Minorities and online political mobilization: Investigating ‘acts of
citizenship’
Cheryll Ruth R. Soriano���Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore���
Citizenship as performance • Substantive citizenship
• Analysis of subjects as they become claimants of citizenship, even under unexpected conditions (Benhabib, 2004; Isin, 2002).
• Citizenship is not merely state-given, but cultivated, learned, and fought for (Isin, 2002)
• “Acts of citizenship” are acts through which citizens, strangers, and aliens emerge not as beings already defined, but as beings acting and reacting with others, as they enact ways of becoming political actors
• Particularly salient for minorities
“Democratization of technology” ���and “technologization of democracy” dialectic (Chuliariki, 2010)
• minority productions bypass traditional distribution systems and can serve as a promising vector for minority groups as they insert their own stories and struggles into national narratives
• issues of “strategic essentialism”, “objectification”,
commercialism, and state controls shed doubt on whether online media can truly be localized and emancipatory for minorities
Research Question What constitutes minority activist agency and ‘acts of citizenship’ within a technological discourse?
INDIGENOUS
MUSLIM (Bangsamoro)
QUEER/LGBT
Case Study Evidence • Ethnographic interviews with group leaders,
members, and experts
• Thematic analysis of online spaces (January to May 2010-in preparation for and during field interviews; October to December, 2010, and May-July 2011; politically – relevant time periods)
• Secondary data (i.e. historical archives published materials on the organizations’ communication strategies, internal newsletters/documents, website analytics)
Organization
Type Website E-Magazine Facebook E-group Twitter
Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance
Ethnic/ indigenous
√ √*
Ladlad LGBT √ (3)**
√ (2) √ √
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Muslim √ (3)***
√ √ (2) undisclosed √
Based on interviews and review of online spaces (Jan to May 2010, Oct to Dec, 2010, and May-‐July 2011) *Exclusive to members; not accessible to researcher ** 2 mirror sites *** One is the original website, another a mirror website; and a third one, an Arabic version of the website (only original website is reviewed)
Alternative forms of political practice: ���‘acts of citizenship’?���
Nego8a8on of technological risks and possibili8es
(internet as an arena of struggle)
Crea8ve uses of technology (internet as a context for
struggle)
Subpoli8cal acts
Public & hidden trancripts and infrapoli8cs
Indigenous (CPA) Moro (Islamic Lib Front) Queer (Ladlad)
• Managing online content and produc8on to prevent commercializa8on of ritual-‐based indigenous knowledge
• Managing threats to security through selec8vity in online features
• Nego8a8ng the publica8on of sensi8ve poli8cal news / content
• Balancing online and offline strategies
• Planning of website content and investment in secured services to nego8ate technological, state, military, and interna8onal rela8ons and controls.
• Nego8a8ng the publica8on of sensi8ve poli8cal news / content
• Balancing online and offline communica8on strategies
• Resistance to threats from homo/transphobic posts by managing the content of its online spaces and working together to report spaces that are abusive or prejudist of LGBTs
• Broad use of social media to tap LGBT users
• Cau8ousness about ‘public online ar8cula8ons’, and threats to privacy of its members
1) Resistance to threats and risks posed by technological engagement (Internet as an arena of struggle)
“On making a decision about tradi2onal knowledge, if we publish, it can be obtained by anyone and be patented. So to reconcile those condi2ons we consult them. Would you allow us to put this online or not? It has to come from the community themselves—what do they want to be published or come out and be considered in the public domain and what should be kept secret or within the community. Usually the communi2es have protocol already. Which kind of knowledge is for them alone, which ones must be protected…xxx…So we discussed, do we publish? But the community said that those are sacred knowledge that should not come out. So we did not publish it. Yes the community has a system for determining what is good and not good for them. This is sacred. There is ritual involved here. Outsiders should not know. We all know it is possible to steal so those knowledge stays in the community” (Indigenous leader, Personal interview, May 2010)
“There was a time one of our members suggested to try putting up an online forum. But when we conducted a brain storming session, we looked at that format, we learned that Google will put its ads in the page. Of course we will lose the integrity of our website. So we don’t have it (chat facility) because we do not know who will suddenly advertise in our website”
broadening the arena of politics by seeing the technological as political
• negotiations of technology use (presentation, articulation, identity construction; knowledge management vis a vis online “controls”): the technological, which is in itself “an arena of struggle”, can be political
• Instance of ‘subpolitics’ (Bakardjieva, 2009; De Vries, 2007)
Indigenous Moro Queer
Use of indigenous iden8ty to communicate the historico-‐poli8cal basis of the struggle
Use of mul8ple divergent ar8cula8ons to reach out to mul8ple interna8onal en88es; balancing between radicalism and diplomacy
Framing strategies for collec8ve iden8ty building
Connec8ng with networks of indigenous communi8es globally
Concealment of poli8cal meanings; use of anonymity and ambiguity
Online spaces as cocoons for ‘belonging’ and to shield the group from discrimina8on
Use of indigenous symbolic forms to differen8ate itself from other organiza8ons
Use of Moro symbolic forms; engagement of non-‐Moro guest writers (marking and unmarking of Moro iden8ty)
Nego8a8on of online content and image: delinea8on of the public and private; deletes nega8ve comments on its own space
2) Strategic and crea8ve uses of online spaces for mobiliza8on (Context for Struggle)
>>Broadening the scope of political strategy through hidden transcripts and infrapolitics • Public transcripts: open mobilizations and networking
• The strategic imperatives of minority groups’ hidden transcripts and infrapolitics make these appropriations of technology fundamentally different from the logics of political action and exercise of citizenship in modern democracies.
• Because such political acts are covert, it should not be discounted as these articulations communicate important meanings by which minorities engage with technology, view the controls and forces surrounding technology, and use technology to achieve political goals
>Facilitating the disruption of structures��� • Online performances disrupt the mainstream discourses
symbolically by situating the dominant rhetoric of normalcy, democracy and peace beside the lived experience of conflict, oppression, hunger and marginalization of minority communities
• Alternative views of members
>Expanding the realm of minority politics beyond the nation state • nation-states as the sole definitional basis for political
interaction is undermined by online media use • reaching out to the international community- networks and
connections as a way to increase their political bargaining power
Closing
• Minority activists’ ‘acts of citizenship’ online include the creation of their own screen memories, negotiation of their political voice, mobilization & networking, defining and debating their identities, and negotiating their way through technology
• Acts of citizenship’ in the digital age constitutes seeing technological engagement as an “arena of struggle”, but also as a “context for struggle”, which surface new and creative forms of political engagement
Some issues Reflexivity • Circuits, reach, and interpretations of online
messages are unpredictable, and the posts can also be used by antagonists to reinforce prejudices
• Extent that such online articulations and global connections facilitated by online spaces create opportunities for strengthening their political bargaining positions
Politics of representation • Who gets to speak for whom online Transnational and collective identity amidst diversity
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