The Impact of Digital Technology on Contemporary Repertoires of Contention

Abstract

Digital technologies have become a steady component of a vast range of protest movements, motivated by the widespread availability of Internet communications and apparent political power of social media. The use of technology-mediated communication in early transnational mobilization initiatives against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) or during WTO and G8 conferences has found an echo in more recent protests against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in campaigns against stricter copyright enforcement, and in large-scale events against social and economic inequality like ‘Occupy’, ‘Indignados’ or the ‘Arab Spring’. There is little agreement, however, over the nature and degree of effectiveness of digitally enabled repertoires of contention, as ‘online’ mobilization often builds on ‘offline’ interactions between technically literate and socially capable individuals. The limited empowerment capabilities of digital technologies seems to imply, instead, that traditional protest skills and resources, as well as political and social capital, remain central to analyzing mobilization over digital networks. To what extent, then, has activism actually gone ‘digital’, and what blends of technical, social and political skills are found among the individuals and organizations that lead and sustain protest events? This panel would welcome empirical and theoretical papers that answer this question by examining the impact of digital technology and communication on contemporary repertoires of contention.

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