From virtual public spheres to global justice: A critical theory of internetworked social movements
Sociological Theory 23 (1):42-74 (2005)
| Abstract | From the early 1990s when the EZLN (the Zapatistas), led by Subcommandte Marcos, first made use of the Internet to the late 1990s with the defeat of the Multilateral Agreement on Trade and Investment and the anti-WTO protests in Seattle, Quebec, and Genoa, it became evident that new, qualitatively different kinds of social protest movements were emergent. These new movements seemed diffuse and unstructured, yet at the same time, they forged unlikely coalitions of labor, environmentalists, feminists, peace, and global social justice activists collectively critical of the adversities of neoliberal globalization and its associated militarism. Moreover, the rapid emergence and worldwide proliferation of these movements, organized and coordinated through the Internet, raised a number of questions that require rethinking social movement theory. Specifically, the electronic networks that made contemporary globalization possible also led to the emergence of "virtual public spheres" and, in turn, "Internetworked Social Movements." Social movement theory has typically focused on local structures, leadership, recruitment, political opportunities, and strategies from framing issues to orchestrating protests. While this tradition still offers valuable insights, we need to examine unique aspects of globalization that prompt such mobilizations, as well as their democratic methods of participatory organization and clever use of electronic media. Moreover, their emancipatory interests become obscured by the "objective" methods of social science whose "neutrality" belies a tacit assent to the status quo. It will be argued that the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory offers a multi-level, multi-disciplinary approach that considers the role of literacy and media in fostering modernist bourgeois movements as well as anti- modernist fascist movements. This theoretical tradition offers a contemporary framework in which legitimacy crises are discussed and participants arrive at consensual truth claims; in this process, new forms of empowered, activist identities are fostered and negotiated that impel cyber activism | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,631 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesAnne E. Kane (1997). Theorizing Meaning Construction in Social Movements: Symbolic Structures and Interpretation During the Irish Land War, 1879-1882. Sociological Theory 15 (3):249-276.
Batya Weinbaum (2010). Voices From the Kibbutz : Four Mothers, New Profile, and Women in Black. The European Legacy 15 (1):55-69.
Stephen M. Engel (2001). The Unfinished Revolution: Social Movement Theory and the Gay and Lesbian Movement. Cambridge University Press.
Corinne Gendron, Véronique Bisaillon & Ana Isabel Otero Rance (2009). The Institutionalization of Fair Trade: More Than Just a Degraded Form of Social Action. Journal of Business Ethics 86:63 - 79.
Elizabeth A. Armstrong & Mary Bernstein (2008). Culture, Power, and Institutions: A Multi-Institutional Politics Approach to Social Movements. Sociological Theory 26 (1):74 - 99.
Ann Ferguson (2009). Feminist Paradigms of Solidarity and Justice. Philosophical Topics 37 (2):161-177.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads16 ( #74,564 of 548,969 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,511 of 548,969 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
