scholarly journals What is digital activism anyway?

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-84
Author(s):  
Suay Melisa Ozkula

In recent decades, digital activism has received a lot of scholarly and journalistic attention. Even so, there remains no firm consensus on its precise definition and scope. This paper addresses this conceptual haziness and contends that there are analytical issues and conceptual implications in the openness of the term and its description as digital, as 'digitality' is neither the sole nor the primary feature along which activism has changed. Drawing on extant practices of digital activism and conceptual approaches to its scope, the paper aims to (1) critically discuss & highlight a range of conceptual obscurities in digital activism scholarship, (2) provide a glimpse into the concept’s evolution, and, through these (3) suggest that the term (incl. synonyms) suffers from myriad conceptual and epistemological fallacies: omissions of the concept’s complexity (e.g. hybridity, rhizomatism, multi- mediality), implications of digital dualism and therefore potentially technological determinism, and the invitation of stigma, luddite sentiment, and other social constructions of the technologies to which the term is attached.

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suay Melisa Özkula

The past decades have generated a wealth of literature on digital activism. Even so, the phenomenon has been little historicised. This paper engages in a deconstructionist exercise on historical references in digital activism literature towards exploring implicit meaning-making in a symbolic-interactionist tradition. It identifies four distinct narratives: 1) a technology narrative [activism as technology-driven]; 2) a communications narrative [activism on the basis of communication options]; 3) an online-off-line narrative [activism based on an online-off-line dichotomy]; and 4) an engagement narrative [activism based on its affordances for public engagement]. The paper argues that these narratives contribute to a distinct, polysemic, and paradoxical understanding of digital activism as a phenomenon that is technologically driven (technological determinism), and both distinct to and enmeshed with traditional activism. In doing so, this narrative analysis shows a range of underlying ideological assumptions in digital activism study and conceptualisation, which informs how the phenomenon is understood today.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Kalman ◽  
Oscar Enrique Hernández Razo

National and multilateral government agencies and popular narrative promote the idea that the use of information, communication and design technology (ICT-D) in education transform teaching. It is argued that these changes will help students become part of a “new economy” based on the use of ICT-D and characterized by “increased productivity”, “collaboration” and “flexibility.” This article questions this view of technological determinism by presenting an analysis of classrooms in a working class area of Mexico City where young people and adults are being taught to use the computer. Using a sociocultural approach based on the concept of situated practice, we show how some of the decisions and directions of the instructors in computer classes for youth and adults respond to educational traditions, notions of basic education for adults, and beliefs about learning that promote mechanical exercises and repetition. The discussion posits teachers’ beliefs and actions are social constructions rather than individual choices or shortcomings by presenting teaching materials provided by the public agency responsible for adult education in Mexico.


Author(s):  
W. A. Shannon ◽  
M. A. Matlib

Numerous studies have dealt with the cytochemical localization of cytochrome oxidase via cytochrome c. More recent studies have dealt with indicating initial foci of this reaction by altering incubation pH (1) or postosmication procedure (2,3). The following study is an attempt to locate such foci by altering membrane permeability. It is thought that such alterations within the limits of maintaining morphological integrity of the membranes will ease the entry of exogenous substrates resulting in a much quicker oxidation and subsequently a more precise definition of the oxidative reaction.The diaminobenzidine (DAB) method of Seligman et al. (4) was used. Minced pieces of rat liver were incubated for 1 hr following toluene treatment (5,6). Experimental variations consisted of incubating fixed or unfixed tissues treated with toluene and unfixed tissues treated with toluene and subsequently fixed.


Author(s):  
Gabriela Soto Laveaga

In my brief response to Terence Keel’s essay “Race on Both Sides of the Razor,” I focus on something as pertinent as alleles and social construction: how we write history and how we memorialize the past. Current DNA analysis promises to remap our past and interrogate certainties that we have taken for granted. For the purposes of this commentary I call this displacing of known histories the epigenetics of memory. Just as environmental stimuli rouse epigenetic mechanisms to produce lasting change in behavior and neural function, the unearthing of forgotten bodies, forgotten lives, has a measurable effect on how we act and think and what we believe. The act of writing history, memorializing the lives of others, is a stimulus that reshapes who and what we are. We cannot disentangle the discussion about the social construction of race and biological determinism from the ways in which we have written—and must write going forward—about race. To the debate about social construction and biological variation we must add the heft of historical context, which allows us to place these two ideas in dialogue with each other. Consequently, before addressing the themes in Keel’s provocative opening essay and John Hartigan’s response, I speak about dead bodies—specifically, cemeteries for Black bodies. Three examples—one each from Atlanta, Georgia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Mexico—illustrate how dead bodies must enter our current debates about race, science, and social constructions. 


Author(s):  
Mª Carmen López Sáenz

ResumenLa autora introduce al lector en la sociofenomenología de la vida cotidiana de A. Schütz desde una lectura hermenéutica de “El Quijote”. Se detiene en el análisis schütziano de las estructuras de relevancias presentes en el universo quijotesco, ilustrando con citas de la obra de Cervantes y comentarios de las mismas las diversas construcciones sociales de los mundos de la vida habitados por los diferentes personajes, principalmente por Don Quijote y Sancho. Las articulaciones de estas realidades múltiples van aclarando el sentido del subuniverso quijotesco y el lugar del mismo en el seno del mundo de la vida compartido. Esas articulaciones se traducen en diferentes relaciones intersubjetivas que van reconfigurando el mundo social de don Quijote. A modo de conclusión, la autora reinterpreta la “locura” quijotesca de acuerdo con la estructura de relevancias.Palabras clavesociofenomenología, Schütz, mundo de la vida, D. QuijoteAbstractAutor initiates reader into A. Schütz´s Sociophenomenology of the daily life by means of the phenomenological hermeneutics of “The Quixot”. She focusses on the schützian analysis of the structures of relevances in the quixotic universe. The different social constructions of the lifeworlds are illustrated through Cervantes book´s quotations and comments, mainly by the D. Quixot and Sancho inhabited worlds. The articulations of these multiple realities go clarifying the sense of the quixotic subuniverse and its place in the common lifeworld´s bossom. Such articulations are translated into different intersubjetive relationships which reshape the Quixot´s social world. As a conclusion, author reinterpretes the quixotic “madness” in line with the structure of the relevances.KeywordsSociophenomenology, Schütz, Lifeworld, D. Quixot


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Bakare Adewale Muteeu

In pursuit of a capitalist world configuration, the causal phenomenon of globalization spread its cultural values in the built international system, as evidenced by the dichotomy between the rich North and the poor South. This era of cultural globalization is predominantly characterized by social inequality, economic inequality and instability, political instability, social injustice, and environmental change. Consequently, the world is empirically infected by divergent global inequalities among nations and people, as evidenced by the numerous problems plaguing humanity. This article seeks to understand Islam from the viewpoint of technological determinism in attempt to offset these diverging global inequalities for its “sociopolitical economy”1existence, as well as the stabilization of the interconnected world. Based upon the unifying view of microIslamics, the meaning of Islam and its globalizing perspectives are deciphered on a built micro-religious platform. Finally, the world is rebuilt via the Open World Peace (OWP) paradigm, from which the fluidity of open globalization is derived as a future causal phenomenon for seamlessly bridging (or contracting) the gaps between the rich-rich, rich-poor, poor-rich and poor-poor nations and people based on common civilization fronts.


Author(s):  
Susan C. Graham

Culinary experiences have long been an important aspect of tourism. For many destinations, culinary offerings have become ubiquitous with the place – pasta in Italy, wine in the Loire- or Napa Valley, or curry in India. As tourists increasingly seek out authentic touristic experiences, including culinary experiences, the question arises regarding what constitutes an authentic culinary experience in a place. While authentic and authenticity are terms widely used in the tourism literature, a precise definition of what those terms mean and a method for identifying that which is authentic remains elusive. Research regarding authenticity in tourism suggests that locals occupy a ‘place of privilege’ with respect to determining the authenticity of a touristic experience because of their connection to and context in relation to the place. This paper examines the perspectives of Prince Edward Island (PEI) residents with respect to what constitutes an authentic culinary touristic experience in which visitors to Canada’s smallest province can partake and that provide those visitors with a glimpse of what life in PEI is or was really like, and provides a voice for an underrepresented group in the authenticity discourse. Results show that authentic culinary experiences transcend food, and encompass people, places, and experiences in ways that enrich touristic endeavours, and that locals understand and interpret authenticity in ways that both conform to and differ from existing scholarly work related to tourism authenticity, and span objective, existential, and constructive authenticity.


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