Social movements and Communication: The Net Paradigm

Abstract

The rise of social movement networks as innovative platforms of collective action is not only linked to the fact that activists, artists and programmers are seizing information and communications technology but also to the pursuit of non-hierarchical forms of organization and to a democratic and horizontal ideal: a present-day net eutopia. Since the nineties, activists working in communications used the Internet as a tool to spread social movements worldwide. The ludic and libertarian use of digital technologies introduced by the first programmers and hackers has notably increased as can be proven by astonishingly irruptive experiences contrasting with the development of technological strategies as a means of social control and economic exploitation. This paper treats activist networks as emerging forms of politics by presenting their communicative practices.