http://www.resistancestudies.org

Abstract: Understanding "Digital Resistance" (ESA Conference 3-6 Sept
2007)

Our paper explore the state of a specific method of resistance: ICT
based collective resistance ("digital resistance") and in particular
the maturity and description of digital resistance. Of particular
interest to this study is the role of technological infrastructure in
forming the content and form of acts of resistance.

While resistance is distinctive as a challenge which might undermine
power, it is manifold and continually invented and one of its forms
are, we propose, digital.

Even though Internet is a new political arena the development of
movement activity has been fast and impressive. Some interpret this as
a danger ("cyperterrorism"), others as a promise of a new democratic
and interactive future.

There is a need for empirically based analysis enabling us to
understand the heterogenous expressions of the "digitalisation" of
oppositional politics. Some use digital communication as simply a
faster and more efficient method, others, with great ICT knowledge,
act more skilled than security firms or anti-terrorist agencies. The
variation is enormous but the existing empirical knowledge is still
shallow.

Our analysis develops a typology which describes forms of resistance,
enemies, goals and technological strategy among groups. And finally we
discuss the added possibilities and limititations with digital
resistance.

Mathias Klang, Mona Lilja and Stellan Vinthagen