Transnational Hacktivism Flashcards
What is the historical background (timeline) of transnational hacktivism?
- 1975: emergence of New World Info Communication Order: first debate asking for more loosened, democratic communication (less gov. controlled)
- 1985: emergence of free communications due to these new technologies
- > Velletri agreement: grassroot NGOs
- > GNU/LINUX: free operating system
- 1995: Zapata and Wikileaks (worldwide audience for issues they were pushing)
How do we define hacktivism today?
-transgressive, political, online
-“non violent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends”
-( vs online activism: conventional vs cyber-terrrorism: violence )
[conventional (non-violent and legal) —-> transgressive (non-violent and illegal) —-> violent
What is the definition of a transnational social movement?
- episodic
- collective interaction
- gov. somehow involved
- for particular demands
- constituents in at least 2 states
- in at least one state other than their own or against int. institution or multinational economic actor
What is the social movement agenda and its parts?
—>mobilizing structures
social change —-> framing -> repertoires
—>political opportunity structure
- mobilizing structures: organization
- political opportunity structure: opening window of opportunity
- framing: narrative (culprits)
- repertoires: form of movement/protest
What is global framing?
- use of external symbols to orient local or national claims
- global narrative
- ideological framework
- non-politics: “the Lulz” (not political)
- propaganda by the deed (just doing it = attention of audience and can rally)
What are some transnational repertoires of contention?
- definition: set of various protest related tools and actions available to a movement or organization
- defacements, parodies, redirects
- DDos, virtual sabotage, software development
- info theft and distribution
What are transnational mobilizing structures?
- definition: resource allowing contentious sustained acts that bring people together in the field, to shape coalitions, confront opponents and assure their own future after exhiliration has passed
- supporting offline movements
- supporting hybrid offline and online movements
- e.g. cloud protesting
What are international political opportunity structures?
- political environment:
- oppenness of political system
- elite alignment stability
- elite allies or not
- state’s coercive power - technical possibilities
What work did Sidney Tarrow publish?
Transnational politics: contention and institutions in international politics
What were the objectives of Tarrow’s work?
The Westphalian is in decline.
-what will happen to states: 1. cyclical (states come back)? 2. or replaced by non-territory institutions? 3. or replaced by social movements? 4. combination?
- predictions fail to see we are going to a different set of institutions
- mass movement being replaced by NGOs
According to Tarrow, what are the 4 empirical phenomena that led IR and social movement scholars to converge?
- Grassroot insurgencies:
national movements framing their claims globally
seek int. support
(grassroot: collective action from local level to effect change) - International protest events (e.g. Battle of Seattle)
coallitions of trans and national groups against highly visible IOs - Transnational activist coallitions against some national states
- Activism of INGOs within and around int. institutions and int. treaty writing
According to Tarrow, what role do transnational activist networks have?
-social movements and INGOs contain transnational activist networks
-informal and shifting structures through which…
(1) NGO members,
(2) social movement activists,
(3) gov. officials
(4) agents of int. institutions
…can interact and help resource-poor domestic actors to gain leverage in their own societies
Does Tarrow agree with the global civil society thesis for the growth of transnational activism?
- No
- globalization doesn’t directly create transnational activism: (networks are rarely transnational, identities are local..?)
According to Tarrow, how are transnational activist networks created?
- international institutions create transnational reactions
- international institutions legitimize themselves through transnational civil society (external incentives)
- international institutions forms a cosmopolitan elite
- TANs formed from elites and social movement (internal + external)
- TANs influence domestic politics
(in long term: domestic movements bcome aware of their common interests and form transnational social movements)
=not globalization that leads to them
What are Tarrows conclusions?
-international institutions = “coral reef”
-> int. institutions created by states
-> but int. institutions generate transnational social
movement
-> are acting like the magnet where all trans social movemnts are directed
-if thesis correct:
-> TANs won’t emerge from domestic groups but from int. institutions and their transnational contestation
