This paper analyzes the practices of activists in southern Stockholm who use social media to participate in political issues. It finds that increased use of sites like Facebook, Twitter, and email lists helps facilitate participation but also disciplines users through practices of updating their networks about activities. Joining these online groups makes activists more "engagable" and likely to engage in offline actions if interested. While new media are touted as empowering, the paper argues they also impose a network logic that shapes users' political identities through constant self-disclosure and connection to like-minded groups.
Social Media and the Disciplining of VisibilityJakob Svensson
This document summarizes a research paper about how social media usage relates to power dynamics and participation among activists in Stockholm, Sweden. The researcher conducted ethnographic and online observations of activists fighting to save a local public bathhouse. While social media made it easier to spread information and mobilize support, it also disciplined activists by pushing them to constantly update their online presence and participate in both online and offline events. The constant connectivity inherent in social media led activists to feel obligated to respond immediately to posted information. Therefore, social media both enabled participation but also exerted a new form of social power by disciplining activists through demands of constant online visibility and responsiveness.
The expressive turn of political participation in the digital ageJakob Svensson
This document discusses how citizenship and political participation are changing in the digital age. It argues that theories of instrumental and communicative rationality are insufficient to understand political engagement today. Instead, it proposes that "expressive rationality" better captures how people use social media and online platforms to develop identities, socialize, and engage in cultural production - activities which can constitute new forms of citizenship practices and political participation outside of traditional representative democratic institutions. The rise of individualism and identity politics in late modern society emphasizes expressive and cultural dimensions of online activities that transcend traditional understandings of rational political behavior.
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Scienceresearchinventy
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Science is published by the group of young academic and industrial researchers with 12 Issues per year. It is an online as well as print version open access journal that provides rapid publication (monthly) of articles in all areas of the subject such as: civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic and computer engineering as well as production and information technology. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published by rapid process within 20 days after acceptance and peer review process takes only 7 days. All articles published in Research Inventy will be peer-reviewed.
The document discusses how the internet may impact social capital. It presents three perspectives: that the internet increases social capital by enabling new forms of interaction and community; decreases social capital by competing for time and reducing offline social interaction; or supplements social capital by providing an additional means of communication without major effects on offline social life. The document then analyzes data from a 1998 survey of National Geographic website visitors to evaluate these perspectives.
It is a far way from porto alegre to helisngborg 1Jakob Svensson
This document provides an abstract and introduction to a case study examining civic committees established in Helsingborg, Sweden to increase civic engagement through deliberative democracy. The committees aimed to facilitate conversations between citizens, politicians, and officials to address declining participation in traditional representative democracy. However, implementing deliberative democracy within municipal representative institutions presented challenges. Late modern cultural shifts like individualization and fragmentation have contributed to declining civic participation. Deliberative democracy theory posits citizens are motivated by communication rather than just self-interest, and could revitalize engagement if incorporated into existing political structures.
This document discusses different perspectives on how communities have changed with urbanization and the rise of modern society. It summarizes key theorists' views on the transition from gemeinshaft to gesellschaft communities and the impact on personal relationships. The document also reviews empirical studies that tested whether communities have been "lost", "saved", or "liberated" in modern times. These studies found that while large-scale social changes have impacted communities, people still maintain important relationships through spatially dispersed but interconnected social networks, rather than through single solidary communities. The impact of the internet on communities is also examined, with research finding that it supplements rather than replaces offline contact and ties.
This document summarizes Peter Dahlgren's presentation on the contingencies of political participation via social media. Some key points:
1) Dahlgren argues that political participation through social media is shaped by various contingencies including political economy, technology, and socio-cultural patterns. These factors both enable and constrain online participation.
2) He examines how the commercial logic and data collection practices of major tech companies like Google and Facebook can undermine democracy by collecting personal information without transparency and sluicing users towards certain sites.
3) Socio-cultural currents online often promote individualized consumerism and entertainment over political engagement, which can subvert alternative politics and civic participation. Navigating these
Social media is increasingly being used as a political voice around the world. It allows more freedom of expression and makes it easier for like-minded individuals to organize collectively. Studies show that social media users, especially younger ones, frequently engage in civic activities like commenting on issues, following candidates, and joining political groups online. While social media gives more people a platform to voice opinions, some argue it mainly benefits those already influential online and there are doubts about how accurately it represents those without internet access. Overall, social media seems to be enhancing political participation for many, though governments can also attempt to monitor or control online political networks.
Social Media and the Disciplining of VisibilityJakob Svensson
This document summarizes a research paper about how social media usage relates to power dynamics and participation among activists in Stockholm, Sweden. The researcher conducted ethnographic and online observations of activists fighting to save a local public bathhouse. While social media made it easier to spread information and mobilize support, it also disciplined activists by pushing them to constantly update their online presence and participate in both online and offline events. The constant connectivity inherent in social media led activists to feel obligated to respond immediately to posted information. Therefore, social media both enabled participation but also exerted a new form of social power by disciplining activists through demands of constant online visibility and responsiveness.
The expressive turn of political participation in the digital ageJakob Svensson
This document discusses how citizenship and political participation are changing in the digital age. It argues that theories of instrumental and communicative rationality are insufficient to understand political engagement today. Instead, it proposes that "expressive rationality" better captures how people use social media and online platforms to develop identities, socialize, and engage in cultural production - activities which can constitute new forms of citizenship practices and political participation outside of traditional representative democratic institutions. The rise of individualism and identity politics in late modern society emphasizes expressive and cultural dimensions of online activities that transcend traditional understandings of rational political behavior.
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Scienceresearchinventy
Research Inventy : International Journal of Engineering and Science is published by the group of young academic and industrial researchers with 12 Issues per year. It is an online as well as print version open access journal that provides rapid publication (monthly) of articles in all areas of the subject such as: civil, mechanical, chemical, electronic and computer engineering as well as production and information technology. The Journal welcomes the submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence. Papers will be published by rapid process within 20 days after acceptance and peer review process takes only 7 days. All articles published in Research Inventy will be peer-reviewed.
The document discusses how the internet may impact social capital. It presents three perspectives: that the internet increases social capital by enabling new forms of interaction and community; decreases social capital by competing for time and reducing offline social interaction; or supplements social capital by providing an additional means of communication without major effects on offline social life. The document then analyzes data from a 1998 survey of National Geographic website visitors to evaluate these perspectives.
It is a far way from porto alegre to helisngborg 1Jakob Svensson
This document provides an abstract and introduction to a case study examining civic committees established in Helsingborg, Sweden to increase civic engagement through deliberative democracy. The committees aimed to facilitate conversations between citizens, politicians, and officials to address declining participation in traditional representative democracy. However, implementing deliberative democracy within municipal representative institutions presented challenges. Late modern cultural shifts like individualization and fragmentation have contributed to declining civic participation. Deliberative democracy theory posits citizens are motivated by communication rather than just self-interest, and could revitalize engagement if incorporated into existing political structures.
This document discusses different perspectives on how communities have changed with urbanization and the rise of modern society. It summarizes key theorists' views on the transition from gemeinshaft to gesellschaft communities and the impact on personal relationships. The document also reviews empirical studies that tested whether communities have been "lost", "saved", or "liberated" in modern times. These studies found that while large-scale social changes have impacted communities, people still maintain important relationships through spatially dispersed but interconnected social networks, rather than through single solidary communities. The impact of the internet on communities is also examined, with research finding that it supplements rather than replaces offline contact and ties.
This document summarizes Peter Dahlgren's presentation on the contingencies of political participation via social media. Some key points:
1) Dahlgren argues that political participation through social media is shaped by various contingencies including political economy, technology, and socio-cultural patterns. These factors both enable and constrain online participation.
2) He examines how the commercial logic and data collection practices of major tech companies like Google and Facebook can undermine democracy by collecting personal information without transparency and sluicing users towards certain sites.
3) Socio-cultural currents online often promote individualized consumerism and entertainment over political engagement, which can subvert alternative politics and civic participation. Navigating these
Social media is increasingly being used as a political voice around the world. It allows more freedom of expression and makes it easier for like-minded individuals to organize collectively. Studies show that social media users, especially younger ones, frequently engage in civic activities like commenting on issues, following candidates, and joining political groups online. While social media gives more people a platform to voice opinions, some argue it mainly benefits those already influential online and there are doubts about how accurately it represents those without internet access. Overall, social media seems to be enhancing political participation for many, though governments can also attempt to monitor or control online political networks.
The document discusses how the Internet has impacted citizens' relationship to the public sphere. While some argue the Internet could provide new democratic possibilities by circumventing traditional media, others are more pessimistic. The Internet reflects existing social inequalities like the "digital divide" between those who do and do not have access. Additionally, concepts like democracy and public sphere may not apply to the postmodern nature of online interactions. Recent studies also suggest the Internet has a limited role in promoting citizenship. In conclusion, the Internet has not significantly changed how citizens relate to the public sphere despite new communication abilities.
Impact of social media of electoral process adeoye oludotunDotun Adeoye
This document discusses the impact of social media on electoral processes. It begins by introducing democracy and elections as processes by which leaders are chosen. Social media is described as enabling the free flow of information that can impact views. The problem addressed is determining if social media impacts elections, and if so, whether positively or negatively. The significance is that the study could enlighten stakeholders on how social media can influence voter behavior and be utilized for campaigning. The scope is examining social media's impact through case studies of past elections in major countries.
Impact of social media of electoral process adeoye oludotunDotun Adeoye
This document discusses the impact of social media on electoral processes. It begins by introducing democracy and elections, noting that elections involve citizens choosing representatives. It then discusses social media and how information spreads rapidly online. The document analyzes several ways social media impacts elections, such as facilitating fundraising, unpaid advertising, feedback/contact with voters, information dissemination, and influencing poll ratings/predictions. It aims to determine if and how social media impacts electoral processes and voter behavior.
This document provides a critical review of a paper by van Bortel and Mullins (2009) that analyzed the shift from vertical to horizontal network governance in urban regeneration projects. The review discusses how previous regeneration initiatives were top-down but have increasingly involved local councils, private sectors, and communities. While network governance has benefits like increased community consultation, it also has drawbacks such as potential power imbalances between actors. The review examines different perspectives on the influence and effectiveness of network versus hierarchical governance approaches.
This document discusses the concept of participatory media culture and how it has emerged with new technologies like social networks and user-generated content online. It explores how people are active participants in media through activities like sharing photos, videos, reviewing music, and interacting in online communities and games. Rather than being passive consumers, people are both consuming and producing media. This blurs the lines between audiences and media creators.
Participation, Remediation And Bricolage1Marta Conejo
Deuze analyzes digital culture as emerging values and practices influenced by computerization and an increasingly individualized global society. He identifies three principal components of digital culture: participation through open publishing and collaborative production; remediation as both distantiation from mainstream media and as a social act; and bricolage as reselecting and rearranging online elements to create culture through social systems. Deuze sees cultures existing alongside each other with overlapping values that have different meanings across media, and that there is no single digital culture as it is constantly evolving through human participation.
Media access and exposure as determinants of the political Alexander Decker
This document summarizes a study that examined the relationship between media access and exposure on the political knowledge of undergraduates in Southwestern Nigeria. The study found that exposure to electronic media like television predicted higher political knowledge among respondents compared to print media. Most respondents preferred television as their main source of political information. The study recommended that governments and media organizations collaborate to increase youth access to print media and ensure broadcast media adhere to professional standards.
Optimizing interconnectivity inhabiting virtual cities of common practiceJonathan Buffa
This document discusses the design of online social environments and virtual communities. It argues that online spaces should be designed as social technologies that facilitate human interaction, rather than just as tools for sharing information. The author proposes using the city as a metaphor to think about designing virtual spaces, and discusses how identity formation works differently online compared to in-person due to the lack of physical cues. The document outlines the author's thesis, which develops approaches for creating online spaces that better support social interaction and the communication of identity through visualization tools and information architectures.
This document discusses the history and concepts of e-democracy. It begins by defining representative democracy and examining early efforts to use technology like cable TV to enhance civic participation. It then reviews theories of democracy from philosophers like Rousseau and examines issues like voter apathy, special interests, and accountability. Recent thinkers on deliberative democracy are discussed as well as Robert Putnam's work on social capital. Examples of early online communities like The WELL are provided along with constraints on citizen participation. Research on the internet's impact on elections is summarized.
We make the Future - Communications CampMaija Viherä
The document describes Communication Camps, which are week-long camps that aim to inspire future orientation through hands-on media production and interaction. Key aspects include:
- Camps have been held since 1987 and involve participants producing a daily newspaper, video, radio program, and staffing an information desk through rotating roles.
- They aim to teach communication skills and meet basic human needs of organization, belonging, and having a meaningful role through the collaborative media production and community experience.
- Technology is used to enhance interaction and self-expression, with the goal of preparing participants for an envisioned future "Interaction Society" with widespread communication abilities.
The document discusses key concepts in digital culture including participation, remediation, and bricolage. It outlines paradigm shifts from print to online media, including moving from a linear, hierarchical structure to multivocal networks. Digital culture involves the values and practices users create online and offline. The document also discusses Jean Baudrillard's three types of simulacra and how culture is now focused on recombining past media forms. Participation involves users becoming active in meaning making. Remediation describes the constant remixing of older and newer media forms. Bricolage legitimizes borrowing and hybridity to create new meanings.
Principal components of digital culture include participation, remediation, and bricolage. Participation refers to how people actively engage in meaning-making online through activities like blogging, social media use, and contributing to wikis. Remediation is the process of adopting and modifying existing forms of media when engaging online. Bricolage refers to how people assemble their own understandings of reality by combining different elements they find online, such as through remixing. Some examples provided include how journalism has been remediated through blogs and how people engage in bricolage through activities like using software development kits and contributing to wikis.
This document discusses conducting online ethnography to study how Brazilian migrants use social networking sites to maintain connections across borders. It argues that online interactions are an important part of many migrants' experiences that interconnect with their offline lives. To better understand how migration has changed in the digital age, researchers should incorporate both online and offline fieldwork to examine how digital connectivity impacts the migrant experience. The document uses the example of Brazilian migrants' use of the social media site Orkut to argue that online spaces are important new fieldsites for migration researchers.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
Fishkin proposes deliberative democracy as a solution to include the general public in politics and policy formation in a thoughtful way. He argues that current methods manipulate public opinion for special interests rather than representing the public's considered views. Fishkin's concept of "deliberative polls" uses random selection and moderated discussions to shift participants' views toward more informed, refined opinions. Experiments in various countries found that deliberative polls helped address difficult public issues. However, questions remain about feasibility in societies with strong conflicts or partisanship.
Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a ...tongtong1985
This document discusses the key components of digital culture: participation, remediation, and bricolage. Participation refers to how digital technologies enable individuals to communicate and share content online through activities like online journalism and open publishing. Remediation involves the remix of old and new media as new forms adopt and modify existing media. Bricolage is the highly personalized, continuous assembly and disassembly of digital objects and artifacts using available materials.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online
This paper analyzes the political participation of activists in southern Stockholm who were engaged in efforts to save a local bathhouse. The activists formed a network and used social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to coordinate their activities. The paper finds that these new media practices both made participation easier and seemed to encourage constant updates and self-disclosure, disciplining activists to stay connected and engaged in the network's actions. While some argue new media empower citizens, this paper takes a more critical view, arguing that network logic imposes behavioral patterns that can exert a new form of non-transparent power over participants.
The document discusses individual action and responsibility in promoting sustainable development. It addresses both functional and theoretical reasons for focusing on individual behaviors, such as consumption and travel, as major drivers of unsustainability. The document also presents two policy approaches - a carbon tax and a personal carbon trading scheme - to incentivize sustainable behaviors and reduce emissions at the individual level. Key questions are raised about the practicality and social impacts of these policies.
This document provides an overview and introduction to a university module on sustainability. It discusses:
1. The module's focus on individual action and responsibility for sustainability from both functional and theoretical perspectives.
2. The teaching approach, which includes small lectures, issue readings, focus groups, and a field study visit.
3. The assessed work, a reflective journal, where students will document their reflections on readings, actions, and tensions around constructing an environmental identity.
This document provides an overview of an upcoming session on waste management. The session will include an introduction to waste, especially food waste, a short lecture on the topic, and focus groups incorporating a short reading. While reducing litter and properly sorting waste at home have become social norms, questions remain about managing other types of waste like food and waste produced away from home. The session aims to discuss structuring a sustainable approach to waste into people's lives and identities across different spheres.
The document discusses how the Internet has impacted citizens' relationship to the public sphere. While some argue the Internet could provide new democratic possibilities by circumventing traditional media, others are more pessimistic. The Internet reflects existing social inequalities like the "digital divide" between those who do and do not have access. Additionally, concepts like democracy and public sphere may not apply to the postmodern nature of online interactions. Recent studies also suggest the Internet has a limited role in promoting citizenship. In conclusion, the Internet has not significantly changed how citizens relate to the public sphere despite new communication abilities.
Impact of social media of electoral process adeoye oludotunDotun Adeoye
This document discusses the impact of social media on electoral processes. It begins by introducing democracy and elections as processes by which leaders are chosen. Social media is described as enabling the free flow of information that can impact views. The problem addressed is determining if social media impacts elections, and if so, whether positively or negatively. The significance is that the study could enlighten stakeholders on how social media can influence voter behavior and be utilized for campaigning. The scope is examining social media's impact through case studies of past elections in major countries.
Impact of social media of electoral process adeoye oludotunDotun Adeoye
This document discusses the impact of social media on electoral processes. It begins by introducing democracy and elections, noting that elections involve citizens choosing representatives. It then discusses social media and how information spreads rapidly online. The document analyzes several ways social media impacts elections, such as facilitating fundraising, unpaid advertising, feedback/contact with voters, information dissemination, and influencing poll ratings/predictions. It aims to determine if and how social media impacts electoral processes and voter behavior.
This document provides a critical review of a paper by van Bortel and Mullins (2009) that analyzed the shift from vertical to horizontal network governance in urban regeneration projects. The review discusses how previous regeneration initiatives were top-down but have increasingly involved local councils, private sectors, and communities. While network governance has benefits like increased community consultation, it also has drawbacks such as potential power imbalances between actors. The review examines different perspectives on the influence and effectiveness of network versus hierarchical governance approaches.
This document discusses the concept of participatory media culture and how it has emerged with new technologies like social networks and user-generated content online. It explores how people are active participants in media through activities like sharing photos, videos, reviewing music, and interacting in online communities and games. Rather than being passive consumers, people are both consuming and producing media. This blurs the lines between audiences and media creators.
Participation, Remediation And Bricolage1Marta Conejo
Deuze analyzes digital culture as emerging values and practices influenced by computerization and an increasingly individualized global society. He identifies three principal components of digital culture: participation through open publishing and collaborative production; remediation as both distantiation from mainstream media and as a social act; and bricolage as reselecting and rearranging online elements to create culture through social systems. Deuze sees cultures existing alongside each other with overlapping values that have different meanings across media, and that there is no single digital culture as it is constantly evolving through human participation.
Media access and exposure as determinants of the political Alexander Decker
This document summarizes a study that examined the relationship between media access and exposure on the political knowledge of undergraduates in Southwestern Nigeria. The study found that exposure to electronic media like television predicted higher political knowledge among respondents compared to print media. Most respondents preferred television as their main source of political information. The study recommended that governments and media organizations collaborate to increase youth access to print media and ensure broadcast media adhere to professional standards.
Optimizing interconnectivity inhabiting virtual cities of common practiceJonathan Buffa
This document discusses the design of online social environments and virtual communities. It argues that online spaces should be designed as social technologies that facilitate human interaction, rather than just as tools for sharing information. The author proposes using the city as a metaphor to think about designing virtual spaces, and discusses how identity formation works differently online compared to in-person due to the lack of physical cues. The document outlines the author's thesis, which develops approaches for creating online spaces that better support social interaction and the communication of identity through visualization tools and information architectures.
This document discusses the history and concepts of e-democracy. It begins by defining representative democracy and examining early efforts to use technology like cable TV to enhance civic participation. It then reviews theories of democracy from philosophers like Rousseau and examines issues like voter apathy, special interests, and accountability. Recent thinkers on deliberative democracy are discussed as well as Robert Putnam's work on social capital. Examples of early online communities like The WELL are provided along with constraints on citizen participation. Research on the internet's impact on elections is summarized.
We make the Future - Communications CampMaija Viherä
The document describes Communication Camps, which are week-long camps that aim to inspire future orientation through hands-on media production and interaction. Key aspects include:
- Camps have been held since 1987 and involve participants producing a daily newspaper, video, radio program, and staffing an information desk through rotating roles.
- They aim to teach communication skills and meet basic human needs of organization, belonging, and having a meaningful role through the collaborative media production and community experience.
- Technology is used to enhance interaction and self-expression, with the goal of preparing participants for an envisioned future "Interaction Society" with widespread communication abilities.
The document discusses key concepts in digital culture including participation, remediation, and bricolage. It outlines paradigm shifts from print to online media, including moving from a linear, hierarchical structure to multivocal networks. Digital culture involves the values and practices users create online and offline. The document also discusses Jean Baudrillard's three types of simulacra and how culture is now focused on recombining past media forms. Participation involves users becoming active in meaning making. Remediation describes the constant remixing of older and newer media forms. Bricolage legitimizes borrowing and hybridity to create new meanings.
Principal components of digital culture include participation, remediation, and bricolage. Participation refers to how people actively engage in meaning-making online through activities like blogging, social media use, and contributing to wikis. Remediation is the process of adopting and modifying existing forms of media when engaging online. Bricolage refers to how people assemble their own understandings of reality by combining different elements they find online, such as through remixing. Some examples provided include how journalism has been remediated through blogs and how people engage in bricolage through activities like using software development kits and contributing to wikis.
This document discusses conducting online ethnography to study how Brazilian migrants use social networking sites to maintain connections across borders. It argues that online interactions are an important part of many migrants' experiences that interconnect with their offline lives. To better understand how migration has changed in the digital age, researchers should incorporate both online and offline fieldwork to examine how digital connectivity impacts the migrant experience. The document uses the example of Brazilian migrants' use of the social media site Orkut to argue that online spaces are important new fieldsites for migration researchers.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online.
Fishkin proposes deliberative democracy as a solution to include the general public in politics and policy formation in a thoughtful way. He argues that current methods manipulate public opinion for special interests rather than representing the public's considered views. Fishkin's concept of "deliberative polls" uses random selection and moderated discussions to shift participants' views toward more informed, refined opinions. Experiments in various countries found that deliberative polls helped address difficult public issues. However, questions remain about feasibility in societies with strong conflicts or partisanship.
Participation, Remediation, Bricolage: Considering Principal Components of a ...tongtong1985
This document discusses the key components of digital culture: participation, remediation, and bricolage. Participation refers to how digital technologies enable individuals to communicate and share content online through activities like online journalism and open publishing. Remediation involves the remix of old and new media as new forms adopt and modify existing media. Bricolage is the highly personalized, continuous assembly and disassembly of digital objects and artifacts using available materials.
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI)inventionjournals
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention (IJHSSI) is an international journal intended for professionals and researchers in all fields of Humanities and Social Science. IJHSSI publishes research articles and reviews within the whole field Humanities and Social Science, new teaching methods, assessment, validation and the impact of new technologies and it will continue to provide information on the latest trends and developments in this ever-expanding subject. The publications of papers are selected through double peer reviewed to ensure originality, relevance, and readability. The articles published in our journal can be accessed online
This paper analyzes the political participation of activists in southern Stockholm who were engaged in efforts to save a local bathhouse. The activists formed a network and used social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to coordinate their activities. The paper finds that these new media practices both made participation easier and seemed to encourage constant updates and self-disclosure, disciplining activists to stay connected and engaged in the network's actions. While some argue new media empower citizens, this paper takes a more critical view, arguing that network logic imposes behavioral patterns that can exert a new form of non-transparent power over participants.
The document discusses individual action and responsibility in promoting sustainable development. It addresses both functional and theoretical reasons for focusing on individual behaviors, such as consumption and travel, as major drivers of unsustainability. The document also presents two policy approaches - a carbon tax and a personal carbon trading scheme - to incentivize sustainable behaviors and reduce emissions at the individual level. Key questions are raised about the practicality and social impacts of these policies.
This document provides an overview and introduction to a university module on sustainability. It discusses:
1. The module's focus on individual action and responsibility for sustainability from both functional and theoretical perspectives.
2. The teaching approach, which includes small lectures, issue readings, focus groups, and a field study visit.
3. The assessed work, a reflective journal, where students will document their reflections on readings, actions, and tensions around constructing an environmental identity.
This document provides an overview of an upcoming session on waste management. The session will include an introduction to waste, especially food waste, a short lecture on the topic, and focus groups incorporating a short reading. While reducing litter and properly sorting waste at home have become social norms, questions remain about managing other types of waste like food and waste produced away from home. The session aims to discuss structuring a sustainable approach to waste into people's lives and identities across different spheres.
This document provides an overview of a session on climate change and trust in information from the mass media. It discusses how the mass media plays a key role in representing environmental issues like climate change but is not a neutral source. Coverage of climate change tends to focus on certain types of stories and sources following organizational routines and news values that can lead to confusing or disempowering messages. However, people actively negotiate the information they receive and it is important not to see the public as having deficits when it comes to understanding issues. The session will include a video and focus groups discussing newspaper clippings on climate change coverage.
The document outlines Dr. Jon Anderson's lecture on green identities and the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales. CAT was founded in 1973 as an eco-friendly community and "test bed" for sustainable technologies. It provides inspiration for green living but can also feel alienating. Staff interviews revealed tensions between fully embracing CAT's lifestyle versus maintaining outside pleasures like vacations. The CAT aims to demonstrate simplicity and minimal environmental impact but struggles to balance ideals with reaching broader audiences.
The document outlines Dr. Jon Anderson's lecture on green identities and the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) in Wales. CAT was founded in 1973 as an eco-friendly community and "test bed" for sustainable technologies. It provides inspiration for green living but can also feel alienating. Staff interviews revealed tensions between fully embracing CAT's lifestyle or making compromises like flying on vacation. The document examines how places like CAT shape environmental identities and alternatives to mainstream society.
This module focuses on encouraging individual behavior change to promote sustainable development through qualitative research methods. Students will use a carbon footprint tracker and participate in focus groups to reflect on their environmental behaviors and attitudes. They will then produce a reflective journal no more than 3,000 words with six 500-word entries reflecting on their experiences, thoughts, attitudes, and feelings on sustainability issues over the course of the semester. The goal is to generate data for analysis by future students while allowing students to privately reflect on their understanding and responses to these issues through introspection.
The expressive turn of citizenship in digital late modernityJakob Svensson
This document discusses citizenship and political participation in digital late modernity. It argues that expressive rationality, where people engage in politics through cultural production, identity management, and information sharing, is increasingly important. With individualization and fragmented cultural frameworks in late modern society, traditional representative democracy is facing challenges, as seen in low voter turnout. However, new online spaces allow for new forms of political participation outside of formal politics, through activities like joining groups, signing petitions, and voicing opinions. These arenas reflect how political engagement has become part of individual identity projects in late modernity.
Theorizing Citizenship in Late Modern ICT SocietiesJakob Svensson
This document discusses theorizing citizenship in late modern information and communication technology (ICT) societies. It proposes understanding citizenship as participation and action upon shared meanings regarding societal organization. Citizenship is enacted in political communities that address societal organization and construct values and norms. The paper aims to define citizenship in networked and individualized societies by avoiding deterministic views of technology or society, and recognizing their mutual reinforcement. It explores how digital technologies and late modern societal changes interact and challenge conceptions of political participation and citizenship.
Power and Participation in Digital Late Modernity: Towards a Network LogicJakob Svensson
This document discusses how digital technologies and new media are shaping political participation through the emergence of a "network logic". It argues that users are increasingly disciplined by digital media to be constantly updated and responsive on social networks in order to maintain their online identities and connections. As a result, political participation is becoming more expressive and focused on negotiating individual identities through online networks and links to others, rather than substantive policy debates. The network logic emphasizes reflexivity, connectivity, and identity performance over traditional forms of participation.
The document discusses rationales for political participation and citizenship in digital late modern society. It describes key characteristics of digital late modernity including dispersion of cultural frameworks, individualization, and a networked and digital environment. It then examines three types of rationality for participation: instrumental rationality which sees it as a means to an end; communicative rationality which aims for enlightenment through discussion; and expressive rationality where participation allows for expression and maintenance of identities. Expressive rationality may best explain both disinterest in traditional politics and new forms of civic engagement online.
Social and political impact of virtual communitiesMiia Kosonen
The document summarizes a case study of Vaikuttamo, Finland's first virtual community for local youth participation. Vaikuttamo was developed to encourage civic engagement among 13-20 year olds and increase voting rates. It provides discussion forums, learning materials, and tools for students to voice opinions on local issues. The community saw success due to its local focus, trustful relationships with schools, and active moderation. It serves as an example of how virtual spaces can strengthen e-democracy and youth involvement in local decision making.
Citizen speak out: public e-Engagement experience of Slovakia Anton Shynkaruk
The document discusses network society theory and its application to e-participation in Slovakia. It analyzes Slovakia's conditions for e-engagement, including social media use and key government e-participation projects. Network analysis methods are presented for evaluating the connectivity and centrality of Slovak regional and municipal portals. While Slovakia has developed electronic government services, most sites lack interactivity and citizen orientation.
This document describes a research project called CyberAnthropology that aims to analyze how the internet impacts human beings and societies from an interdisciplinary perspective. The project brings together anthropological, philosophical, sociological, political and legal questions to understand how humans understand themselves and structure their lives in virtual environments. Previous research has either taken an abstract media philosophy approach or focused on empirical user behavior studies, without developing a broader theoretical framework. The project seeks to fill this gap by developing a systematic theory of CyberAnthropology to examine changes in people's lifeworlds and new forms of participation online from multiple disciplinary lenses.
The article analyzes Slovakia's experience with e-engagement of citizens at different levels of government. It finds that while e-government services have grown, engagement of citizens remains relatively low compared to other EU countries. The central e-government portal, Obcan.sk, aims to be a one-stop shop for citizens but still has room for improvement in areas like accessibility and usability. The article also examines social media use by political parties and governments in Slovakia, finding that local governments have adopted social media more than national levels of government. Overall, Slovakia shows progress in e-government but still faces challenges in fully engaging citizens online.
Approximately 1000 words.Synthesizing the theories (you do not.docxYASHU40
Approximately 1000 words.
Synthesizing the theories (you do not need to draw from ALL the theories/readings), use at least three readings to develop your own view that describes and understands the relationship between technology and society. In developing your view, take the most important and persuasive parts of the existing theories and explain them. In the end, be sure to clearly articulate and define the relationship between technology and society: which has more power or control? How do they relate to one another?
Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916
O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E
The Social Life of Wireless Urban Spaces:
Internet Use, Social Networks, and the Public
Realm
Keith N. Hampton, Oren Livio, & Lauren Sessions Goulet
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
This study explores the role of urban public spaces for democratic and social engagement.
It examines the impact of wireless Internet use on urban public spaces, Internet users, and
others who inhabit these spaces. Through observations of 7 parks, plazas, and markets in 4
North American cities, and surveys of wireless Internet users in those sites, we explore how
this new technology is related to processes of social interaction, privatism, and democratic
engagement. Findings reveal that Internet use within public spaces affords interactions with
existing acquaintances that are more diverse than those associated with mobile phone use.
However, the level of colocated social diversity to which Internet users are exposed is less
than that of most users of these spaces. Yet, online activities in public spaces do contribute
to broader participation in the public sphere. Internet connectivity within public spaces
may contribute to higher overall levels of democratic and social engagement than what is
afforded by exposure within similar spaces free of Internet connectivity.
doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01510.x
Internet access in public parks, plazas, markets, and streets has been made possible
through the proliferation of broadband wireless Internet in the form of municipal
and community wi-fi (e.g., NYC Wireless) and advanced mobile phone networks
(e.g., 3G). The experience of wireless Internet use in the public realm contrasts with
traditional wired Internet use, which is confined primarily to the private realm of the
home and the parochial realm of the workplace. An extensive literature has addressed
the influence of Internet use on the composition of people’s social networks
(Hampton, Sessions, & Her, in press), their engagement in political, voluntary, and
other organizational activities (Boulianne, 2009), and their interactions within home
and workplaces (Bakardjieva, 2005; Quan-Haase & Wellman, 2006). But, Internet
use in the public realm has remained relatively unexplored. This type of use carries
with it significant implications for urban planning, the structure of community, and
the nature of democracy.
Inte.
An Essay On Social Implications Of The Internet And Social MediaMartha Brown
The Internet began as a project of the U.S. Department of Defense but was commercialized in the 1990s, spreading rapidly worldwide. While some argue it increases isolation, research finds that the Internet and social media increase sociability by allowing constant global communication and forming online communities. The network society is now based on personal networks powered by digital connections. Though online relationships differ from in-person, studies show that Internet and social media users actually have more social interactions and capital offline. While online communication raises issues when translating to real-life, overall the Internet seems to supplement and extend social contact rather than replace intimacy.
Digital social networks and influencers: the crucible of the decay of ethical...AJHSSR Journal
ABSTRACT: The advent of digital social networks has considerably contributed to the emergence of new social
actors: “influencers”. The latter develop and fuel, in fact, a virtual sociability, which considerably ruins the classic
ethico-legal values, which govern and regulate human relations with respect to the dignity and fundamental rights
of a human being. However, from the moment when this digitized and planetary form of communication of
consciences imposes itself on contemporary societies as one of the benefits of globalized technoscientific
sophistication, it seems imperative to support its integration with an ethical and pedagogy. A jurisdiction that is
proportionate, cautious and capable of effectively countering the slippages of the actors concerned.
KEYWORDS: Communication consciences, Digital social networks, Ethical-legal pedagogy, Influencers,
Virtual sociability,
1 Paper Presented Fer Cenmep Conferece Politician Online Analyses Of Estoia...Pedro Craggett
This paper examines how Estonian political candidates used their websites during the 2009 European Parliament election campaign. The study analyzes the effectiveness of candidates' website presentations and their use of multimedia, interactivity, and personalization. The analyses found that while candidates had blogs and social media profiles, they mostly used these for marketing rather than deliberative politics or civic engagement. Candidates provided little personal input or interactivity on their websites. In general, Estonian political websites did not offer many opportunities for public participation in debates or discussions.
This document provides an overview of a study using an (n)ethnographic method to examine political participation on social media. It discusses three studies: 1) a case study of a politician, Nina Larsson, using social media for her campaign; 2) studying activists' use of social media; and 3) examining popular cultural participation on forums. The method involves both traditional ethnography (observation, interviews) and netnography of online spaces. Two problems are discussed: 1) issues analyzing Nina as a case study since she is an outlier in her social media use; and 2) ethical considerations around studying non-public online communities.
1. The document examines media representations of social networks in two Spanish newspapers.
2. It analyzes journalistic articles to understand how social networks are portrayed and discusses the differences between social networks as part of Web 2.0 versus traditional media as part of Web 1.0.
3. The analysis finds that the newspapers' coverage focuses on certain issues related to social networks, relies primarily on specific sources, and portrays social network users in consistent roles.
E-politics from the citizens’ perspective. The role of social networking tool...Przegląd Politologiczny
The progress of civilization, supported by the development of new technologies, has led
to a series of social, economic and political changes. The information society, in its expectations and
through access to knowledge, has significantly affected a change in the model of democracy, causing
a kind of return to the original forms of communication in citizen-government relations. This has been
accompanied by a shift of social and civic activism from the real to the virtual world. In literature,
the use of information and communication technologies in the democratic system is named electronic
democracy. One of its forms is e-politics, which is implemented at several levels: institutional, system
and civil. A good example of the last type are the new social movements that in recent years have had
a significant impact on politics.
The basic research problem in this paper concerns e-politics from the citizens’ perspective, through
the activities of the new social movements, especially of a political nature. The main research goal
is therefore to present the role of social networking tools in influencing citizens and their subsequent
activities that have triggered changes in the political system. The methods used in the paper are case
study and comparative analysis.
The document analyzes the 2010 student occupation at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. It argues that student occupations form around resistant discourses and diffuse values through new media across borders in a translocal manner. The SOAS occupation utilized mobile phones, email, social media and other tools to organize activities and communicate both within the occupation and with other student groups. The use of new communication technologies helped create an open, fluid political space that challenged traditional power structures.
Similar to Becomming Engagable, Power and Participation among Activists in Southern Stockholmr (20)
The meeting summarized the following key points:
1) Students and faculty agreed program meetings should be held twice yearly, with students able to influence the agenda.
2) Issues raised by students included a lack of communication, concerns about course content and structure, and a desire for an introduction week.
3) The program director agreed with students on several proposed changes, such as ensuring two teachers per course and offering more electives and research opportunities.
4) Actions were identified to address the issues, including circulating meeting minutes and reporting back on progress at the next meeting.
What Kind of Cultural Citizenship? Dissent and Antagonism when Discussing Pol...Jakob Svensson
Framed in ideas of cultural citizenship and acknowledging the importance of popular cultural sites for political participation, this short paper attends to a study of political discussions in the Swedish LGTB community Qruiser. The research is netnographic through online interviews, participant observations and content analyses. Preliminary results suggest an atmosphere that is geared rather towards conflict and dissent between participants than towards deliberation, opinion formation and consensus. This paper will therefore shortly discuss the results in light of Mouffe's (2005) normative lens of agonism and radical democracy.
The document summarizes research on mobile communication for development (M4D) conducted by Dr. Jakob Svensson and Dr. Caroline Wamala at Karlstad University. It notes that mobile phone adoption has grown rapidly, especially in developing regions which now dominate global mobile phone use. The university has helped establish M4D as an academic field by organizing the first three international conferences on the topic. The document then outlines some areas of M4D research including mHealth, mMoney, mLivelyhood, and mLearning. It also discusses issues of mobile phone use and gender equality as well as strategies to address the gender digital divide.
This book focuses on the attempt to introduce biometric identity cards in the UK from 2004 to 2008. It provides an in-depth study of the UK case and the challenges of implementing a new identity system. The book also attempts to map identity policy challenges globally by reviewing policies in other countries. While focused on the UK, the book aims to establish broader themes in identity policies worldwide and examines the complex relationship between policymaking and borderless technology. It highlights the difficulties of enforcing technology policies and the challenge of addressing multiple identity policy purposes with a single policy.
Power and Participation in Digital Late Modernity - Towards a Network LogicJakob Svensson
Power exists within networks rather than in hierarchies as new media was originally thought to flatten governance structures. Social networking sites encourage continuous self-presentation and connecting with peers as a form of discipline. They also act as looking glasses for individuals to see themselves and import their life stories through sharing opinions and sympathies, reflecting late modern demands on individuals to supply their own biographies. This reflects a shift towards network logic and life politics in digital late modernity.
Power exists within networks rather than in hierarchies as new media was originally thought to flatten governance structures. Social networking sites encourage continuous self-presentation and connecting with peers as a form of discipline. They also act as looking glasses for individuals to see themselves through and import their life stories through their own actions, in line with concepts of late modern individualization and life politics.
The document summarizes a lecture about new information and communication technologies (ICT) and their implications for learning. It discusses the rise of new media such as blogs and social networking sites. It describes how new media allows for digitization, interactivity, and personalized content. It also explains how new media is shifting culture from narratives to databases as a way to store and access information. Finally, it outlines opportunities for new types of active and independent learning through interactive simulations that combine different learning modes.
The document discusses how new media technologies may impact power dynamics and participation among activists. While technologies were thought to flatten hierarchies and distribute power more evenly, the study found a shift to less transparent power relations. Through norms of connectedness, activists felt disciplined to constantly update their social media status to remain engaged and informed. Rather than reducing power structures, new opportunities for participation imposed behavioral patterns that disciplined activists to become more "engagable" according to a network logic with its own mechanisms of power and status.
The document summarizes a study on a Swedish politician's blogging practices before the 2010 elections. The study analyzed two blogs maintained by the politician, Nina Larsson, to understand how she used them and for what purposes. The study found that Larsson used the blogs both for instrumental purposes like campaigning as well as communicative purposes to engage with citizens. Additionally, the blogs served to amplify Larsson's image and monitor perceptions of her political self by building a supportive community. The conclusions discuss how politicians must negotiate their public image and political parties also play a role in this negotiation process.
The document summarizes a study on a Swedish politician's blogging practices before the 2010 elections. The study analyzed two blogs maintained by the politician, Nina Larsson, to understand how she used them and for what purposes. The study found that Larsson used the blogs both for instrumental purposes like campaigning as well as communicative purposes to engage with citizens. Additionally, the blogs served to amplify Larsson's image and monitor perceptions of her political self by building a supportive community. The study provides insights into how political actors negotiate their public image and role of political parties in that process.
The document summarizes the discussions and conclusions from the M4D 2010 Conference in Kampala, Uganda. The conference participants called on stakeholders to seize development opportunities from the spread of mobile phones, particularly applications that can help the poor. While mobile phones show potential to positively impact livelihoods, more analysis is needed to understand real impacts. The Makerere Mobile Mission encourages stakeholders to consider how mobile phones can support areas like governance, health, education and more. All parties have responsibilities to realize this potential through research, services, monitoring and support.
HumanIT is a multidisciplinary research center at Karlstad University in Sweden that explores the impact of information technology on society. The center draws on several academic disciplines including computer science, information systems, media studies, and psychology. HumanIT's vision is to increase the value of new information technologies for everyday users. It focuses its research on ICT for development, integrity and surveillance in information societies, and using ICT for emergency management and crisis communication.
This document introduces Indian exchange students from IIT Guwahati and provides information about their college and research interests. It discusses that IIT Guwahati was established in 1994 and has 13 departments for science, engineering, design and humanities. It then introduces 4 students - Ankit Bhatnagar, Durga Prasad, Vinay Kumar and Shamik Ray - and provides details about their research interests, hometowns and current projects.
Habermas, Mouffe and Political ParticipationJakob Svensson
This document discusses the theoretical approaches of Jürgen Habermas and Chantal Mouffe regarding political communication and democracy. While Habermas emphasizes rational consensus as the ideal for public communication, Mouffe criticizes this view and instead promotes an agonistic model that acknowledges inherent conflicts of interest and pluralism. The authors argue that Habermas' and Mouffe's approaches should not be seen as entirely incompatible, but rather offer different modes of critique that can both be useful perspectives for analyzing democratic public communication and revealing its shortcomings.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise stimulates the production of endorphins in the brain which elevate mood and reduce stress levels.
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technologies, XML continues to play a vital role in structuring, storing, and transporting data across diverse systems. The recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) present new methodologies for enhancing XML development workflows, introducing efficiency, automation, and intelligent capabilities. This presentation will outline the scope and perspective of utilizing AI in XML development. The potential benefits and the possible pitfalls will be highlighted, providing a balanced view of the subject.
We will explore the capabilities of AI in understanding XML markup languages and autonomously creating structured XML content. Additionally, we will examine the capacity of AI to enrich plain text with appropriate XML markup. Practical examples and methodological guidelines will be provided to elucidate how AI can be effectively prompted to interpret and generate accurate XML markup.
Further emphasis will be placed on the role of AI in developing XSLT, or schemas such as XSD and Schematron. We will address the techniques and strategies adopted to create prompts for generating code, explaining code, or refactoring the code, and the results achieved.
The discussion will extend to how AI can be used to transform XML content. In particular, the focus will be on the use of AI XPath extension functions in XSLT, Schematron, Schematron Quick Fixes, or for XML content refactoring.
The presentation aims to deliver a comprehensive overview of AI usage in XML development, providing attendees with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Whether you’re at the early stages of adopting AI or considering integrating it in advanced XML development, this presentation will cover all levels of expertise.
By highlighting the potential advantages and challenges of integrating AI with XML development tools and languages, the presentation seeks to inspire thoughtful conversation around the future of XML development. We’ll not only delve into the technical aspects of AI-powered XML development but also discuss practical implications and possible future directions.
Your One-Stop Shop for Python Success: Top 10 US Python Development Providersakankshawande
Simplify your search for a reliable Python development partner! This list presents the top 10 trusted US providers offering comprehensive Python development services, ensuring your project's success from conception to completion.
AI 101: An Introduction to the Basics and Impact of Artificial IntelligenceIndexBug
Imagine a world where machines not only perform tasks but also learn, adapt, and make decisions. This is the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a technology that's not just enhancing our lives but revolutionizing entire industries.
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/building-and-scaling-ai-applications-with-the-nx-ai-manager-a-presentation-from-network-optix/
Robin van Emden, Senior Director of Data Science at Network Optix, presents the “Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
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van Emden shows how Nx can simplify the developer’s life and facilitate a rapid transition from concept to production-ready applications.He provides valuable insights into developing scalable and efficient edge AI solutions, with a strong focus on practical implementation.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 6DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 6. In this session, we will cover Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI webinar offers an in-depth exploration of leveraging cutting-edge technologies for test automation within the UiPath platform. Attendees will delve into the integration of generative AI, a test automation solution, with Open AI advanced natural language processing capabilities.
Throughout the session, participants will discover how this synergy empowers testers to automate repetitive tasks, enhance testing accuracy, and expedite the software testing life cycle. Topics covered include the seamless integration process, practical use cases, and the benefits of harnessing AI-driven automation for UiPath testing initiatives. By attending this webinar, testers, and automation professionals can gain valuable insights into harnessing the power of AI to optimize their test automation workflows within the UiPath ecosystem, ultimately driving efficiency and quality in software development processes.
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into integrating generative AI.
2. Understanding how this integration enhances test automation within the UiPath platform
3. Practical demonstrations
4. Exploration of real-world use cases illustrating the benefits of AI-driven test automation for UiPath
Topics covered:
What is generative AI
Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath integration with generative AI
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Threats to mobile devices are more prevalent and increasing in scope and complexity. Users of mobile devices desire to take full advantage of the features
available on those devices, but many of the features provide convenience and capability but sacrifice security. This best practices guide outlines steps the users can take to better protect personal devices and information.
Unlock the Future of Search with MongoDB Atlas_ Vector Search Unleashed.pdfMalak Abu Hammad
Discover how MongoDB Atlas and vector search technology can revolutionize your application's search capabilities. This comprehensive presentation covers:
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* Importance and benefits of vector search
* Practical use cases across various industries
* Step-by-step implementation guide
* Live demos with code snippets
* Enhancing LLM capabilities with vector search
* Best practices and optimization strategies
Perfect for developers, AI enthusiasts, and tech leaders. Learn how to leverage MongoDB Atlas to deliver highly relevant, context-aware search results, transforming your data retrieval process. Stay ahead in tech innovation and maximize the potential of your applications.
#MongoDB #VectorSearch #AI #SemanticSearch #TechInnovation #DataScience #LLM #MachineLearning #SearchTechnology
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1. How quickly AI is being implemented in manufacturing.
2. Which barriers stand in the way of AI adoption.
3. How data quality and governance form the backbone of AI.
4. Organizational processes and structures that may inhibit effective AI adoption.
6. Ideas and approaches to help build your organization's AI strategy.
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In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
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Presented at the CAiSE 2024 Forum, Intelligent Information Systems, June 6th, Limassol, Cyprus.
Synopsis: Cooperative information systems typically involve various entities in a collaborative process within a distributed environment. Blockchain technology offers a mechanism for automating such processes, even when only partial trust exists among participants. The data stored on the blockchain is replicated across all nodes in the network, ensuring accessibility to all participants. While this aspect facilitates traceability, integrity, and persistence, it poses challenges for adopting public blockchains in enterprise settings due to confidentiality issues. In this paper, we present a software tool named Control Access via Key Encryption (CAKE), designed to ensure data confidentiality in scenarios involving public blockchains. After outlining its core components and functionalities, we showcase the application of CAKE in the context of a real-world cyber-security project within the logistics domain.
Paper: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-61000-4_16
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This talk will focus on how to collect data from a variety of sources, leveraging this data for RAG and other GenAI use cases, and finally charting your course to productionalization.
“An Outlook of the Ongoing and Future Relationship between Blockchain Technologies and Process-aware Information Systems.” Invited talk at the joint workshop on Blockchain for Information Systems (BC4IS) and Blockchain for Trusted Data Sharing (B4TDS), co-located with with the 36th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE), 3 June 2024, Limassol, Cyprus.
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During this demo, the founders of Secludy will demonstrate how their system utilizes Milvus to store and manipulate embeddings for generating privacy-protected synthetic data. Their approach not only maintains the confidentiality of the original data but also enhances the utility and scalability of LLMs under privacy constraints. Attendees, including machine learning engineers, data scientists, and data managers, will witness first-hand how Secludy's integration with Milvus empowers organizations to harness the power of LLMs securely and efficiently.
Generating privacy-protected synthetic data using Secludy and Milvus
Becomming Engagable, Power and Participation among Activists in Southern Stockholmr
1. Paper for the Nordmedia 2011 Conference, University of Akureyri, 11 – 13/ 8, 2011
Becoming Engagable:
Discipline and Participation among Activists in Southern Stockholm
Jakob Svensson, Karlstad University, jakob.svensson@kau.se
Abstract
This paper is empirically based in a (n)ethnographic study of a network of middle-class activists
in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen (southern Stockholm) acting to save the local bathhouse.
These activists are also engaged in lobbying for a cultural centre, preserve green areas and the
quality of life in the attractive and well located sister suburbs. The theoretical starting points will
be found in the borderland between theories of late modernity (Beck; Giddens) and theories
about discipline and power (Foucault).
The paper discusses the implications of increasing use of social networking sites for political
participation emerging outside parliamentary arenas. The paper concludes that in tandem with
the increase of social networking sites a new kind of network logic is developing, underlining
identity negotiation as a dominant motivator for political participation. This logic contributes to
rationalized practices for expressions of affinity, which in turn discipline the individual users to
connectedness with like-minded people in the neighbourhood. This manifests itself more
concretely through practices of joining e-mail lists, following twitter accounts, joining Ning- and
Facebook groups. When negotiating individuality through network visibility, referring and tying
yourself to activist groups online, you will inevitably become updated on their actions too, and
hence may engage if interested and suitable. In other words, online social networking makes you
engagable.
Keywords: Political Participation, Social Networking Sites, Network Logic, Updating
2. Introduction
I used to share an apartment in Aspudden, just two subway stops south of the Stockholm inner
city island of Södermalm. This is a very pleasant suburb with some old architecture, green areas
and access to the waterfront. Together with neighbouring Midsommarkransen, Aspudden is
arguably the oldest suburb in Stockholm. Young couples with babies, largely populate these
suburbs, having left the inner city when starting a family. This is illustrated by the large number
of cafés, populated with mums chatting and sipping lattes together while their babies sleep in the
trolleys next to them. These suburbs are a stronghold for the Green Party (Miljöpartiet), which
got between 23 and 29 % of the vote in the latest elections (compared to 7 % nationwide).
One day at the end of April 2010 I got a message sent to me via Facebook suggesting I should
sign an online petition against the plans to demolish the old community-run (but city-owned)
bathhouse two blocks away from where I lived. I was also suggested to join the action group to
save the bathhouse. Having recently enjoyed the thrills watching the horror movie Jaws in the
pool area, on an inflatable mattress with a drink in my hand, my feelings towards the bathhouse
and the different activities organized there were very positive. Hence I signed the petition, and
also joined the Facebook- group and added many of the members as my friends. I also started to
follow the Twitter feeds, read the bathhouse blog as well as signing myself for two shares in the
bath house for 10 000 SEK each (for a potential take-over, buying the bath house from the city).
Due to what many believe was the attractive location of the bathhouse it was destroyed. But
what remained was a network of activists that later formed the group SÖFÖ (Södra Förstaden,
the Southern Suburb) that has continued to act mostly against exploitation plans in the suburbs,
in order to preserve green areas, playgrounds as well as lobby for turning an abandoned fire
station into a cultural centre or a of non-commercial meeting place.
In academia, the rise of new media has been accompanied by a large number of claims of its
impact on society and political participation. Since production and distribution of information
are becoming more accessible to everyone, citizens are increasingly able to communicate directly
with one another. Therefore some argue that we are witnessing the growth of a participatory
culture that will fundamentally change citizenship practices (see Jenkins, 2006; Bruns, 2008;
Shirky, 2009). Dystopian descriptions of an increasingly sceptical, distrusting and inward-looking
citizenry in late modernity (Boogs, 2000; Bauman, 2001) is today countered by numerous
accounts of a rising network society1 claimed to flatten out governance hierarchies and
distributing power (Rheingold, 2002: 163; Bruns: 2008: 1). In network societies, action coalitions
are claimed to rather rely on loose, non-hierarchical and open communities of participants often
making use of new technology for communication and coordination (Bruns, 2008: 362). Most
1
van Dijk (2006: 20) defines the network society as a social formation with an infrastructure of social and media
networks enabling its prime mode of organization on all levels (individual, group, organization and society).
2
3. notably the Internet is argued to afford possibilities for both reflexive identity negotiation and
political mobilization (van Dijk, 2000: 36). Hence the Internet has been conceived of both as a
signature tool for more lifestyle-based participation as well as a remedy for disinterest in politics
with its portrayal of the citizenry as engaged and interactive.
Through theories of media logics and mediatization we know that media and communication
technologies are intimately linked to politics and participation (see Altheide, 2004; Hjarvard,
2008). Hence new media will no doubt bring with it changing forms of political participation.
But how to say anything useful about emerging conventions of citizenship without lapsing into
futurology or engaging in the uncritical painting of democratic utopias? My answer has been to
conduct a (n)ethnographic inspired case study of the network of activists2 in southern
Stockholm. Rather than only to praise or hail utopias, the quest has been to understand the
changes citizenship and political participation are undergoing in the wake of network societies.
Studying these activists I found that power had not disappeared with the rise of network types of
organizations, media and communication. Rather what I found was a shift from more tangible
and easily observable hierarchical power structures to more non-transparent relations of power.
The rise of SNSs (Social Networking Sites)3 and its access from mobile and hand-held
computing devices, seems to encourage or even demand a social negotiation of the political self
through practices of updating. By following twitter accounts, joining e-mail and SMS-lists, Ning-
and Facebook groups, activist became updated on the activities in the neighbourhoods and could
engage if suitable and interested, hence the title of this paper Becoming Engagable. New media
practices both made it easier and seemed to push participants to engage in the activities of the
network of activists in southern Stockholm. Thus the aim of this paper is not only to echo
popular accounts of the mobilizing potential in communities of equals and like-minded using
digital technology (see Rheingold, 2002; Shirky, 2009), but also to ground these findings in a
critical analysis of power and discipline (see Foucault, 1994). I will argue that a kind of network
logic is imposing behavioural patterns of reflexive updating and self-disclosure, disciplining
activists to become engagable.
2
I use the term activist to refer to political actors outside the Parliament, but with an outspoken political aim, often
relating their activities to parliamentary decisions and representatives (hence delineating activists from political
actors within parliamentary institutions and actors within more popular culture spheres not primarily set up for
political or citizenship purposes, see Svensson, 2011a)
3
Ellison & boyd (2007:2) defines SNSs as web-based services allowing individuals to create a (semi)public profiles,
connecting this profile to other users, whose contacts in turn will be made accessible by the service.
3
4. Discipline and Power in Digital Late Modernity
From a sociological perspective it is common to conceive of our time as late modern (Giddens,
1991; Beck, 1995; Bauman, 2001). Dahlgren (2006) characterizes late modernity by identifying
two interrelated cultural processes: dispersion of unifying cultural frameworks and
individualization. The first refers to the increasing pluralization, fragmentation and nichification
of society along lines of ethnicity, media consumption, cultural interests, lifestyles, interests,
tastes etc (ibid.). Individualization refers to lacking a sense of social belonging and a growing
sense of personal autonomy (ibid.), a process where communities, personal relationships, social
forms and commitments are less bound by history, place and tradition (Miller, 2008: 388). In
other words, the collective and the traditional has faded in importance in favour of the individual
identity formation project (Giddens, 1991). However, self-realization is an elusive goal since it
can hardly be achieved once and for all. Thus the making and moulding of the self becomes a
continuous and never ending process (Milller, 2008: 388). This underlines reflexivity as a
dominant theme in late modernity. Reflexivity means that we consider our selves and our
practices from different perspectives, always re-considering previously acquired knowledge, not
taking anything for granted. It is especially our life choices and individual identities that are
continuously being scrutinized, redefined and subject to our reflections (Giddens, 1991).
Arendt (1998/1958: 41, 49) noticed that already the public realm in ancient Greece was reserved
for individuality and permeated by a spirit where everybody had to distinguish him or herself.
Today this public realm has largely moved online. Who to text-message, who’s posting to
comment on, and how to respond to messages and postings are used by young people as “the
raw material for identity and group-shaping activities” (Rheingold, 2002: 25). In my own work I
have labelled expressive rationality as the motivational force in digital late modernity4 (see
Svensson, 2011b). With the increasing possibility of identity on SNSs, a kind of do it yourself-
biographies emerge, especially online (see Hodkinson 2007: 627- 628; Livingstone, 2008). Hence
Internet uses in general, are becoming more self-expressive. In the field of political
communication, the need to feel connected to an issue, evoking some kind of citizen identity,
has proven to be an important incentive for communication on websites set up by political
institutions (see Hilts & Yu, 2010). I argue that choices of arenas and topics for political
participation will be reflexively chosen since it is increasingly likely that we will share this in
different social networks online. Hence, late modern individualisation is not only the liberation
of the individual from social regulation in modern institutions (family, church, social
movements) but also a demand for supplying our biographies, to import our selves into our
biographies through our own actions (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, discussed in Leaning, 2009: 76).
In this sense I argue that a kind of network logic is disciplining us to practices of reflexive
4
By labelling our time as digital late modernity I whish to underline that societal and cultural changes in late
modernity are happening at the same time as we experience a technological shift towards digitalization.
4
5. updating and self-disclosure.
According to Foucault (1994/1973: 52, 57) we are in the midst of a disciplinary society, an age of
social control that started at the end of the 18th century. What is constitutive of this society is
that power is exercised through disciplining, normalizing power and the knowledge-power
formations that support these largely discursive practices. The control of individuals started to be
performed by a series of authorities and networks of institutions of surveillance and correction
(Foucault, 1994/1973: 57). Disciplining should be understood as increasingly controlled and
rationalized processes of adjusting activities, communication networks and power relations
(Foucault, 1994/1982: 339). Power is a type of relationship between people, not properties of
individuals or collectives as such, influencing others’ actions rather than acting immediately upon
others (Foucault, 1994/1979: 324, see also van Dijk, 2000: 32). Hence through the exercise of
power people are disciplined to act in certain ways, in turn structuring the field of further
possible actions (Foucault 1994/1982: 343).
Power relations are rationalized through different logics operating in different contexts. For
example social control was used at the end of the 18th century in relation to the formation of
capitalist society as a way to protect economic wealth (Foucault, 1994/1973: 69). The question
here is what social control is used for on SNSs? To be successful online, you need to master a
new form of sociability, through database and friend management and through continuously
updating, negotiating and maintaining an attractive self on as many stages as possible in order for
peers or like-minded people to visit your SNS profile and leave comments (see Livingstone,
2008). This is a kind of power that reveals itself in the continuous preoccupation with expressing
and negotiating our selves and our positions, as well as interpreting others through the
production, maintenance and sustenance of network visibility. Social control today would be the
constant monitoring/ supervision of both oneself and others through practices of updating.
Foucault’s discussions of power can be applied remarkably well in digital arenas. He outlines a
form of power that makes individuals into subjects, ties them to their identity by conscience and
self-knowledge (1994/1982: 331). In other words the late modern reflexive subject is, following
Foucault, a result of a form of power exercised upon it.
Visibility and power has always been connected but in different ways through history (see
Thompson 2001/1995: ch. 4). When in antiquity the visibility of the few to the many was
connected to power, in modernity being watched was connected to a subordinate position of
being disciplined, a more subtle normalizing power of the gaze (in schools, armies, hospitals,
penal institutions et cetera). On the Internet we are all visible all the time through a type of
connected presence, but we are also watching others. We are objects of the constant gaze of
others, and we are participating in this disciplining by free will in order to secure a place on the
5
6. social arena. Whether we are exercising or being subordinate to power all depends how skilfully
we navigate the new social arena and manage our databases of friends and connections, how
skilfully we govern our visibility in the different contexts and front stages SNSs offers. Foucault
(1994/1973: 84) states that the individuals over whom power is exercised are those from whom
the knowledge they themselves produce is extracted and used in order to control them. The
central question to deal with today is thus to decide what shall be public and to whom (see also
Thompson 2001/1995: 174). This decision is to a large extent put in the hand of the everyday
Internet user. This is a balancing act on what to publish or not in order to avoid this information
being used to control you but at the same time keep your social place in the network and manage
a continuous identity. Studies have shown that working class kids are not as successful as middle
class kids in using SNSs for enhancing capital(s) (this indicating a second digital divide, see,
Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008).
Another way of illustrating power relations in network societies is through the metaphor of a
filter. Networks of peers and like-minded people influence our decisions because they work as a
filter (see Anderson, 2006: 108). Life choices seem to be multiplying and the responsibility for
making the right choices is increasingly put on the individual when modern institutions loose in
relevance. In the late modern society, every citizen can construct her own custom lifestyle and
select her ideology from a large number of choices (Manovich, 2001: 42). We are thus
experiencing an ever-expanding range of elective identities on offer together with the ease with
witch they may be embraced or rejected. This logic of identity can be liberating (see Becks
treatment on subpolitics, 1995) but also loaded with stress about making the right choices. When
tradition and modern institutions become less prominent we need other guiding mechanisms
and this is where our networks are starting to have increasing influence over our decisions and
us. The network functions as peer pressure, both informing us about the variety of choices but
also what others before us have done with these choices (Anderson, 2006: 174). In this way,
pictures of like-minded people’s and peers’ likes and dislikes together with aggregated past
choices and behaviours make us anticipate our future needs and wants (Hands, 2011: 128).
Hence, needs might be created with this information from peer-groups, like-minded people and
past choices.
Notes on Methodology
I have followed the action group for saving the bathhouse, later SÖFÖ, from early 2010 both
online and offline. SÖFÖ largely consists of loosely affiliated neighbours, many who have kids in
the same school or kindergarten or live close to each other. The community-run (and owned)
cinema Tellus serves as a natural meeting place for SÖFÖ. This is where offline meetings take
6
7. place and many in the core group also work in their free-time running Tellus and the attached
café. Online communication is mostly done through their Facebook- and Ning-page. First the
group used a Facebook-group named Save the Aspudden Bathhouse (my translation: Rädda
Aspuddsbadet see fig. 1).
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Figure 1: Save the Aspudden Bathhouse Facebook-group
Later after the bathhouse had been demolished and SÖFÖ created, the group used a Facebook-
page named the Southern Suburb (my translation: Södra Förstaden, see fig. 2).
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Figure 2: The Southern Suburb Facebook-page
Ning is a website where you can create your own social network but focused around an issue.
And SÖFÖ did create a Ning-site for their community where members had their own profiles,
could connect and message each other as well as start discussions, groups and forums within the
site (see my profile page fig. 3)
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Figure 3: My Profile Page at the SÖFÖ Ning-site
Digital technology and social networking sites are neither neutral artefacts nor do they have
inherent capacities for social organization and change (Coleman & Blumler, 2009: 10).
Technology and society evolves in tandem (Svensson, 2011a & 2011b), hence new media and
communication technologies should be understood from its uses and social contexts. These
technologies are constructed, maintained and given meaning through a range of complex and
social processes (Coleman & Blumler, 2009:10). To avoid an essentialist, causal or technical
deterministic study, it is therefore important to inquire into how and under which circumstances
technology is used. Causal models of explanation are potentially misleading since it is impossible
to isolate Internet and media use from other social practices and determine what causes what
(Anduiza, 2009). One way of proceeding is through a case study. When focusing on a case, the
web sites to study are almost given in advance, and researchers may concentrate on events and
practices in a more empirically constructive manner (Gerodimos & Ward, 2007: 118).
Case studies are most often generalizing in their aim. In this case the choice of activists to study
is not based in choosing a representative case out of which generalizations can be made. Rather
the choice is made for ethnographic reasons, through having lived and shared experiences with
the group and the circumstances they found themselves in. Thus the results of this study may
not be applied to political participation in general. But the results will point to interesting aspects
of political participation in digital late modernity that I believe will resonate in similar settings.
The overall aim is to understand political participation in the particular setting of activists in
Aspudden and Midsommarkransen 2010 and 2011. Through this understanding the purpose is
also to contribute to a discussion of power and participation in emerging network societies.
This study is inspired by both ethno- and nethnographic methodology. In a nethnographic study
we are released as researchers from the physical place to conduct observations in a virtual
8
9. context on communities that can be understood as social in its character (Berg, 2011: 119-120).
The aim of nethnographic research is to understand the social interaction taking place online,
hence a focus on user-generated information flows (ibid.: 120). The nethnographic approach
thus suits the aims of this paper since I am studying how activists used Facebook, Ning, Twitter
and SMS, the information flow they initiated and took part in.
Doing nethnography I followed the activists on all their different media platforms, took field
notes and screenshots when I observed something I deemed particularly interesting. I used their
SNSs (Social Networking Sites) as archives of information (see Berg, 2011: 126), but I have also
created my own archive with screenshots since data and interactions on SNS are instantaneous
and may be changed or disappear. As a participant researcher, I have participated in discussions
on Ning, Facebook and the bathhouse blog, commented on postings and retweeted tweets and
forwarded invitations et cetera.
Nethnography is different from ethnography in its exclusive focus on net-based social
environments. The physical absence is compensated by different textual and figurative
representations, which gives the user larger possibilities to reflect on, test and review different
ways of action before they become part of the social interaction (Berg, 2011: 121). This also
requires the user to make an active and conscious effort when presenting her-self online. In this
way nethnography is a great companion to theories of reflexive individualization in late
modernity. Here we can distinguish between asynchronous postings, allowing for greater
reflection and planning (for example on the bathhouse blog and on SÖFÖs Ning-group) and
synchronous postings, happening in real time (through Twitter feeds, SMS- and e-mail lists, see
Berg, 2011: 127).
Nethnography works well in combination with a more traditional ethnographic method,
especially since the online and offline world mutually influence each other (van Dijk, 2006: 39).
This was especially the case here with the activists both using online media and communication
platforms to communicate as well as meeting, discussing and acting offline. The observations
and interventions online have thus been complemented with continuous offline interactions and
participations in activities (such as meetings, discussions, lectures et cetera). I have also
conducted five in-depth interviews (approximately 90 minutes each) with five different activists
during 2010 and 2011.
Since the focus of this paper is on power and processes of identification, the approach to
political participation is best labelled as cultural and critical, critical because of a preoccupation
with power and forms of disciplining and cultural because of a focus on meaning making and
identification. A cultural perspective has guided me when building the empirical foundation for
9
10. analyzing power and participation in southern Stockholm. How to analyse a culture of
contemporary political participation? I have used Dahlgren’s (2009) discussion of civic cultures,
intended for analytical and empirical study of civic agency, to guide my observations and
interviews. Dahlgren (2009: 108) specifies six dimensions of civic culture - knowledge, values,
trust, spaces, practices and identities - as entry points in the study of political participation. By
mincing the concept of culture into smaller units they are more easily observed and discerned. At
the same time describing these dimensions as in a dynamic circuit, he emphasizes their
interconnections and mutual dependence in a way that an overall understanding of the
coherence of the culture is not lost.
The Urge to Connect, Respond and Update
As mentioned earlier in the discussion of power in network societies, citizens use their network
to find like-minded people with similar interests (Anderson, 2006: 53). Hence the network has
become an increasingly important filter, through which citizens take part of information and
conceive of the world. Through networks we reflexively organize our social life, interact with
each other, share and get information. Interactivity and interpersonal communication deals with
activities and issues going on between people. One value behind emerging network logic must
therefore be connectedness. Connections are indeed the formal dimension of networks, what they
consist of (van Dijk, 2000: 33). Talking to activists in southern Stockholm it becomes evident
that they use digital media in general and Facebook in particular to connect to issues and people
with similar opinions. One young student tells me that he is generally against the expansion of
cars and motor traffic in the Stockholm region. Hence he has joined several groups on
Facebook, for example one group aiming to save a local forest from being penetrated by planned
highway construction and one group to stop a highway construction altogether. Hence whenever
he logs in to his Facebook-account he will become updated on what is going on concerning
these issues. Similarly a middle-aged Green Party politician and IT-technician says that he joined
SÖFÖs Ning- and Facebook-group in order to get in contact with the group and to become
informed about their various activities. During the battle for the bathhouse there was a wide
range of different ways to connect to the issue and to the core people in the action group and to
participate. Besides organizing a festival (see fig. 4), different cultural activities and producing a
bathhouse song, there was a blog, e-mail list, SMS-list and Twitter-feed to follow. Hence since
the Internet and mobile accesses to it make it easier to connect to like-minded people with
similar interests in your vicinity it is also easier to tailor and filter what kind of information on
what issues and from whom should reach you.
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Figure 4: The Poster for the Support Festival to save the bathhouse
Today large networks are possible due to new technology such as e-mail, SMS and SNSs (Miller,
2008: 394). Large numbers of people in connected societies have devices that will enable them
most of the time to link to places, objects and people (Rheingold, 2002: foreword xii). Given the
increasing mobility of communication platforms and mobile access to Internet though smart-
phones, expressions and maintenance of network connections are taking place all the time, or at
least have the possibility to take place all the time. During the battle for the bathhouse in
Aspudden the SMS-list as well as the Twitter-feed served to connect the followers directly to the
happenings around the bathhouse. For example if there was a new decision made in the City
Council, if the Police were on their way. Returning to the issue of power and discipline, the
argument here is also that being updated instantaneously about what is going on, making
yourself engagable all the time, also pushed you to react and to take part in activities. Some
activists I talked to outside the bathhouse during the police eviction of activists who had camped
inside, implied that they felt compelled to come when the action group called for their
participation. One young mother phrased it as if she had no other choice than to come and show
her support for the cause and the action group. Also the young student implies that inherent in
the SMS sent out by the action group with calls for participation to information meetings, to
protests and blockades was a kind of request, invoking what he describes as a duty to respond.
He felt he ought to go down to the bathhouse and join the activists on place, in order to show
for them and others his support. This is also illustrated on the bathhouse blog which had a
section on What can you do (my translation: Vad kan du göra) to e-mail responsible politicians (see
fig. 5). Hence, continuous communication does not only lead to instantaneous information, but
in this case also to a demand to act upon this information. This illustrates how needs and
behaviours are disciplined by the increasing information flow in digital societies. Getting
connected to issues and like-minded people also calls for responding to others and their postings
11
12. as well as it calls for the development of the issues that are of particular interest to you. Given
this I would like to underline responsiveness as an important value accompanying connectedness.
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Figure 5: What can You do? On the bathhouse blog
Following the above discussion I would argue that a central aspect of the emerging network logic
is that it disciplines us to be constantly updated, in two different ways – to be updated of the doings
in the network as well as update the network of our doings, thoughts and feelings. Digital
communities are always evolving and decisions tend to be made ad hoc, in the moment, by a
loose collective of those affected (Bruns, 2008: 44). Hence in order to know what is going on in
your networks, you need to be updated (which not least the battle of the bathhouse illustrates).
The Green Party politician underlines this by stating that if he is not constantly updated on what
is happening on the Ning-group it is easy to slip out. He tells me that it is not always easy to start
a discussion thread online, and if you have not followed the thread for a while you are left
behind. This reasoning suggests disciplined practices of updating. You have to be updated
otherwise your information might not be accurate and you would be left behind in the peer-
group. I also recognize this urge to update in my own behaviour, how I during some periods was
checking my Facebook and Twitter several times an hour to follow what was going on with the
bathhouse.
Practices of updating through digital media are pivotal for organizing, mobilizing and
coordinating participation. A middle-aged mother and part of the core of the action group to
save the bathhouse, underlines the importance updating practices during the battle for
bathhouse. Firstly important documents (committee statements, different laws and regulations et
cetera) were uploaded on the bathhouse blog. Later the Twitter-feed and SMS-lists where pivotal
in the practices of updating. For example someone read on the responsible politicians’ blog that
the Sport- and Leisure Committee (my translation: Idrottsförvaltningen) would take the decision
to demolish the bathhouse during their next meeting. This was then immediately sent out on the
SMS-lists and Twitter-feed with a call for an emergency meeting. At that meeting it was decided
to guard the bathhouse twenty-four/seven. From then on, the bathhouse guards (or lifeguards –
badvakter- as they called themselves) started to manage the SMS-list and Twitter-feed in order to
update and quickly mobilize activist to protect the bathhouse from the police. They would also
12
13. send out messages to bring blankets and candles when the city had cut the electricity (see fig. 6).
During the final stages of the battle there were a lot of text-massages going out, both on SMS,
Twitter and Facebook.
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Figure 6: The Twitter feed during the battle for the bathhouse
To be updated took different forms among the activist. The young student for example tells me
that he is interested in decisions concerning cars and motor traffic in the Stockholm region.
Thus he tries to follows the decision-making processes concerning these issues, especially by
following Green blogs and joining several Facebook-groups. In this way is updated on what is
happening with the issue. When asking him what kinds of discussions are taking place on these
Facebook-groups he says that there is not so much discussions as there is information and
updatings on political decisions and committee statements. Hence SNSs do not seem to
contribute to deliberation, rather what is going on is practices of updating among like-minded
people. The student tells me that he would not have known about the plans to destroy the
bathhouse if it was not for the Internet. Maybe he had been able to read some in the newspaper
but he would never been able to get as much information on the issue as he got from the
bathhouse blog. This information made him act. First he attended a meeting and later he signed
up on the SMS-list and from then on he also tried to respond to calls sent out on that list.
To be updated also goes the other way around. When asking the student how he should proceed
if, for example, the city would close a bicycle path or plan to build a new highway (issues that he
cares for), he says that he would first of all start a Facebook-group in order to update his
network on what was going on and to see if there was any interest among his connections there.
Similarly a female artist, entrepreneur and student in her 30s tells me that she uses Facebook
partly because she does not want to be left behind on what is happening among her friends and
in the projects she is interested in, and partly because of an urge to tell her friends and
connections what is going in and happening in her different projects. She tells me that she wants
to sow seeds and that I would be surprised how often people react and something actually
13
14. happens when she starts something. This constant updating process is the right way to
accomplish things, you have to be hyperactive she says to me. The artist tells me that before
taking part in an activity she makes sure that her friends and acquaintances know that she is
going through some kind of status update on Facebook. She also checks who else is going to
participate in the activity, adds them as friends and if they already are friends perhaps makes a
comment on their Facebook-wall. In this way it will be easier for her to connect with them when
seeing each other offline. Hence it seems to me that the urge to be updated is as much about
disciplined practices following blogs, joining Facebook-groups and SMS-lists as it is about
disciplined practices to provide the network with updates.
The implication on politics and participation of values of connectedness and responsiveness
through practices of updating would be that we tend to reveal our political interests to a larger
extent online than offline. Event though the middle-aged mother, the young student and the
middle-aged artist where not outspoken sympathizers of any political party, their facebook
network was very much updated on their opinions and what issues they were engaged in at the
moment. An American study from the 2008 presidential campaign showed that twenty percent
of the survey sample had discovered the political interests of their friends by using SNSs (Zhang,
Johnson, Seltzer & Bichard, 2010: 80). This seems to counter Eliasoph’s (1998) well-known
ethnographic study of American volunteers, where she contends that people tend to avoid
politics. Through a network logic, in which updating practices are highly valued, users are to a
less extent shying away from making their political opinions visible to others in the network.
Identity and Reputation
Intertwined with the increasing importance of managing and sustaining our networks through
practices of updating, the network logic underlines late modern processes of identification and
reflexivity. A continuous emphasis of the self as something that can be managed, bears upon the
individual to such a degree that the self becomes a reflexive project (Giddens, 1991: 32). It thus
seems that the late modern self, anxiously trying to confirm who she really is, uses SNSs to both
monitor her identity as well as testing it in front of selected others (peers). This takes the form of
reflexive connectivity and reflexive responsiveness when making links to other users public (as
well as causes, organizations, brands) and hence freeloading on their supposed connotations,
connotations to which we wish to tie images of our selves (see Donath & boyd, 2004).
The choices of arenas and topics for political participation are reflexively chosen since it is
increasingly likely that we will share this in different social networks online. From this
perspective it is not surprising that Green Party sympathizers engage in battling extensions of the
14
15. highway and trying to save forests and green areas in and around the capital. There is also a
strong political identity as activists being nurtured in the SÖFÖ network. The Green Party
politician tells me that he has always been interested in acting for change and that he cannot
avoid writing to the City Planning Office (my translation: stadsbyggnadskontoret) when he reads
about development plans he does not approve of. Similarly the mother talks about her
engagement in SÖFÖ and Cinema Tellus as creating an environment she likes and wants to
promote, a neighbourhood where fellow citizens can meet and interact with each other. She tells
me she is not interested in shopping, she is interested in doing things together with her
neighbours, such as showing movies and running a community café. Also the student talks about
political activism through different organizations as something he likes to do. He tells me he
prefers going to meetings and debates instead of playing badminton or soccer. Similarly the
female artist describes herself as the type of person who always gets involved in everything that
feels important to her. She tells me that this is who she is and what she does. She sees herself as
a firestarter, and that she always becoming the centre of attention in projects she gets involved
in. It is obvious that I am studying people who see their activism as a kind of lifestyle, as a part
of their identity.
Identity also seems important in another way. The student underlines the importance to join
political groups on SNSs online to show support, not only to get updated but also to tell to the
members in the group that you are with them and to show for your friends that you support this
cause. This was indeed the reason why I joined the Facebook-group to save the bathhouse.
Individuality and identity is then both fostered, and dependent on the network, on network
visibility with references to other users and causes. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the value of
connectedness, space and prominence is put on links to others on SNSs sometimes more than
on the text being produced (see Miller, 008: 393). What seem to be at stake are processes of
identification through the positioning of yourself within the peer network. This is illustrated
when talking to the artist. She describes what seems to me as a strategy of commenting (see also
Livingstone’s study of British teenagers, 2008). She tells me that she comments a lot on friends’
and acquaintances’ postings on Facebook, and she follows the rule that all her comments should
consist of some kind of feedback that also contributes with something, for example a link to an
interesting article et cetera. By her commenting practices she also describes how she comes to
occupy the centre of attention in many of the discussions, a centre that she then uses to promote
different projects she is working and issues that are occupying her mind. Hence in order to keep
this position she has to continuously comment and update. Similarly the Green Party politician
claims that you have to be continuously updated on the discussions and happenings in the
network otherwise your information might not be accurate and then you have to renegotiate the
position in the network. Hence it is not only exchanges of information that is taking place when
activists in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen log into their computers, they are also negotiating
15
16. their social place within the network.
Here I whish to return to the kind of reflexive expressiveness I have argued for is the dominant
rationale for network updating practices (see Svensson, 2011b). Rheingold (2002: 35-37) claims
that at the core of collective action is reputation, something that lays in-between self-interest and
altruistic goods. This is echoed by the Green Party politician when he describes his participation
in the activities both as an ego-thing but with an idealistic component. He cannot just sit with his
arms crossed and do nothing. Similarly the young student answers the question why he is
engaged in different political groups, by stating that he is part in the formation of a new way of
conceiving politics, that he builds his engagement on a positive feeling of promoting a society
where people feel more included. According to Bruns (2008: 84) contribution to online
communities build individual status. Being recognized as the originator of interesting new
content or as key facilitators of the sharing (updating) process could be conceived of as
individual rewards (ibid.: 249) important for constructing and maintaining a healthy activist
identity. A retired media entrepreneur, who is also trying to launch e-voting initiatives in
Stockholm, says that he will at least get a tombstone. He refers to his fellow pensioners who just
sit and complain while he is having fun, hanging out with smart and interesting people more
than half his age. Listening to him as well as the middle-aged mother hanging out with her
neighbours in the community run cinema and café, it becomes evident that the social element of
participation is increasingly intertwined with identity, lifestyle and reputation.
Taking social aspects of participation in southern Stockholm into account as well as values of
connectedness and responsiveness, dystopian illustrations of late modern individualization of
individuals as isolated islands (see Bauman, 2001) or the online as an illusion of community with
users becoming more individualized with increasingly personalized portfolios of sociability
(Hodkinson, 2007: 629), misses the point. The individual and community are not in a
dichotomized relation to each other as well as the online cannot be separated from the offline
when trying to understand the political engagement in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen. The
activists are autonomous and dependent on each other at the same time. On the different media
platforms they negotiated themselves, and incorporate other activists and causes into this
negotiation at the same time. This underlines a form of networked individualism (see Castells,
2001: 129-133). Hence online communication is not so much about narcissistic self-absorption
as it is about embedding the self within the peer group (see also Livingstone, 2008). Already
Dewey (1927: 188) underlined that the individual could not be understood without considering
his associations with others. Similarly Arendt (1998/1958) underlined the presence of others to
“assure us of the reality of the world and ourselves” (p. 50). We are thus talking about identity
through connectedness.
16
17. Concerning reputation it becomes important to study whether the highly esteemed contributors
are also automatically positioned as the undisputed and indisputable leaders, in other words
whether reputation is transformed into power (see Bruns, 2008: 314). The most popular girl in
the class will probably be he most popular girl on Facebook as well, and Obama was retweeted
more than any other democratic politician because he was the Democrats’ candidate for
president. Reputation turned into power in political communities online is illustrated by
newcomers trying to relate to originators and frequent contributors, in other words the core of
the political community. For example, when I joined the online battle against the destruction of
the bathhouse, I soon realized who belonged to the core of the group, not only through
observing who was posting messages but also whose postings were retweeted and echoed by
thumbs up on Facebook. In hindsight, I also realize that I became part of this by posting
encouraging entries on the Facebook page for certain members’ entries and not others, rather
retweeting some activists messages than others. By echoing popular argument through
#twittering and through posting encouraging entries on the Facebook page, I was not only
showing my sympathy for the participatory and expressive values of the activist group, but I also
reinforced these values and reinforced the authority of certain other active group members by
commenting and retweeting their tweets. It could be argued that reputation systems are
important to filter out anomalous participants and to highlight those who are seen as most
creative, exciting and active (Bruns, 2008: 316, 329). In this way reputation, social filtering and
peer-power is linked to each other (see also Rheingold, 2002: 114). My argument, though, is that
reputation not always relies on merit but also on status and hence masks unequal relations of
power.
Conclusion and Discussion
The possibility for quick reaction, easy reach of local (and global networks) has turned the
Internet and mobile technology into efficient channels for social movements, citizen debates,
political protest and mobilization as the study in southern Stockholm underlines (see also Heller,
2008: 35). In the words of Hands (2011: 3) “the power of digital communications, networks and
mobile technology is a limitless snowball effect made possible by the design and structure of
modern digital communications”. The uprisings in Arab countries early 2011 demonstrate the
sheer power of cumulative connections. In this way network society is a society of coordinated
movements of movements (Hands, 2011: 105, see also Shirky, 2009 and his well known claim
captured in the title of his book Here comes everybody). Rheingold (2002) talks about smart mobs in
this context, groups of people who are able to act concert even though they do not know each
other. The bathhouse action group is an example of a smart mob, made possible because the
activists carried with them devices with both communication and computing capabilities.
17
18. Carrying mobile devices with access to the Internet and computing capabilities also made the
activists more engagable. Take for example the student who says that he participates more in
debates and information meetings because he joined different Facebook-groups and follows
certain blogs. The Green Party politician would not have known about SÖFÖ and their different
activities if he would not have joined, initially the e-mail list and later the Ning-group. By
following these groups, blogs and lists the activists were updated on the different activities in the
neighbourhood and could engage if interested and suitable. In other words, by making sure they
were updated, they also made themselves engagable. Referring to Heidegger, Hands (2011: 25)
describes activists as being on standby. I like this expression because it captures what I have come
across in Aspudden and Midsommarkransen. A lot of inhabitants are on standby, not least
during the height of the battle of the bathhouse when quick mobilization was of utmost
importance. When asked about his political engagement nowadays, the answers provided by the
student nicely illustrate what it means to be on standby. He describes his engagement as sleeping
(my translation: ligga på is) but that he follows the debate closely (updating) concerning the
issues that are important to him. In other words, he is on standby. When something happens he
is ready to write to politicians, attend a meeting or a demonstration. In a similar way he describes
his participation in the Copenhagen climate summit. He was tempted to go, but it was not until
some others in his network asked him to join them that he made the decision to go. With the
Internet the possibilities to involve people increase, not the least since many activists are on
standby, waiting to find the right circumstances to engage, favourable circumstances for reflexive
updating and identity negotiation and maintenance.
We should not underestimate the disciplining effects of the emerging social practices online. It is
almost as if SNSs would pressure us to be updated. When the Green Party politician talks about
the bathhouse blog as something that could be followed, he also implies that he had to follow it
in order to know what happened and become informed about the different activities there. To
be updated here is also intertwined with the demand for reflexive self-presentations in late
modernity. This disciplines us to always be ready to respond, connect and update. The artist talks
about her online channel as something that has to be used in order to update her network, to get
things done and get attention for it. Self-disclosure, to update the network on your doings and
engagements, is thus equally important to gain trust and achieve authentic and contingent
relationships with others in the network. This leads to an ever-increasing need for self-
clarification, social validation and relationship development that is satisfied through acts of self-
disclosure (Miller, 2008: 389). This is one reason to focus on an emerging network logic in order
to underline that these practices also carries with them a logic based in other kinds of norms and
values to which we have to position our selves.
18
19. In this paper I hope to have established that relations of power are at work even when activists
use media and communication platforms that are supposed to be more equal, heterarchical and
horizontal. However, one question remains unanswered. Who or what is benefiting from power
mechanism pushing us to reflexive updating, identity negotiation and maintenance, making us
engagable? Who is using the knowledge that these practices produce? These are questions that
remain to be thoroughly addressed in the future, but to end this paper I would like to offer some
reflections on these issues.
Identity, subpolitics and recognition are often used as positive notions when trying to
understand politics in late modernity. However identity is also connected to capitalism in ways
that might not always be considered positive. The most obvious cases are through acts of
consumption and advertising where identity and lifestyle are tightly connected to things that we
are made believed we have to buy in order for us to negotiate that particular identity or that
particular lifestyle. Consumer society offers to the subject a range of choices from which to
create biographies of the self (Miller, 2008: 388). Identity becomes a vehicle for how the
capitalist system can penetrate the life-world and vice versa. And technology makes this possible
by smoothing over alienations and antagonisms through highlighting consumer distractions
(Hands, 2011: 33). Hence, from a normative horizon, Hands (2011: 103) sees a problem using
identity as a primary component in digital late modernity, given that many identities’ positions
are actually created by capitalist systems to begin with. In this way it can be argued that
expressive rationality and reflexive participation becomes part of the coordinated system of
interdependence of capitalist societies, capitalism constituting the power mechanism pushing us
to reflexive updating, identity negotiation and maintenance. At least this is the case when the
negotiation of political identities not only requires participation in different activities in activist
groups or political collectives, but it is also connected to things that have to be purchased.
I would suggest though that the uses of commodities in which meanings and lifestyle values are
invested, are more prominent when negotiating social place and identity among youth peer
groups on SNSs than when negotiating political identities on activist groups online. I do believe
that activist and political identities are not as embedded in the capitalist logic to the extent that
Hands argues. In contrast many political identities are based in antagonism towards unjust
distribution of wealth and a will to change society since equality is embedded into the very
meaning of the political (see Svensson 2011a). According to Hands (2011: 38) technology is
increasingly open for local change and adaptation. This then implies that technology very well
may well be used to counter a capitalist logic. Important as it is not to be too negative, as critical
scholars we need to be aware of the potential hegemonic embrace of network logic into a larger
capitalist logic. Technology is not neutral; it is constantly evolving in a dialectical relationship
with society and culture. And it is within capitalist societies that technology now is evolving.
19
20. Commercial interests may very well be able to capitalize on the goods created by online
communities and innovations.
20
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