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Digital civil disobedience

Theresa Züger ( Alexander von Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft )

Co-hosted by the Cyber Studies Programme, University of Oxford Department of Politics and Internatoinal Relations.

Abstract:

In many societies, civil disobedience is an established form of political protest. From the late 1980s onwards, the twin rise of global protest movements and home computers led activists to explore how to reinvent civil disobedience for the online world. A variety of disobedient digital practices have emerged since this period, some of which seem set to stay for the future. From the perspective of political philosophy, we are also confronted with new types of action that challenge the traditional understanding of civil disobedience. This session will explore the realm of digital disobedience and discuss whether and how these actions can or cannot be understood as civil disobedience today.

Speaker bio

Theresa Zueger is a researcher at the Alexander Humboldt Institute of Internet and Society in Berlin. Her research perspective is exploring the intersection between media studies and political philosophy, particularly in regard to phenomena of digital resistance. Her PhD thesis at the Humboldt University in Berlin explores digital forms of civil disobedience and challenges the standard understanding of it in the philosophical discourse. Between 2009 and today she worked in various positions in the media sector and as a lecturer at several German universities. In 2014 she was a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Center for New Media at the University of California, Berkeley. Theresa Zueger is part of the curating team for the transmediale conversationpiece in 2016, an internationally well-known Festival for digital art and culture.

 

 

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