have altered the manner \nin advocacy networks interact with their supporters, other organizations and formal \npolitical institutions. This change is located within the advocacy network’s technoorganizational \nstructure. Subsequently, as the digital architecture for the internet is an \ninter-operable free/libre open source software (FLOSS) common to information \nexchange, it stands to reason that as an infrastructure this technology is directly a \npolitical landscape over which and in which friction and contestation can and does \noccur. In regard to the methods of interaction, FLOSS technologies have greatly \nexpanded the pool of potential social activists and reduced the costs of engagement, \nactivism and highlighting issues. With these factors in mind it can be argued that \nFLOSS has created opportunities for civil society to emerge and engage with society \nat large in ways that are both new (in a digital medium) and similar (tackling issues of \nsocial justice as constructed by the social activists). When considered at a systematic \nlevel this process has several implications. These implications include the impact of \n4 \nnetworking on identity, social relations, power relations and so on, which in turn \nacknowledges that modern computer networking can act as a mechanism that \nradically restructures various political relations. This itself acknowledges various \ncontests over modern computer networking (one position which is expressed by \nvarious FLOSS proponents), and the physical infrastructure and the power and control \nthereof which allows such networking to even exist in the first instance. Within this \ncontext, which could be described as an information ecosystem, there is a recognition \nthat advocacy networks have emerged as new sources of power ready to exert \ninfluence through networking that occurs in a) a non formal manner and b) ‘beneath \nthe radar’ as it were.
Author: Scott Neal Timcke
Language: English
Topic: Social Media and Politics
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2249627595