Mediatization and the transformations of cultural activism

Abstract

In this introduction we develop an understanding of mediatization and the transformations of cultural activism. The point of departure is that digital networks and processes of mediatization provide new opportunities as well as obstacles for activism, and it is therefore our task, as researchers, to understand the ways in which activist participation changes when it is increasingly mediatized. Thus, we investigate how digital networks redesign the modalities of activist participation and ask how we can understand the relation between media, culture, social movements, and activist participatory practices.

Dialogic Literacy: contexts, competences and dispositions

“…Participation is increasingly seen as a requirement for solving problems, building social capital and coping with complexity within a community (e.g., Innes & Booher, 2010;Saurugger, 2009;Torfing, 2016). At the same time, the cultural landscape is in the process of being reshaped by a 'participatory turn' (Fabian & Reestorff, 2015;Saffo, 2010) and-especially among young people-participation in a range of physical and digital 'affinity spaces' (Gee, 2005) is shaping the processes of enculturation and learning (boyd, 2014;Jenkins, 2006;Jenkins et al, 2009;Jenkins, Ito & boyd, 2016). In schools, wikis and collaborative word-processors have become common practice, at least in the Danish secondary school (Bech et al, 2013).…”