i like patterns

It is the first book explicitly dedicated to digital activism, its editor Mary Joyce proudly says. In Digital Activism Decoded, 15 authors explore the intersection of activism and digital technology, in an attempt to map the field of digital activism in its entirety. I am happy to be one of them. From Mary’s summary:

The book begins with a section on Contexts, addressing not only the technology of network infrastructure, devices, and applications, but also the social, economic, and political environment in which digital activism occurs.

An analysis of Practices follows, not in the usual format of case study analysis, but by presenting different ways of thinking about these practices. The section begins with a chapter on pre-digital social movement theory, while a second chapter takes the digital perspective of web ecology. Both constructive and destructive activism practices are discussed.

The final section on Effects seeks to address the range of opinions on digital activism’s value. While optimists see the great potential for citizen empowerment, pessimists believe that the empowerment of forces of repression is equally likely. Skeptics view both askance and do not believe digital activism makes much difference at all. We leave the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

My own contribution, entitled “The New Casualties: Prisons and Persecution”, deals with the downside of digital activism. It is based on research into the circumstances of bloggers’ arrests around the world. I have published the data I used for my chapter on this blog, so you can fact-check my claims.

I am looking forward to your reviews of the book and to any feedback to my own contribution. It’s only the second time that any of my writing is published in print (the first was an article for a local student’s magazine), and I am a bit anxious about it. But for now, the book as a whole has already received positive attention, among others from Esra’a Al Shafei, the founder of Mideast Youth who is probably the one who has brought me to digital activism, and Dan McQuillan:

I hope and expect that this book will inspire the next generation of activist researchers to test the boundaries of their knowledge in a digitally engaged practice that has fairness and justice as its ethical core.

Digital Activism Decoded is published under a Creative Commons license which allows everybody with no commercial interest to copy and disperse it, as long as the content stays unaltered. The book is available as a free download from the Meta Activism Project’s website. You can also preorder Digital Activism Decoded from Amazon (de | us), where the print version will go on sale on June 30, 2010.

Sokari Ekine by Spreeblick on Youtube

At re:publica 10, I interviewed Nigerian researcher, writer and activist Sokari Ekine on mobile activism in Africa for my current employer, Spreeblick. Earlier that day, Sokari had participated in a panel on the same issue. She has also edited a book on mobile activism, SMS Uprising, which I reviewed on this blog.

Both her panel and this video interview, when we published it on Spreeblick some days ago, did not receive the attention they deserve. I think it’s a pity, because Sokari shares a very experienced, down-to-earth view of technology in activism that is different from the common hype.

I have asked Sokari some questions that paraphrase this hype – whether mobile phones can provide an idea for a better future for Africa, whether they can be used to combat illiteracy and poverty. I hope she didn’t mind, because she gave exactly the answer that I had hoped for.

Sokari likened mobile phones to a pen: They are but a tool, and they can be used for good as well as for bad¹. This view should be the most natural thing in the world, but apparently it is not. If I look for media reports on digital activism, I will rather find stories on new technologies than on successful projects (which include much more than just a technology put to an issue!).

It seems as if we have already accepted the supremacy of the gadget. Do I even need to mention the iPad? What wonders have we heard this piece of plastic and cables will achieve! Were we not told that it would safe journalism in one strike?

My issue with the iPad is not that its influence was massively exaggerated. What bothers me is that it seems as if we have accepted that gadgets are shaping our habits, yes, that technology is at the core of our societies, rather than common values².

Remember those newspaper editors, how they have bowed in front of the iPad. It is not the quality of their work or the role of journalism in society that they trust in to find a business model, but a mere piece of technology.

This bothers me: It seems to be a common belief that there is some kind of technological determinism, that our civilization will rise and fall with the development of gadgets. Then it is indeed reasonable to see Steve Jobs as a guru, because the products of his company are part of the law that our societies are following.

In this situation it is a big relief to hear an experienced voice, and Sokari is one of the most trustworthiest that I could think of, say that “no technology can provide a better future”, and that it is about us to use the tools that are e.g. mobile phones to shape our world.

¹ also see: Goldstein, Joshua; Rotich, Juliana: Digitally Networked Technology in Kenya’s 2007-2008 Post-Election Crisis. A shortened version of this essay is also included in SMS Uprising.
² my German-speaking readers may also be interested in a talk by Miriam Meckel at re:publica 10 on the same issue.