Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy

Trevor Garrison Smith
University of Westminster Press
2017-07-14

<p>The objective of this book is to outline how a radically democratic politics can be reinvigorated in theory and practice through the use of the internet. The author argues that politics in its proper sense can be distinguished from anti-politics by analyzing the configuration of public space, subjectivity, participation, and conflict. Each of these terrains can be configured in a more or less political manner, though the contemporary status quo heavily skews them towards anti-political configuration.</p><p>Using this understanding of what exactly politics entails, this book considers how the internet can both help and hinder efforts to move each area in a more political direction. By explicitly interpreting contemporary theories of the political in terms of the internet, this analysis avoids the twin traps of both technological determinism and technological cynicism.</p><p>Raising awareness of what the word ‘politics’ means, the author develops theoretical work by Arendt, Rancière, Žižek and Mouffe to present a clear and coherent view of how in theory, politics can be digitized and alternatively how the internet can be deployed in the service of trulydemocratic politics.</p>

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Keywords

  • politics
  • JF1001.S65
  • Communication Studies
  • Democratic Theory
  • Internet Studies
  • New Media Studies
  • Political Theory
  • Arendt
  • democracy
  • Digital media
  • internet
  • participation
  • Rancière
  • subjectivity

Politicizing Digital Space: Theory, the Internet, and Renewing Democracy

Trevor Garrison Smith

University of Westminster Press

2017-07-14

CC BY-NC-ND

<p>The objective of this book is to outline how a radically democratic politics can be reinvigorated in theory and practice through the use of the internet. The author argues that politics in its proper sense can be distinguished from anti-politics by analyzing the configuration of public space, subjectivity, participation, and conflict. Each of these terrains can be configured in a more or less political manner, though the contemporary status quo heavily skews them towards anti-political configuration.</p><p>Using this understanding of what exactly politics entails, this book considers how the internet can both help and hinder efforts to move each area in a more political direction. By explicitly interpreting contemporary theories of the political in terms of the internet, this analysis avoids the twin traps of both technological determinism and technological cynicism.</p><p>Raising awareness of what the word ‘politics’ means, the author develops theoretical work by Arendt, Rancière, Žižek and Mouffe to present a clear and coherent view of how in theory, politics can be digitized and alternatively how the internet can be deployed in the service of trulydemocratic politics.</p>

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Included in Packages

Topics

  • politics
  • JF1001.S65
  • Communication Studies
  • Democratic Theory
  • Internet Studies
  • New Media Studies
  • Political Theory
  • Arendt
  • democracy
  • Digital media
  • internet
  • participation
  • Rancière
  • subjectivity