I'll be doing this on the 16th of march in Luton at the Research Institute for Media, Art, Design, Performance and English, University of Bedfordshire Room - A107 1pm - 2pm rimad.wikidot.com/
Activism in the Network Society: On Power-Laws and Deliberation in Radical Democracy
In this research seminar Joss Hands will be discussing his recently published book, ‘@ is For Activism: Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture’ and highlighting some of the key arguments in the book, including the capacities and limitations of digital networks in the organisation of protest and activism. In this presentation he will be focusing in particular on the scalability of distributed networks and how this characteristic can be an aid to horizontal cooperative organisation, but also can work against it. This debate will be framed in political terms by an exploration of the possibilities raised for strengthening and radicalising democracy, and what democratic forms might be best suited to this aim in a digital age, for example autonomous, agonistic or deliberative models.