Cover of From Voice to Influence
From Voice to Influence Understanding Citizenship in a Digital Age
edited by Danielle Allen and Jennifer S. Light
University of Chicago Press, 2015
Cloth: 978-0-226-26212-3 | Paper: 978-0-226-26226-0 | Electronic: 978-0-226-26243-7
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

How have online protests—like the recent outrage over the Komen Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood—changed the nature of political action? How do Facebook and other popular social media platforms shape the conversation around current political issues? The ways in which we gather information about current events and communicate it with others have been transformed by the rapid rise of digital media. The political is no longer confined to the institutional and electoral arenas, and that has profound implications for how we understand citizenship and political participation.

With From Voice to Influence, Danielle Allen and Jennifer S. Light have brought together a stellar group of political and social theorists, social scientists, and media analysts to explore this transformation. Threading through the contributions is the notion of egalitarian participatory democracy, and among the topics discussed are immigration rights activism, the participatory potential of hip hop culture, and the porous boundary between public and private space on social media. The opportunities presented for political efficacy through digital media to people who otherwise might not be easily heard also raise a host of questions about how to define “good participation:” Does the ease with which one can now participate in online petitions or conversations about current events seduce some away from serious civic activities into “slacktivism?”

 Drawing on a diverse body of theory, from Hannah Arendt to Anthony Appiah, From Voice to Influence offers a range of distinctive visions for a political ethics to guide citizens in a digitally connected world.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Danielle Allen is the UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study and the author or editor of several books, including, most recently, Our Declaration. Jennifer S. Light is professor of science, technology, and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of From Warfare to Welfare and The Nature of Cities.

REVIEWS

“For anyone who thinks that the Internet has created a whole new order, From Voice to Influence ought to be essential reading. This is a very important and valuable book, rich with fascinating case studies and pertinent data.”
— Peter Levine, Tufts University

"From #blacklivesmatter to the DREAMer movement, from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring, recent social movements have raised questions about how networked participation and civic expression are shaping what counts as politics in the twenty-first century. From Voice to Influence assembles a multidisciplinary mix of key thinkers to ask hard questions about the shifting nature of the public sphere, the values of deliberation and expression, the continued importance of disinterestedness and cosmopolitanism, the nature of civic agency, and the impact of new technologies of media production and circulation. Each contribution here is original, provocative, thoughtful, and grounded, and each helps us to understand more fully what it means to come of age as a civic agent in today’s media landscape.”
— Henry Jenkins, coauthor of By Any Media Necessary: The New Activism of Digital-Age Youth

“Recommended. . . .The importance of early contributions to this field makes this an important title.”
— Choice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction - Danielle Allen and Jennifer S. Light

Part I. Toward Participatory Politics


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0001
[youth, new media, alternative media, usable past, political participation, technology and politics]
Many accounts of new media and politics have highlighted youth practices, suggesting that individuals and groups previously excluded from formal political structures now are able to express their voices and exert influence as never before. This chapter tempers that view. Its history of youth political participation in the United States since 1800 documents how young people have long found ways to share political ideas among themselves and with adults, and media have played a role in these activities for over two centuries. Situating these activities within the history of alternative media, this account uses youth as a heuristic device for thinking about relationships between technology and politics more broadly. Historical evidence reveals that new media used--but not controlled--by young people have typically provided only temporary access to the public sphere before adult gatekeepers foreclosed these opportunities, suggesting that the contemporary youth practices attracting so much are contingent. The chapter argues that history can offer not only a context but also a usable past, expanding the kinds of theoretical frameworks that can be brought to bear on normative analysis of the relationships between technology and politics in a digital age. (pages 19 - 34)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0002
[youth, participatory politics, digital media, adolescent, survey, civic engagement]
New media have come to play a prominent role in civic and political life. Social network sites, web sites and text increasingly serve as both a conduit for political information and a major public arena where citizens express and exchange their political ideas; raise funds; and mobilize others to vote, protest, and work on public issues. This chapter considers how the ascendency of today's new media may be introducing fundamental changes in political expectations and practices. Specifically, it presents evidence that new media facilitate participatory politics--interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert voice and influence on issues of public concern. While such activity has always taken place, evidence suggests that new media are providing new opportunities for political voice and discussion, thus increasing the role of participatory politics in public life. This chapter provides a conceptual overview of the implications of this shift for how political life is organized, emerging political practices, and pathways to political engagement. Analysis focuses on youth, who are early adopters of new media, and provides empirical evidence regarding the importance of participatory politics in their political life. It also highlights benefits and risks associated with this form of political engagement. (pages 35 - 56)

Part II. Participation Up Close: Case Studies


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0003
[dissent, hip hop, black youth, non-consequentialism, solidarity, political authority, injustice]
This chapter is about the ethics of political dissent among disadvantaged black youth. Dissent that is "impure" contains valid political content but also includes other elements that diverge sharply from conventional or widely held normative standards. These "deviant" elements can sometimes seem to undermine or overshadow the political aims of the dissent or to call into question the political significance of such dissent. Marginalized black youth often participate in hip hop culture and are strongly associated with this culture in the public imagination. When black youth use hip hop to engage in impure dissent, this political participation is often dismissed as politically inconsequential or condemned as reactionary or worse. However, some of this music is an example of valuable public protest against injustice. This chapter explains the intrinsic value of impure dissent, that is, its value apart from any beneficial social consequences that may flow from it. It develops a non-instrumental argument in favor of impure dissent, showing that much political rap is best understood within a non-consequentialist political ethic. In publicly communicating condemnation of injustice, solidarity with the oppressed, and defiance in the face of illegitimate authority, impure dissent is a vital element of the political ethics of the oppressed. (pages 59 - 79)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0004
[immigration, undocumented youth, social media, queer theory, DREAM Act]
This essay looks at how DREAM activists, particularly queer DREAM activists, use forms of new social media as a space of confrontation, creativity, and self-assertion. Speaking to an imagined public of both allies and adversaries, I consider how Dreamers challenge the politics of fear by sharing their personal stories and political analysis. Thinking about sexuality and illegality as two forms of secrecy that DREAM activists are challenging, the essay also seeks to consider how social media facilitates new forms of political courage, agonism, and resistance. Refusing the politics of shame and stigma, these Dreamers name themselves as "undocumented and unafraid." In claiming an oppositional stance of fearlessness, Dreamers were able to successfully pressure President Obama into signing an executive order that grants young undocumented immigrants "deferred action." In this way, Dreamers were able to put forward a more combative stance that claims it is the law, not unauthorized youth, which is illegitimate. In working to queer the immigrants-rights movement, I argue that Dreamers are putting forward a more "gothic" form of membership that challenges simplistic conceptions of patriotism, gratitude, legality, and loyalty. (pages 80 - 104)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0005
[friending, transparency, anonymity, Facebook, ideology, Spam, social networks, digital economy, cyberbullying]
What is the role of "friending" in negotiating online publics? What is the role of transparency? This chapter begins with these questions in order to examine the complex and contradictory nature of online publics as they are shaped by the processes and politics of online friendships. Through an analysis of specific examples of accountability and authentication in social networking sites (SNSs) such as Friendster.com andFacebook.com, as well as more ephemeral intimate publics such as flash mobs, spam, and internet viruses, this chapter outlines the ways in which value, ideology, and community, are produced and circulate online. Central to this essay is an understanding of both the inherent vulnerability and the potentially political aspects of these intimate publics. This essay concludes with a turn to other models of friendship premised on nonreciprocal relations, theorizing the possibilities for democracy that stem from such networked vulnerability. (pages 105 - 128)

Part III. Participation Out Far: Concepts and Mechanisms


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0006
[social media, censorship, participatory media, blogging, social networks, activism, dissent]
Participatory media technologies like weblogs, microblogging and social networks provide a new space for political discourse. Many governments seek controls over online speech, and these controls can lead to blocking or censoring entire participatory media platforms. Activists who use the Internet for dissenting speech may be able to reach larger audiences by publishing on widely-used consumer platforms than on their own standalone webservers, because they may provoke government countermeasures, including platform censorship, that call attention to their cause. While social media platforms are often resilient in the face of government censorship, negotiating with governments to ensure the platform remains accessible, the commercial constraints of these platforms are shaping online political discourse, suggesting that limits to activist speech may come from corporate terms of service as much as from government censorship. (pages 131 - 154)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0007
[social movements, activism, civic engagement, technology, civic technology, Internet, mobilization, organizing]
In 2011 and 2012, several high profile campaigns spread with unexpected speed and potency. These "viral engagements" include the mobilization that scuttled the Stop Online Piracy Act, popular protest against the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood, 100 million views of KONY 2012 video on YouTube and its subsequent criticism and defense, and on-line activism around the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. This paper examines three aspects of these viral campaigns as form of political engagement. First, is there a common structure of mobilization and spread? Some have argued that these viral campaigns synthesize conventional social and political networks but amplify the messages that spread through those networks through the speed of digital communication. Second, what are the potential contributions of this fast, cheap, and thin mode of engagement to democracy? We examine the implications of viral engagement for four critical democratic values: inclusion, public deliberation, political equality, and civic education. (pages 155 - 177)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0008
[public sphere, democratic theory, identity, political communication, new media, NGO, Corporations, social movements, political institutions, culture]
This chapter outlines some inadequacies in conventional approaches to the "public sphere," points to an alternative tradition of conceptualization, and presents a structure for thinking about public spheres as "flows" first. A flow dynamics framework makes it possible to identify changed features of our political landscape in the wake of the disruptions of new media. Some discursive streams, "influential discourse," influence decision-making mechanisms that define entire polities while some streams, "expressive discourse," have a more limited impact on particular communities of expression. "Influential discourse" effects action through one of four levers: political and legal institutions; authoritative institutional spaces--like corporations or major NGOs; social movements; and cultural change, which can also be understood as wide-scale change in individual choice-making. In contrast, the purely "expressive discourse" circulates within subnational and transnational communities and fosters shared identities, alliances, solidarities, and network connections. Taken together, the two categories make visible forms of political participation that are obscured by a more traditional focus on political institutions. A critical task for scholars of political communication is to understand the mechanisms separating "influential" and "expressive" discourse streams from one another. A critical task for democratic theory is to find egalitarian potentialities within the contemporary discursive system. (pages 178 - 208)

Part IV. Participatory Vistas


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0009
[new media, Internet-mediated communication, democracy, cognitive democracy, markets, bureaucracy, decision-making, problem-solving, hierarchy]
The rise of the Internet makes this an especially good time for experimenting with democratic structures. Democracy is uniquely fitted to help people with highly diverse perspectives come together to solve problems collectively. Democracy can do this better than either markets and hierarchies, because it brings these diverse understandings into direct contact with each other, allowing forms of learning that are unlikely either through the price mechanism of markets or the hierarchical arrangements of bureaucracy. We do not yet know the possibilities of Internet-mediated communication for gathering dispersed knowledge, for generating new knowledge, for complex problem-solving, or for collective decision-making, but we really ought to find out. Our argument is not that new media leads to better democracy, but that proper democracy leads to better use of the potential of new media. It is only in the context of strong, and indeed radical democratic institutions, that new media can realize their potential for improving problem solving and decision making. Before we return to the relationship between democracy and new media, we need to offer a full outline of a cognitive approach to democracy, an approach inspired by older work on political decision-making but also newly relevant because of the possibilities inherent in new media. (pages 211 - 231)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0010
[disinterested stance, disinterestedness, professionals, digital media, role, democratic society, worker]
A democratic society depends upon professionals who are capable of assuming a disinterested stance: journalists who cover the news fairly, judges who honor precedent, physicians who prescribe the optimal treatment. While complete disinterestedness may not be possible, the professional strives to embody the role of the disinterested worker and reflects regularly on his or her degree of success. The digital media are disruptive forces vis-a-vis the professions: these media feature a plethora of information of varying reliability, alternative forms of credentialing, dubious rankings of practitioners. Yet it would be a grave error to give up the ideal of disinterestedness. Indeed it is an essential stance for those who administer the digital landscape. If society is to function well in the period ahead, those growing up must appreciate the importance of disinterestedness, recognize the risks attendant to its loss, and participate in spaces--online and offline--that model and honor the disinterested stance. (pages 232 - 253)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0011
[globalization, new media, philosophy, sociology, Anthony Appiah, equitable self-interest, socio-spatial imagination, cosmopolitanism, political participation, borders]
Globalization and new media raise important questions about our responsibility across national borders and our socio-spatial imagination. How do we imagine the globally distributed localities to which we have connections, and the social relations that are overlaid on those geographical conceptions? What stance should we adopt toward others who are socially, culturally, and geographically far removed but with whom we may interact relatively easily? We build on Anthony Appiah's notion of "rooted cosmopolitanism" to supply the foundation for a solution to the interrelated problems of interestedness and justice in our hyper-linked-up world. Central to our argument is a concept of "equitable self-interest." The identification of an appealing political ethics to frame political participation in a digitally-connected world does not, however, provide any insight into whether such cosmopolitan forms of civic agency actually exist or might come into being. We therefore combine philosophy and sociology, connecting the normative theorizing of philosophers to sociological understanding of the relational roots of social formations. Drawing on sociology enables us to explore the potentialities and limits of new media to help bring into being forms of socio-spatial imagination, practices, and social organization that could make the ideal of "rooted cosmopolitanism" real in the world. (pages 254 - 272)


DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226262437.003.0012
[Hannah Arendt, Benjamin Barber, Jurgen Habermas, public sphere, everyday talk, citizens, public media, deliberation, will formation, new media]
This chapter explores how our conceptions of politics and political action shape how people use digital tools for mobilizing, organizing, and other political actions. The shape of the chapter is as follows: First I define politics by drawing on work of Hannah Arendt and Benjamin Barber to show that in their everyday talk and action citizens engage in the political. Second, I offer an account of the public sphere that explains how publics form and citizens come to have a self-understanding as political agents. Third, and drawing on Habermas, I present the four main tasks that a democratic public needs to carry out in the public sphere for democracy to work well: identifying problems, deliberating, making choices and forming public will. Fourth, I address how new media can be and are being used to carry out this work. Finally, I close by arguing that new media users should see themselves as citizens in a robust way, not just as voters, protesters, or consumers. For this project, public media provide a critical resource. (pages 273 - 292)

Conclusion - Danielle Allen and Jennifer S. Light

Notes

References

Contributors

Index

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