Generally, the literatures on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) and on networked resistance are evolving isolated from one another. This article aims to integrate these literatures in order to critically review differences and similarities in the techno-centric conceptions of agency and social change by political adversaries that are rooted in their socio-technical practices. We repurpose the critique of technological determinism to develop a multi-layered conception of agency that contains three interrelated dimensions: (1) “access” versus “skill” and the normative concept of inclusion; (2) fixed “system” versus “open-ended network” and savoir vivre; and (3) “institution” versus “extra-institutional network” and political efficacy. Building on our critique, we end by exploring the political possibilities at the intersections of conventional institutions or communities and emerging, extra-institutional networked formations.
AllmerT (2015) Critical Theory and Social Media: Between Emancipation and Commodification. London: Routledge.
2.
AminAThriftN (2013) Arts of the Political: New Openings for the Left. Durham, NC; London: Duke University Press.
3.
BarryA (2001) Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society. London: Athlone Press.
4.
BaúV (2014) Video technologies and participatory approaches to peace: from technological determinism to self-empowerment and social change. An experience from Kenya. In: ServaesJ (ed.) Technological Determinism and Social Change. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 243–258.
5.
BauwensM (2006) Peer to peer: from technology to politics to a new civilization? In: ServaesJCarpentierN (eds) Towards a Sustainable Information Society: Deconstructing WSIS. Portland, OR: Intellect Books.
6.
BollierD (2008) Viral Spiral: How the Commoners Built a Digital Republic of Their Own. New York: The New Press.
7.
BollierD (2014) Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons. Gabriola Island Canada: New Society Publishers.
8.
CarpentierNLieRServaesJ (2012) Multitheoretical approaches to community media: capturing specificity and diversity. In: FullerL (ed.) The Power of Global Community Media. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 219–236.
9.
CouldryN (2010) Why Voice Matters: Culture and Politics after Neoliberalism. London; Thousand Oakes, CA: SAGE.
10.
DeanJAndersonJLovinkG (eds) (2006) Reformatting Politics: Information Technology and Global Civil Society. New York; Oxon: Routledge.
11.
DeleuzeGGuattariF (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
12.
Dyer-WithefordN (1999) Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
13.
EscobarA (2008) Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
14.
FishASrinivasanR (2012) Digital labor is the new killer app. New Media & Society14(1): 137–152.
15.
FullerM (2005) Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
16.
GajjalaR (2012) Cyberculture and the Subaltern: Weavings of the Virtual and Real. Plymouth: Lexington Books.
17.
GallowayA (2004) Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
18.
GaneshSZollerH (2012) Dialogue, activism, and democratic social change. Communication Theory22: 66–91.
HindmanM (2011) What is the online public sphere good for? In: TurowJTsuiL (eds) The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, pp. 168–288.
27.
HoyngR (2012) Istanbul of networks: space, technology, governance. PhD Thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC.
28.
KapczynskiA (2010) Access to knowledge: a conceptual genealogy. In: KrikorianGKapczynskiA (eds) Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property. New York: Zone Books, pp. 17–56.
29.
KennedyT (2008) Where the Rivers Meet the Sky: A Collaborative Approach to Participatory Development. Penang, Malaysia: Southbound Press.
30.
KiesR (2010) Promises and Limits of Web-Deliberation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
KleineD (2013) Technologies of Choice? ICTs, Development, and the Capabilities Approach. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
32.
KoruppSSzydlikkM (2005) Causes and trends of the digital divide. European Sociological Review21(4): 409–422.
33.
LeyeV (2007) UNESCO, ICT corporations and the passion for ICT for development: modernization resurrected. Media, Culture & Society29(6): 972–993.
LovinkGRossiterN (2011) Urgent aphorisms: notes on organized networks for the connected multitudes. In: DeuzeM (ed.) Managing Media Work. Thousand Oaks, CA; London: SAGE, pp. 279–290.
36.
MackenzieDWajcmanJ (1985) The Social Shaping of Technology. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
37.
MejiasU (2013) Off the Network: Disrupting the Digital World. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
38.
MertensSServaesJ (2011) ICT Policies on structural and socio-cultural participation in Brussels. In: AdomiEE (ed.) Handbook of Research on Information Communication Technology Policy: Trends, Issues and Advancements. Hershey; New York: IGI Global, pp. 319-336.
39.
MorozovE (2011) The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World. London: Penguin.
40.
MossbergerKTolbertCJMcNealRS (2008) Digital Citizenship. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
41.
OyedemiTD (2013) The global agenda: technology, development, and sustainable social change. In: ServaesJ (ed.) Sustainability, Participation and Culture in Communication Theory and Praxis. Bristol: Intellect, pp. 59–82.
42.
PolkE (2015) Communicating Global to Local Resiliency: A Case Study of the Transition Movement. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
43.
PolkEServaesJ (2015) Sustainability and participatory communication: a case-study of the Transition Town Amherst, MA. Management Communication Quarterly29(1): 160–167.
44.
RicciA (2003) The political internet: between dogma and reality. In: ServaesJ (ed.) The European Information Society: A reality Check, Bristol: Intellect, pp. 177-204.
45.
RicciA (2013) The early political web (1995–2005): a ten-year observational research seeking evidence of “eDemocracy” in the information architecture of political parties web sites worldwide. PhD Thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.
46.
RossiterN (2006) Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers.
47.
SaretzkiT (2012) Legitimation problems of participatory processes in technology assessment and technology policy. Poiesis Praxis9(1–2): 7–26.
48.
ScloveR (1995) Democracy and Technology. New York: The Guilford Press.
49.
ScloveR (2010) Reinventing technology assessment: a 21st century model. using citizen participation, collaboration and expert analysis to inform and improve decision-making on issues involving science and technology. Report, Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington DC, April.
50.
SegerbergLBennettA (2011) Social media and the organization of collective action: using Twitter to explore the ecologies of two climate change protests. The Communication Review14(3): 197–215.
51.
ServaesJ (2014) By way of conclusion: people matter. In: ServaesJ (ed.) Technological Determinism and Social Change. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 285–298.
52.
SlackJWiseJM (2005) Culture + Technology: A Primer. New York and Washington, DC: Peter Lang.
53.
SmithMRMarxL (eds) (1994) Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
54.
SoderbergJ (2013) Determining social change: the role of technological determinism in the collective action of hackers. New Media & Society15: 1277–1293.
55.
SrinivasanR (2012) Rethinking digital cultures and divides: the case for reflective media. The Information Society: An International Journal28(1): 24–36.
56.
StieglerB (2010) Taking Care of Youth and the Generations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
57.
ThurberC (2014) Between Mao and Gandhi: strategies of violence and nonviolence in revolutionary movements. Presentation, International Security Program Seminar Series, 17 December, Cambridge, MA. International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School.
58.
TsatsouP (2011) Digital divides revisited: what is new about divides and their research?Media, Culture & Society33(2): 317–331.
59.
TufekciZWilsonC (2012) Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: observations from Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication62(2): 363–379.
Van DijkJ (2012) The Network Society. London: SAGE.
62.
WilkinsKG (2014) Communicating neoliberal development: a critical analysis of Grameen Bank programs for women. In: ServaesJ (ed.) Technological Determinism and Social Change. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, pp. 75–189.
63.
WilliamsR (1992) Television: Technology and Cultural Form. Hanover; London: University Press of New England.
64.
WinnerL (1986) The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for the Limits in an Age of High Technology. Chicago, IL; London: The University of Chicago Press.
65.
Wu SongF (2002) Towards a working perspective of technology: a bibliographic essay. The Hedgehog Review2: 126–140.
66.
WyattS (2008) Technological determinism is dead, long live technological reterminism. In: HackettEJAmsterdamskaOLynchM. (eds) The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 165–180.
67.
YouKLeeJKangH. (2015) Participatory or deliberative democracy? Exploring the mediation effects of perceived online deliberation and online interactive activities on social outcomes. Telematics and Informatics32(2): 205–214.
