This article examines the need for an explicit conceptualisation of communication in the field of social movement research in order to grasp power dynamics within transnational civic tech activism communities. Civic tech activism is an instance of organised collective action that acts on institutionally regulated governance processes through the crafting of technologies and tactics supporting citizens’ direct political participation. The article suggests a theoretical lens that introduces the de-westernisation discourse of communication scholarship to the theorising of media as practice in social movement research. This allows, I argue, revealing power asymmetries within civic tech activist communities, with respect to decision-making involving technology. Emphasising the need to account for these exclusionary dynamics, the analytical lens here suggested will introduce the concept of ‘acting within’ transnational civic tech activism.
BennettLSegerbergA (2013) The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
BramanS (2009) Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power, Cambridge: MIT Press.
3.
BräuchlerBPostillJ (2010) Theorising Media and Practice, New York: Berghahn Books.
CastellsM (2009) Communication Power, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
6.
Coleman G (2015) Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy the Many Faces of Anonymous. London, New York: Verso.
7.
CorettiLPicaD (2015) The rise and fall of collective identity in networked movements: Communication protocols, Facebook, and the anti-Berlusconi protest. Information, Communication & Society18(8): 951–967.
8.
CouldryN (2004) Theorising media as practice. Social Semiotics14(2): 115–132.
9.
CouldryN (2010) Theorizing media as practice. In: BräuchlerBPostillJ (eds) Theorizing Media as Practice, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 35–55.
10.
CouldryN (2015) The myth of ‘us’: Digital networks, political change and the production of collectivity. Information, Communication & Society18(6): 608–626.
11.
DaltonCMTaylorLThatcherJ (2016) Critical data studies: A dialog on data and space. Big Data & Society3(1): ): 2053951716648346.
12.
de Sousa SantosB (2012) Public sphere and epistemologies of the South. Africa Development37(1): 43–67.
13.
Della PortaD (2011) Communication in movement: Social movements as agents of participatory democracy. Information, Communication & Society14(6): 800–819.
14.
Escobar A (1995) Encountering Development – The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9564.html (accessed 24 November 2018).
15.
FeenbergA (2002) Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited, New York: Oxford University Press.
16.
FentonN (2016) Left out? Digital media, radical politics and social change – 1369118X.2015.1109698. Information, Communication & Society19(3): 346–361.
17.
FreireP (1968) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Herder and Herder.
18.
GerbaudoP (2015) Protest avatars as memetic signifiers: Political profile pictures and the construction of collective identity on social media in the 2011 protest wave. Information, Communication & Society18(8): 916–929.
19.
GitelmanL (2013) Raw Data Is an Oxymoron, Cambridge: MIT Press.
20.
Gumucio DagronA (2011) Comunicación para el cambio social: Clave del desarrollo participativo. In: PereiraGJMCadavidBA (eds) Comunicación, Desarrollo y Cambio Social Interrelaciones Entre Comunicación, Movimientos Ciudadanos y Medios, Bogotá: Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, pp. 19–36. Available at: www.javeriana.edu.co/unesco/pdf/comunicacion_desarrollo_cambio_social2.pdf.
21.
Gumucio Dagron A and Tufte T (eds) (2006) Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings. South Orange, NJ: Communication for Social Change Consortium.
HeppACouldryN (2017) The Mediated Construction of Reality, Cambridge: Polity Press.
24.
KavadaA (2015) Creating the collective: Social media, the occupy movement and its constitution as a collective actor. Information, Communication & Society18(8): 872–886.
25.
KeckMSikkinkK (1998) Activists Beyond Borders. Advocacy Networks in International Policy, London: Cornell University Press.
26.
KubitschkoS (2017) Acting on media technologies and infrastructures: Expanding the media as practice approach. Media, Culture & Society40: 629–635.
27.
LievrouwL (2011) Alternative and Activist New Media, Cambridge: Polity Press.
28.
Makau JM and Arnett RC (1997) Preface. Communication ethics in an age of diversity. Urbana and Chicago: vii–xi.
29.
Martin-BarberoJ (1999) De los medios a las prácticas. In: OrozcoG (ed) La Comunicación Desde Las Prácticas Sociales. Reflexiones En Torno a Su Investigación, Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana.
30.
Martín-BarberoJ (2006) A Latin American perspective on communication/cultural mediation. Global Media and Communication2(3): 279–297.
31.
MasieroS (2017) Big Data for Anti-Poverty Policies, ICT4D BRIEFINGS 1. London: ICT4D – Royal Holloway University of London.
32.
MattoniA (2013) Repertoires of communication in social movement processes. In: CammaertsBMattoniAMcCurdyP (eds) Mediation and Protest Movements, Bristol: Intellect, pp. 39–56.
33.
MattoniA (2017) A situated understanding of digital technologies in social movements. Media ecology and media practice approaches. Social Movement Studies16(4): 494–505.
34.
MattoniATreréE (2014) Media practices, mediation processes, and mediatization in the study of social movements. Communication Theory24(3): 252–271.
35.
Mayer-SchönbergerVCukierK (2013) Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think, London: Murray.
36.
Mellon J, Peixoto T and Sjoberg F (2015) The haves and the have nots: Is civic tech impacting the people who need it most? By Jonathan Mellon (World Bank/University of Oxford). Available at: www.slideshare.net/mysociety/jonathan-mellon (accessed 8 June 2016).
37.
MelucciA (1995) The process of collective identity. In: JohnstonHKlandermansB (eds) Social Movements and Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 41–63.
38.
MilanS (2013) Social Movements and Their Technologies, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
39.
MilanS (2015) Hacktivism as a radical media practice. In: AttonC (ed) The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media, Rochester: Social Science Research Network, pp. 550–560. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2901929 (accessed 22 February 2017).
40.
MilanS (2016) Liberated technology: Inside emancipatory communication activism. In: GordonEMihailidisP (eds) Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 107–124.
41.
MilanSGutiérrezM (2015) Citizens’ media meets big data: The emergence of data activism. Mediaciones14: 120–133. .
42.
MilanSvan der VeldenL (2016) The alternative epistemologies of data activism. Digital Culture & Society2(2): 57–74.
43.
PasqualiA (2003) A brief descriptive glossary of communication and information (aimed at providing clarification and improving mutual understanding) Antonio Pasquali. In: GirardBSiochrúSÓ (eds) Communicating in the Information Society, Geneva: UNRISD, pp. 195–223.
44.
PostillJ (2010) Introduction: Theorising media as practice. In: BräuchlerBPostillJ (eds) Theorising Media as Practice, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 1–34.
45.
RodriguezC (2016) Human agency and media praxis: Re-centring alternative and community media research. Journal of Alternative and Community Media1: 36–38.
46.
RumbulR (2015) Who Benefits From Civic Technology? Demographic and Public Attitudes Research Into the Users of Civic Technologies, London: mySociety., Available at: www.mysociety.org/files/2015/10/demographics-report.pdf (accessed 31 January 2016).
47.
SartorettoP (2016) Mobilization as communication – A Latin American contribution to the study of social movements. Commons5(2): 93–117.
SwindlerA (2001) What anchors cultural practice. In: SchatzkiTRKnorr CetinaKvon SavignyE (eds) The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, London: Routledge, pp. 74–92.
50.
TaylorLBroedersD (2015) In the name of development: Power, profit and the datafication of the global South. Geoforum64: 229–237.
51.
TreréEGerbaudoP (2015) In search of the ‘we’ of social media activism: Introduction to the special issue on social media and protest identities. Information, Communication & Society18(8): 865–871.
52.
TufteT (2017) Communication and Social Change: A Citizen Perspective, Cambridge: Polity Press.
UnwinT (2010) ICTs, citizens, and the state: Moral philosophy and development practices. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries44(1): 1–16.
55.
ValenciaJ-CMagallanesC (2016) Prácticas comunicativas y cambio social: Potentia, acción y reacción. Universitas Humanística81: 15–31.
van DijkJ (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
58.
van DijkJAGVan DeursenAJAM (2018) The first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access. New Media & Society21: 354–375.
59.
WaisbordSMelladoC (2014) De-westernizing communication studies: A reassessment. Communication Theory24(4): 361–372.
60.
WassermanH (2018) Power, meaning and geopolitics: Ethics as an entry point for global communication studies. Journal of Communication68(2): 441–451.
