Abstract:This essay explores the paradox of activists using corporate-owned platforms-the 'master's tools ' (Lorde, 1984)-in the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Grounded in findings from interviews with 30 women activists from eight North American Occupy sites, this essay reveals the frictions that result from the entangled paradox between philosophies embedded within technologies and activists' philosophies. We document entanglements between corporate platforms and radical democratic ideals, and subsequent frictions between activists' ideals and more pragmatic, DIY practices. We also investigate frictions between aspirations of openness, and the realities of surveillance and infiltration by the police state. We examine entanglements through the theoretical lenses of 'connective labor' , 'veillance' (Mann, 2004), and the 'master's tools' (Lorde, 1984), and lay the groundwork for 'queering the binary of individuals and groups ' (Barad, 2012) and recognising the non-linear, dynamic relations of social movements.

This paper aims to contextualize the citizen-driven response to crisis in cyberspace, the risks they experience and the relationship with resilience. First, discussion will identify the four types of digital response networks (affected communities, diaspora, digital humanitarians and digital activists) and introduce Digital Humanitarian Activist Networks (DHANs). Second, Bronfennbrenners ecological systems theory is used to contextualize risk through three risk typologies: regional, network, and individual risk. Third, the suitability of organizational resilience is explained for this context, and the need to rethink existing theory is discussed.

is a PhD Candidate with the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto. She holds a BASc and MASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto. She is a member of the teaching team and a course developer for the Praxis cornerstone design courses. Miss Lobna El Gammal , Institute For Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of TorontoLobna El Gammal is currently completing her third year of chemical engineering studies at the University of Toronto. She is pursuing a certificate of global engineering and working towards an optional fourth-year thesis with the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) at the University of Toronto.Previously, she worked as a pilot analyst summer research student, with both ILead and Patricia Sheridan, to develop a team effectiveness inventory for guided reflection and feedback. Lobna was responsible for performing quantitative and qualitative analysis of the pilot project findings and for modifying the proposed inventory based on analysis.Lobna is passionate about engineering education and plans to pursue a career path in the field.

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