Dorothy Kidd
University of San Francisco, Media Studies, Faculty Member
- Media Studies, Social Movements, Political Economy, Alternative Media, Media Activism, New Media and Political Activism, and 44 moreSocial Media, Women's History, Media History, Alternative Globalization, Media Commons, Nwico, Communications Commons, Social Impacts of Mining, Social Impact of Mining in Communities, Transpacific Partnership, Transnational Social Movements, Media and Cultural Studies, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Political Economy of Communication, Social Movement, Media Policy, Protest, Occupy Wall Street, Digital Media, Journalism Studies, Communication, New Media, Social reproduction, Silvia Federici, Commons, Urban Commons, Music, Ecology, Cultural Studies, Development Studies, Human Rights, Sociology, Technology, Political Science, Information Systems, Climate Change, Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Environmental Sustainability, Data Mining, Political Philosophy, Sustainable Development, Gender, and Educationedit
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or... more
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
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Syllabus v. 2.2 DESCRIPTION The goal of this course is to explore the ways that grassroots organizations and social and political justice movements use communications media to make social, political, economic and cultural change. Most... more
Syllabus v. 2.2 DESCRIPTION The goal of this course is to explore the ways that grassroots organizations and social and political justice movements use communications media to make social, political, economic and cultural change. Most recently, we have witnessed how #BlackLivesMatter, Extinction Rebellion, #MeToo and many other contemporary movements are integrating media-making with their social justice efforts. We will examine the media-making practices of some of these contemporary movements and their roots in citizens' and social movements of the past. Importantly, we will consider how the contemporary media ecology and especially the dominant media technologies and digital platforms not only create new opportunities for today's movements, but also present considerable risks and challenges.
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This article reviews the legacy of the global Indymedia Center (IMC), a news and information network of 175 autonomous media centres that operated in every world region autonomously of the dominant corporate and public service... more
This article reviews the legacy of the global Indymedia Center (IMC), a news and information network of 175 autonomous media centres that operated in every world region autonomously of the dominant corporate and public service communications and information systems. Emerging first during protests against the neo-liberal practices of the World Trade Organization, the IMC represented a media-historic moment, one of the first times that social movement media activists were able to bypass the dominant media to produce their own reports and circulate them directly to activists and supporters around the world. My review examines the composition of the IMC's infrastructure and volunteer force, and their technological and communications repertoires in relation to the dominant communications systems, and consider their legacy in succeeding cycles of social movement contention. I then compare the legacy of the IMC with the more recent media-historic moment of the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who in 2016 tactically employed a land-based mobilization with a movement-directed online and offline communications assemblage to mobilize against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on their traditional territory. Capturing more US and international dominant media attention than any previous Indigenous movement, and reaching even more people with their self-generated media, they countered the neo-liberal extractivist paradigm of resource exploitation and also affirmed their
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There has been a wealth of research in Latin America on the most recent global intensification of extractivism, or the capitalist exploitation of natural resources. Some of this research has examined the resistance among front-line... more
There has been a wealth of research in Latin America on the most recent global intensification of extractivism, or the capitalist exploitation of natural resources. Some of this research has examined the resistance among front-line Indigenous and rural communities, and allied environmental groups, who are challenging the development of mega-scale mining, oil, gas, monoagricultural, and related infrastructural projects. Researchers have noted many similar tactical repertoires that can take multiple forms (through direct action, media representation, and in legal, political, and educational forums) and extend across geographic scales (local, national, regional, and transnational). Communications is key to much of their work; however there has been far less research examining the communications practices in any detail. This article focuses on the communications practices in use in three Indigenous led campaigns against extractivist projects in North America, the decade-old Unist’ot’en ...
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There has been a wealth of research in Latin America on the most recent global intensification of extractivism, or the capitalist exploitation of natural resources. Some of this research has examined the resistance among front-line... more
There has been a wealth of research in Latin America on the most recent global intensification of extractivism, or the capitalist exploitation of natural resources. Some of this research has examined the resistance among front-line Indigenous and rural communities, and allied environmental groups, who are challenging the development of mega-scale mining, oil, gas, mono-agricultural, and related infrastructural projects. Researchers have noted many similar tactical repertoires that can take multiple forms (through direct action, media representation, and in legal, political, and educational forums) and extend across geographic scales (local, national, regional, and transnational). Communications is key to much of their work; however there has been far less research examining the communications practices in any detail. This article focuses on the communications practices in use in three Indigenous-led campaigns against extractivist projects in North America, the decade-old Unist’ot’en Camp in northwestern Canada, Idle No More, and the #NoDAPL of the Standing Rock Sioux. My findings indicate that a resurgent Indigenous movement, in concert with environmental and other settler allies, has adopted an array of communications practices that combine protective action on behalf of their lands and waters with the creation of new communities in place-based assemblies and social media and digital networks.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Communication, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Social Activism, and 9 moreSocial Movements (Political Science), Indigenous Movements, Transnational Social Movements, Environmental Justice, Media and Communication Studies, Post Extractivismo Y Derechos De La Naturaleza, Extractivismo, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and Communication In Social Movements
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A new cycle of communications commons has become part of the contemporary repertoire of Indigenous first nations in North America. The mobilization of the Standing Rock Sioux is perhaps the best-known example of a continent-wide cycle of... more
A new cycle of communications commons has become part of the contemporary repertoire of Indigenous first nations in North America. The mobilization of the Standing Rock Sioux is perhaps the best-known example of a continent-wide cycle of resistance in which Indigenous communities have employed a combination of collectively governed land-based encampments and sophisticated trans-media assemblages to challenge the further enclosure of their territories by the state and fossil fuel industries and instead represent their political and media sovereignty, and prefigure a more reciprocal relationship with other humans and with nature. Although their practices of commoning resemble other radical commons projects, the contemporary Indigenous commons begs for a reassessment of the critical framework of the commons. In this article, I discuss the critical commons literature and compare it with the practices of commoning in the anti-extractivist encampments of Standing Rock.
Research Interests: Communication, Indigenous Studies, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Commons, and 15 moreSocial Movement, Social Justice, Political communication, Environmental movements, Commons Theory, Social Communication, Anti-Colonialism, Communications Commons, Indigenous Communication, Extractive industries, Communication and media Studies, The Commons, Social Justice Communication, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and History of the Commons
Pre-publication version. (2018) Introduction to Part III: Practice Approaches to Video Activism. In Hilde Stephansen and Emiliano Trere (eds). Citizen Media and Practice: Currents, Connections, Challenges. London & New York: Routledge.
Research Interests: Social Change, Social Movements, Communication, Media Studies, Practice theory, and 12 moreMedia Activism, Media and Democracy, Transnational Social Movements, Latin American social movements, Alternative Media, New social movements, Communication for Social Change, Video activism, Citizen media, Community and Citizens Media, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and Activist Media
Neither big data, nor data justice are particularly new. Data collection, in the form of land surveys and mapping, was key to successive projects of European imperialist and then capitalist extraction of natural resources. Geo-spatial... more
Neither big data, nor data justice are particularly new. Data
collection, in the form of land surveys and mapping, was key to
successive projects of European imperialist and then capitalist
extraction of natural resources. Geo-spatial instruments have been
used since the fifteenth century to highlight potential sites of
mineral, oil, and gas extraction, and inscribe European economic,
cultural and political control across indigenous territories.
Although indigenous groups consistently challenged maintained
their territorial sovereignty, and resisted corporate and state
surveillance practices, they were largely unable to withstand the
combined onslaught of surveyors, armed personnel, missionaries
and government bureaucrats. This article examines the use of
counter-mapping by indigenous nations in Canada, one of the
globe’s hubs of extractivism, as part of the exercise of indigenous
territorial sovereignty. After a brief review of the colonial period, I
then compare the use of counter-mapping during two cycles of
indigenous mobilization. During the 1970s, counter-mapping
projects were part of a larger repertoire of negotiations with the
state over land claims, and served to re-inscribe first nation’s
long-standing history of economic, social and cultural relations in
their territories, and contribute to new collective imaginaries and
identities. In the current cycle of contests over extractivism and
indigenous sovereignty, the use, scope and geographic scale of
counter-mapping has shifted; maps are used as part of larger
trans-media campaigns of Indigenous sovereignty. During both
cycles, counter-mapping as data justice required fusion within
larger projects of redistributive, transformative and restorative
justice.
collection, in the form of land surveys and mapping, was key to
successive projects of European imperialist and then capitalist
extraction of natural resources. Geo-spatial instruments have been
used since the fifteenth century to highlight potential sites of
mineral, oil, and gas extraction, and inscribe European economic,
cultural and political control across indigenous territories.
Although indigenous groups consistently challenged maintained
their territorial sovereignty, and resisted corporate and state
surveillance practices, they were largely unable to withstand the
combined onslaught of surveyors, armed personnel, missionaries
and government bureaucrats. This article examines the use of
counter-mapping by indigenous nations in Canada, one of the
globe’s hubs of extractivism, as part of the exercise of indigenous
territorial sovereignty. After a brief review of the colonial period, I
then compare the use of counter-mapping during two cycles of
indigenous mobilization. During the 1970s, counter-mapping
projects were part of a larger repertoire of negotiations with the
state over land claims, and served to re-inscribe first nation’s
long-standing history of economic, social and cultural relations in
their territories, and contribute to new collective imaginaries and
identities. In the current cycle of contests over extractivism and
indigenous sovereignty, the use, scope and geographic scale of
counter-mapping has shifted; maps are used as part of larger
trans-media campaigns of Indigenous sovereignty. During both
cycles, counter-mapping as data justice required fusion within
larger projects of redistributive, transformative and restorative
justice.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Indigenous Studies, Media Studies, Community Development, International Political Economy, and 11 morePolitical communication, Social Movements (Political Science), Critical Geography, First Nations of Canada, Big Data, Counter-Mapping, Post Extractivismo Y Derechos De La Naturaleza, Neo-extractivism, Extractivismo, Media Justice, and Data Justice Community Research
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Submission for the inaugural issue of the journal of alternative and community media
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Research Interests: Communication, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Globalization, Environmental Studies, Social Movement, and 17 moreIndigenous Politics, Indigenous Knowledge, Globalisation and Development, Social Movements (Political Science), Transnational Social Movements, Latin American social movements, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Alternative Media, New social movements, Movimientos sociales, Extractivism, Post Extractivismo Y Derechos De La Naturaleza, Neo-extractivism, Extractivismo, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and Social Movements/Civil Society
RESUMEN Usando la rúbrica investigativa tomada del marxismo autonomista, este artículo toma el movimiento Ocupa como caso de estudio y examina sus antecedentes históricos, la composición de sus actores sociales, sus repertorios de... more
RESUMEN
Usando la rúbrica investigativa tomada del marxismo autonomista, este artículo toma el movimiento Ocupa
como caso de estudio y examina sus antecedentes históricos, la composición de sus actores sociales, sus repertorios
de comunicaciones y estrategias de cambio social. Mis hallazgos sugieren que el movimiento Ocupa fue
significativo, no por su contribución al cambio político, sino por su contribución a las comunicaciones democrá-
ticas. El movimiento Ocupa representó un nuevo punto de inflexión en la comunicación para la justicia social, en
el que el movimiento mismo dirigió sus propios medios, reduciendo, por un tiempo, la dependencia de los grupos
de justicia social de los medios comerciales dominantes. Usando una aproximación transmediática, y empezando
con la creación de unas comunicaciones compartidas en un reclamado espacio público, convergieron en el
movimiento Ocupa muchos grupos diferentes de justicia social que emplearon una panoplia de viejos y nuevos
repertorios comunicativos.
Palabras clave: movimiento Ocupa, justicia social, medios de base, redes sociales, cambio social, transmedia.
Usando la rúbrica investigativa tomada del marxismo autonomista, este artículo toma el movimiento Ocupa
como caso de estudio y examina sus antecedentes históricos, la composición de sus actores sociales, sus repertorios
de comunicaciones y estrategias de cambio social. Mis hallazgos sugieren que el movimiento Ocupa fue
significativo, no por su contribución al cambio político, sino por su contribución a las comunicaciones democrá-
ticas. El movimiento Ocupa representó un nuevo punto de inflexión en la comunicación para la justicia social, en
el que el movimiento mismo dirigió sus propios medios, reduciendo, por un tiempo, la dependencia de los grupos
de justicia social de los medios comerciales dominantes. Usando una aproximación transmediática, y empezando
con la creación de unas comunicaciones compartidas en un reclamado espacio público, convergieron en el
movimiento Ocupa muchos grupos diferentes de justicia social que emplearon una panoplia de viejos y nuevos
repertorios comunicativos.
Palabras clave: movimiento Ocupa, justicia social, medios de base, redes sociales, cambio social, transmedia.
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If Occupy Wall Street focused attention on the transnational resistance to the imaginaries and practices of neo-liberalization, the networked protests, collectively identified as #Occupy each emerged out of particular places, contexts and... more
If Occupy Wall Street focused attention on the transnational resistance to the imaginaries and practices of neo-liberalization, the networked protests, collectively identified as #Occupy each emerged out of particular places, contexts and histories of contestation. This paper examines the significance in one urban region, the San Francisco Bay, and especially the intersection between #Occupy and longer-term residual urban social movements. Understanding neo-liberalization as a dynamic process, I begin by mapping the vectors of contention in the regional imposition of the neo-liberal project, and especially the sectors of housing, employment, education and media representation. I then analyse the intersection of the #Occupy moment, between two different politics – the direct action and militant commons, and the longer-term subaltern counter-spheres of the residual organizations. I then identify the impact on the dynamics of mobilization and intervention, and especially the imaginaries and practices of urban space, inclusion, and knowledge production.
Keywords: contentious politics, counter public spheres, enclosure, commons
Keywords: contentious politics, counter public spheres, enclosure, commons
Research Interests: Social Movements, Urban Geography, Media and Cultural Studies, Political communication, Alternative Media, and 8 moreSocial reproduction, Right to the city, Occupy Wall Street, International Occupy Movement, Occupy Movement, Right to the City, Social Justice, Environmental Grassroots Movements, Antiglobalization Social Movements, and Anti Capitalist Social Movements
Abstract Recently, there has been an outburst of academic and journalistic writing about the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by social justice movements. However, as Rodríguez et al (2014) have... more
Abstract
Recently, there has been an outburst of academic and journalistic writing about the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by social justice movements. However, as Rodríguez et al (2014) have cogently argued , these reports have failed to examine the historical development and complexity of communication processes within larger global political economies; and have tended to neglect existing knowledges and literatures, especially from the global south. Using a research rubric drawn from autonomist Marxism, this article takes the Occupy movement as a case study, and examines its historical antecedents, composition of social actors, communications repertoires and strategies of social change. My findings suggest that the Occupy movement was significant, not for its contribution to political change, but for its contribution to democratic communications. Occupy represented a new watershed in social justice communications, in which the movement itself directed its own media, reducing, for a time, the dependency of social justice groups on the dominant commercial media. Using a transmedia approach, beginning with the creation of communications commons in reclaimed public space, the Occupy movement converged many different social justice groups who employed a panoply of old and new communications repertoires. Although the movement itself has faded, its repertoire has been remediated in social justice movement communications practices throughout the world.
Recently, there has been an outburst of academic and journalistic writing about the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) by social justice movements. However, as Rodríguez et al (2014) have cogently argued , these reports have failed to examine the historical development and complexity of communication processes within larger global political economies; and have tended to neglect existing knowledges and literatures, especially from the global south. Using a research rubric drawn from autonomist Marxism, this article takes the Occupy movement as a case study, and examines its historical antecedents, composition of social actors, communications repertoires and strategies of social change. My findings suggest that the Occupy movement was significant, not for its contribution to political change, but for its contribution to democratic communications. Occupy represented a new watershed in social justice communications, in which the movement itself directed its own media, reducing, for a time, the dependency of social justice groups on the dominant commercial media. Using a transmedia approach, beginning with the creation of communications commons in reclaimed public space, the Occupy movement converged many different social justice groups who employed a panoply of old and new communications repertoires. Although the movement itself has faded, its repertoire has been remediated in social justice movement communications practices throughout the world.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Communication, Alternative Media, Autonomous Media, Occupy Movement, and Strategic Communication and Contentious Politics - Media and Politics - Media and Foreign Policy Analysis - Social Media - Social and Political Movements - Media and Democracy - Political/ International Communication -
Research Interests: Communication, Community Development, Bridging Digital Divide, Digital Inclusion, Digital divide, community computing, gender and ICT, and Community Informatics, Digital Literacy and the Digital Divide, ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development particularly in Sustainable Socio-economic Development)
Abstract This paper compares the communications dimension of contentious politics among labour and youth in China and South Korea. Both countries are centres of information capitalism, with heavy investment from national governments and... more
Abstract
This paper compares the communications dimension of contentious politics among labour and youth in China and South Korea. Both countries are centres of information capitalism, with heavy investment from national governments and multinational corporations, and at the same time, creative adaptation of these technologies by workers organizing against transnational corporations and governments (Kidd 2010, Qiu 2010, Zhao & Duffy, 2007, Xing, 2010); and expanding autonomous communications spaces (Jo, 2010, Xing, 2010). We test a set of research questions drawn from autonomist Marxism; what has been the changing composition of global capital and of working class struggles? What are the repertoires of communicative action used by the contending groups and what has been the impact? Cases are drawn from the emerging academic, labour and social movement grey literature about contentious politics in waged workplaces in the ICT sector in southwestern China and South Korea.
This paper compares the communications dimension of contentious politics among labour and youth in China and South Korea. Both countries are centres of information capitalism, with heavy investment from national governments and multinational corporations, and at the same time, creative adaptation of these technologies by workers organizing against transnational corporations and governments (Kidd 2010, Qiu 2010, Zhao & Duffy, 2007, Xing, 2010); and expanding autonomous communications spaces (Jo, 2010, Xing, 2010). We test a set of research questions drawn from autonomist Marxism; what has been the changing composition of global capital and of working class struggles? What are the repertoires of communicative action used by the contending groups and what has been the impact? Cases are drawn from the emerging academic, labour and social movement grey literature about contentious politics in waged workplaces in the ICT sector in southwestern China and South Korea.
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Research Interests: Social Movements, Canadian Studies, Latin American Studies, Communication, Indigenous Studies, and 14 moreMedia Studies, Community Development, Political communication, Canadian Law, Latin American social movements, Alternative Media, Mining, Diaspora and transnationalism, Latin America, Canadian Foreign Policy, Globalization, Anti-Globalization, Autonomous Media, Anti-Globalisation, and Anti Capitalist and Anti Globalisation Movements
Research Interests: History, Social Movements, Canadian Studies, Music, Communication, and 21 moreIndigenous Media, Journalism, Canadian History, Literature, Environmental Studies, Media Literacy, Transnational Social Movements, Latin American social movements, Alternative Media, Mining, Labor Movements, ICTs, Audiovisual, Labor Movement, News Media, Community and Citizens Media, Alternate Media, Canadian mining, labour media, Social, Docs, and Polical
This chapter foregrounds the role of an emerging movement of young migrant workers, and especially their tactical communications, in contesting the global system of capitalism in China’s export industries. Producing much of the world’s... more
This chapter foregrounds the role of an emerging movement of young migrant workers, and especially their tactical communications, in contesting the global system of capitalism in China’s export industries. Producing much of the world’s high- and low-end products, from Apple iphones and Honda cars, to Pepsi-Cola and jeans, the young workers are wielding an array of on- and off-web communications to protest for higher wages, better working conditions and dignity, and to create a new collective identity for themselves. Beginning with a review of the role of new information and communications technologies in China’s rapid transformation to a global capitalist state, I show the roots of this current cycle of worker contention in the “un-making” or decomposition of the older industrial working class, and the “making” or re-composition of a new working class of migrants from rural China. I then review the tactical repertoires of the younger generation of migrant workers, their allied groups in China and Hong Kong, and the recent transnational solidarity campaigns.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Media and Cultural Studies, Digital Media, Digital Culture, Political communication, and 10 moreSocial Media, Alternative Media, Labor History and Studies, Contemporary China, Autonomous Marxism, Cyberactivism, Contentious Politics, Autonomous Media, Alternate Media, and Antiglobalization Social Movements
Abstract This chapter focuses on young migrant workers who are now the major working class force of contention in China, regularly launching collective industrial action, including 30,000 strikes and working protests in 2009 alone.... more
Abstract
This chapter focuses on young migrant workers who are now the major working class force of contention in China, regularly launching collective industrial action, including 30,000 strikes and working protests in 2009 alone. Understanding the communications dimension in this cycle of struggles is of critical importance. As is well-known, some of these strikes have taken place at factories such as Foxconn, which produce I-phones for Apple and other global capitalist producers of information and communication technologies (ICTs); young workers have in turn appropriated these ICTs as part of their tactical repertoire in mobilizing and circulating their struggles. Less analysed by either the labour movement, and/or communications scholars, has been the deeper connection between the changing composition of Chinese capitalism, including communications, and working class composition and contention.
Using a research protocol drawn from autonomist Marxism, this chapter highlights the communication dimension in the new composition of Chinese capital and of working class struggle. I situate the current wave of contestation within a longer historical cycle of struggles in China. Beginning with an analysis of changes in the Chinese state’s capitalist plan, I compare the emergence of this new working class sector with the decomposition of the older industrial working class based in state enterprises. I then review the changes in the forms and communicative dimension of collective action in both sites of production and reproduction; as well as the relationship with the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), and labour and non-government organizations. The chapter ends by assessing the significance of the content, direction, development and circulation of these recent working class struggles to future contestation in China and around the world.
This chapter focuses on young migrant workers who are now the major working class force of contention in China, regularly launching collective industrial action, including 30,000 strikes and working protests in 2009 alone. Understanding the communications dimension in this cycle of struggles is of critical importance. As is well-known, some of these strikes have taken place at factories such as Foxconn, which produce I-phones for Apple and other global capitalist producers of information and communication technologies (ICTs); young workers have in turn appropriated these ICTs as part of their tactical repertoire in mobilizing and circulating their struggles. Less analysed by either the labour movement, and/or communications scholars, has been the deeper connection between the changing composition of Chinese capitalism, including communications, and working class composition and contention.
Using a research protocol drawn from autonomist Marxism, this chapter highlights the communication dimension in the new composition of Chinese capital and of working class struggle. I situate the current wave of contestation within a longer historical cycle of struggles in China. Beginning with an analysis of changes in the Chinese state’s capitalist plan, I compare the emergence of this new working class sector with the decomposition of the older industrial working class based in state enterprises. I then review the changes in the forms and communicative dimension of collective action in both sites of production and reproduction; as well as the relationship with the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), and labour and non-government organizations. The chapter ends by assessing the significance of the content, direction, development and circulation of these recent working class struggles to future contestation in China and around the world.
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Research Interests: Communication, Indigenous Media, South Korea, Social Movement, Latin American social movements, and 11 moreCommunication for Development, Community-Based Participatory Research, Communication for Social Change, Honduras, Communication Rights, Community Radio, Autonomous Media, Community Radio, Alternative Media, Community Radio and Development, Media Commons, Public Sphere, and Antiglobalization Social Movements
"Whistling into the Typhoon: A Radical Inquiry into Autonomous Media. As part of the tenth anniversary of the global Independent Media Center (IMC) this review considers the contemporary characteristics of self-organized media,... more
"Whistling into the Typhoon: A Radical Inquiry into Autonomous Media.
As part of the tenth anniversary of the global Independent Media Center (IMC) this review considers the contemporary characteristics of self-organized media, primarily in the United States. The chapter focuses on the affirmation of autonomous media power in three dimensions, the means of mass communications, the social relations of cultural production and the symbolic meanings."
As part of the tenth anniversary of the global Independent Media Center (IMC) this review considers the contemporary characteristics of self-organized media, primarily in the United States. The chapter focuses on the affirmation of autonomous media power in three dimensions, the means of mass communications, the social relations of cultural production and the symbolic meanings."
Research Interests: Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, Political communication, Social Media, Alternative Media, and 11 moreRadical Democracy, Radical Media, Autonomist Marxism, Autonomous Media, Indymedia, media commons, Alternate Media, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Indymedia Center, Media Justice, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and Social Movements and Communication
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The general threat to the public sphere associated with increasing privatization, commercialization, and conglomeration of media systems has been well articulated. Less attention has been paid, though, to the ramifications of dominant... more
The general threat to the public sphere associated with increasing privatization, commercialization, and conglomeration of media systems has been well articulated.
Less attention has been paid, though, to the ramifications of dominant media restructuring for counter public spheres. How, for example, have media conglomeration
and restructuring efforts affected local democratic communication? Are groups able to
counteract local closures by taking advantage of new web technologies of communication? Is independent, alternative, or community media filling the void of local commercial news for these groups? In this essay we discuss some of the changes in the Bay Area mediascape and investigate how these changes are affecting local democratic communications. Drawing on an analysis of changes in Bay Area media ownership and
format structures, and on interviews with 26 local social change groups, we ask how local groups are negotiating the shrinking public sphere.
Less attention has been paid, though, to the ramifications of dominant media restructuring for counter public spheres. How, for example, have media conglomeration
and restructuring efforts affected local democratic communication? Are groups able to
counteract local closures by taking advantage of new web technologies of communication? Is independent, alternative, or community media filling the void of local commercial news for these groups? In this essay we discuss some of the changes in the Bay Area mediascape and investigate how these changes are affecting local democratic communications. Drawing on an analysis of changes in Bay Area media ownership and
format structures, and on interviews with 26 local social change groups, we ask how local groups are negotiating the shrinking public sphere.
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The communication practices of three anti-poverty groups in the San Francisco Bay Area - Coalition on Homelessness, Poor News Network and Media Alliance - are discussed, whose communication strategies work for the recognition and rights... more
The communication practices of three anti-poverty groups in the San Francisco Bay Area - Coalition on Homelessness, Poor News Network and Media Alliance - are discussed, whose communication strategies work for the recognition and rights of low-income and homeless people, and for policies to better redistribute economic and communications resources. In the wake of media closures in the public sphere, and major restructuring of social welfare programmes, these groups' creative and engaged communication strategies empower poor people and support the building of counter-public spheres working in interaction with, and as alternatives to dominant public spheres.
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Since its birth in Seattle in late 1999 during demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Independent Media Center (IMC) Network has grown to over one hundred and ten autonomous centres in thirty-five countries. With... more
Since its birth in Seattle in late 1999 during demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Independent Media Center (IMC) Network has grown to over one hundred and ten autonomous centres in thirty-five countries. With half a million to two million page views a ...
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This work maps key moments in the historical development of radio, arguing that simultaneous dynamics of global conglomeration of corporate media and those of community-directed communications projects are interrelated and interdependent.... more
This work maps key moments in the historical development of radio, arguing that simultaneous dynamics of global conglomeration of corporate media and those of community-directed communications projects are interrelated and interdependent. It further proposes that the processes of democratization and participation in communications could be better understood by analysing the practices and strategies of alternative radio both in relation to state and market planning and development and in relation to social movements. Using the concepts of media enclosures and communications commons, I demonstrate the historical continuity in the development of corporate media and movements of alternative communications. My own position derives from the theoretical works of autonomist Marxism and ecofeminism which analyse international ongoing struggles against corporate enclosures of terrestrial and cyber space, and of the whole of the working day. I begin by reviewing the early contests over control of radio, from its first social uses by experimenters and pirates, to continuing struggles over its use as an instrument of public education and mobilization against enclosure by either corporations or government.
Based on field work over a ten-year period, I analyse how alternative radio developed as an instrument of the new social movements of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s within the context of the changing composition of state, market and movement relations internationally. I review the communications strategies and practices, asking whether alternative radio producers have been able to bypass constrictions of the space for autonomy or to provide a medium for democratization and participation. Using examples of three feminist projects, at the local, national and international level, in Ireland, Peru and Costa Rica, I show concretely some of the differences and tensions in and between proposals and movements. I conclude that alternative radio can be key to the building of participatory democracy across colonial, national and sectoral borders. As a medium, radio has been used to foster articulation of struggles, expression of identities, collective strategizing and negotiation of differences. I also suggest that the contextual and strategic framework used here be adopted for further research on other forms of alternative communications.
Based on field work over a ten-year period, I analyse how alternative radio developed as an instrument of the new social movements of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s within the context of the changing composition of state, market and movement relations internationally. I review the communications strategies and practices, asking whether alternative radio producers have been able to bypass constrictions of the space for autonomy or to provide a medium for democratization and participation. Using examples of three feminist projects, at the local, national and international level, in Ireland, Peru and Costa Rica, I show concretely some of the differences and tensions in and between proposals and movements. I conclude that alternative radio can be key to the building of participatory democracy across colonial, national and sectoral borders. As a medium, radio has been used to foster articulation of struggles, expression of identities, collective strategizing and negotiation of differences. I also suggest that the contextual and strategic framework used here be adopted for further research on other forms of alternative communications.
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This was a presentation for OURMedia 12, a conference hosted by the Free University of Brussels, the University of Antwerp and the Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles, from November 27-30, 2019.
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This paper elaborates on contemporary struggles against capitalist globalization in the field of mining and natural resources extraction as contest over the commons, and especially focuses on social and cultural reproduction. Simply put,... more
This paper elaborates on contemporary struggles against capitalist globalization in the field of mining and natural resources extraction as contest over the commons, and especially focuses on social and cultural reproduction. Simply put, social reproduction includes processes involved in (re) producing people and their labour power on a daily and intergenerational basis through the provisioning of material goods (food, shelter, clothing, health care); cultural forms and practices, including knowledge and learning, social justice and its apparatus, and the media (Ruckert 819); and various ideational elements, such as the production and dissemination of norms, values, and different types of knowledge, all important factors in the construction of individual and collective identities (Elson, 1998). Rather than being a subsidiary field of capitalist accumulation, social reproduction is key to capitalist development and especially the neoliberal capitalist turn, and integrally related to culture and communications (Huws, 2014).
Nation states, corporations, and global multilateral institutions are seeking to bring social life under regulation by market imperative, clawing back the hard-fought gains for the “social wage” (including pensions, unemployment insurance, health and safety, child support, education) made by previous generations through various programs of structural adjustment and austerity; and shifting social reproduction from a matter of public and collective concern to one of private and individual responsibility (Lebaron, 2010: 891). In addition, the collective expression of people through cultural forms and practices, and our very “sociality” has been increasingly privatized and commodified (Huws, 2014). Nevertheless, movements are resisting these capitalist imperatives by setting up social barriers to the further commodification of life and nature and creating “communities of care,” and a larger politics of the “common” (Federici, 2010).
This paper draws from several different disciplines, including urban geography (Smith and Winders, 2008), autonomist Marxism (Federici, 2010, Jeffries, 2011) and Marxist feminism (Brenner and Laslett, 1991, Lebaron, 2010) and international political economy (Ruckert, 2010). It builds on previous work on the enclosure/communications commons (Murdock, 2013, Dyer-Witheford, 2007, Jeffries, Kidd, 1998, 2003).
The contemporary commons is often invoked in struggles over cognitive or information capitalism. This paper instead examines the field of extractivism, the shadow side of cognitive capitalism, as territories around the world are exploited for minerals that are then used to manufacture the infrastructure and the hardware for the digital economy, amass gold and silver to offset the always ongoing crisis of finance capitalism, and build older forms of industry. The presentation reviews the ways that mining-affected communities and their allies are utilizing commons-like repertoires.
Nation states, corporations, and global multilateral institutions are seeking to bring social life under regulation by market imperative, clawing back the hard-fought gains for the “social wage” (including pensions, unemployment insurance, health and safety, child support, education) made by previous generations through various programs of structural adjustment and austerity; and shifting social reproduction from a matter of public and collective concern to one of private and individual responsibility (Lebaron, 2010: 891). In addition, the collective expression of people through cultural forms and practices, and our very “sociality” has been increasingly privatized and commodified (Huws, 2014). Nevertheless, movements are resisting these capitalist imperatives by setting up social barriers to the further commodification of life and nature and creating “communities of care,” and a larger politics of the “common” (Federici, 2010).
This paper draws from several different disciplines, including urban geography (Smith and Winders, 2008), autonomist Marxism (Federici, 2010, Jeffries, 2011) and Marxist feminism (Brenner and Laslett, 1991, Lebaron, 2010) and international political economy (Ruckert, 2010). It builds on previous work on the enclosure/communications commons (Murdock, 2013, Dyer-Witheford, 2007, Jeffries, Kidd, 1998, 2003).
The contemporary commons is often invoked in struggles over cognitive or information capitalism. This paper instead examines the field of extractivism, the shadow side of cognitive capitalism, as territories around the world are exploited for minerals that are then used to manufacture the infrastructure and the hardware for the digital economy, amass gold and silver to offset the always ongoing crisis of finance capitalism, and build older forms of industry. The presentation reviews the ways that mining-affected communities and their allies are utilizing commons-like repertoires.
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If Occupy Wall Street focused attention on the transnational resistance to the imaginaries and practices of neo-liberalization, the networked protests, collectively identified as #Occupy each emerged out of particular places, contexts and... more
If Occupy Wall Street focused attention on the transnational resistance to the imaginaries and practices of neo-liberalization, the networked protests, collectively identified as #Occupy each emerged out of particular places, contexts and histories of contestation. This paper examines the significance in one urban region, the San Francisco Bay, and especially the intersection between #Occupy and longer-term residual urban social movements. Understanding neo-liberalization as a dynamic process, I begin by mapping the vectors of contention in the regional imposition of the neo-liberal project, and especially the sectors of housing, employment, education and media representation. I then analyse the intersection of the #Occupy moment, between two different politics --the direct action and militant commons, and the longer-term subaltern counter-spheres of the residual organizations. I then identify the impact on the dynamics of mobilization and intervention, and especially the imaginaries and practices of urban space, inclusion, and knowledge production.
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Research Interests: Ethics, Feminist Theory, Marxism, Feminist Philosophy, Sexuality, and 10 moreGender, Sigmund Freud, Michel Foucault, Alternative Media, Social and Political Philosophy, Solidarity Economy, Globalization, Anti-Globalization, Theories of Socialism, Antiglobalization Social Movements, and Latin American feminisms
Description Communications is key to contemporary dynamics around the world, and especially to the efforts for social, political, economic, environmental and cultural change. This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding... more
Description Communications is key to contemporary dynamics around the world, and especially to the efforts for social, political, economic, environmental and cultural change. This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of how the global media system works, an examination of some of the best practices by social justice-oriented groups, and some practical communications skills. Students will be encouraged to apply their course learning to their own topical and regional interests.
Research Interests: Media Sociology, Communication, Media Studies, International Studies, Mass Communication, and 10 moreCritical Social Theory, Media Education, Media Ethics, Information Communication Technology, Media, Media Literacy Education, Critical Development Studies, Media and Communications, International Development Studies, and Communication and media Studies
Course description: This is a moment of major transformations in the ways that cultural work is produced, distributed and circulated around the globe. All of us are involved in these processes, as producers of video and film, music,... more
Course description: This is a moment of major transformations in the ways that cultural work is produced, distributed and circulated around the globe. All of us are involved in these processes, as producers of video and film, music, podcasts or zines, as audience members who interact with cultural work, or as critics. The aim of this course is to look behind the screens and explore how cultural products (music, cinema, video games, digital news, television dramas, etc.) are produced, distributed and circulated. The course reviews the interrelated politics, economics, cultural contexts and aesthetic domains of five different sectors, including the legacy commercial media such as film, television, radio and the recording industry; the digitally based conglomerates (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, etc.); and the ancillary industries such as fashion, sports, and video games. Given our special concern about social equity and justice, we also address the roles of public service, independent, and community-based media groups. The course takes two distinct, if complementary approaches. The first is a study of the role that contemporary media and cultural industries play in the US and internationally. What tensions exist between media and cultural organizations as sites for public expression, information sharing and dialogue, versus their role as commercial enterprises, and sites of political and economic power? When and how do these roles conflict, and how are these conflicts resolved? How representative, accountable and participatory are media institutions to all of the publics they are obligated to serve? How does change come about, and how can students effectively participate in those changes? The second approach is to examine media and cultural industries from the point of view of media-makers. How do media organizations function as workplaces and sites for excellence in knowledge production and creativity? What factors influence full-time, freelance workers and citizen 'produsers'? What place does creativity take in large, medium and small operations, and in user or citizen-generated production? What prospects do students have for developing fulfilling, lifelong interests as creative producers? Students will be able to thoughtfully engage with these questions through a discussion of key texts, class lectures and discussions, guest speakers, course readings and short assignments. The course will provide an opportunity for
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It is often said that popular music is the soundscape of our lives, providing much of the sonic environment for our relationships, activities, thoughts and emotions. This 4th year senior media studies seminar will focus on popular music... more
It is often said that popular music is the soundscape of our lives, providing much of the sonic environment for our relationships, activities, thoughts and emotions. This 4th year senior media studies seminar will focus on popular music and its relationship to all forms of mediated communications from film and television, to video games and social media. We will build on knowledge and perspectives that students have developed in earlier media studies courses and in their own life practices. Particular emphasis will be placed upon three related sets of questions: the chain of global capitalist production, distribution and circulation and its shaping of popular music production and consumption; the role of popular music in the construction of intersecting social and cultural identities and ideas; and music’s role in the practices of social, cultural and political change.
Guided by student interest and expertise, we will examine several different research approaches and presentation formats. Each student will produce a capstone final project based on their own original research and application of their media skills.
Guided by student interest and expertise, we will examine several different research approaches and presentation formats. Each student will produce a capstone final project based on their own original research and application of their media skills.
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ESTRUCTURA METODOLÓGICA
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COURSE DESCRIPTION The global media system is undergoing profound change, with ramifications for almost all areas of human life. Nevertheless, although many people spend countless hours consuming media, know a lot of facts about media... more
COURSE DESCRIPTION The global media system is undergoing profound change, with ramifications for almost all areas of human life. Nevertheless, although many people spend countless hours consuming media, know a lot of facts about media personalities and texts, and are often savvy users of media applications and technologies, very few know much about how the media are organized, and operate as institutions of cultural production within a larger global media system. This course aims to remedy that by providing students with background knowledge, an analytical framework, and hands-on research practice about the role and functioning of media and cultural industries, institutions and organizations, and media professionals. The course takes two different, and complementary, approaches. The first is a study of the global industrialization of culture, and especially of the key trends affecting information and media industries, institutions, and organizations. We look in some detail at the global capitalist information companies and corporate media networks, as well as at public service media, community & citizens' media, and DIY and social media. We also examine the ancillary organizations such as government regulatory institutions, producer bodies, trade unions, and media activist organizations. What tensions exist between media and cultural organizations as sites for public expression, information sharing and dialogue, versus their role as commercial enterprises, and sites of political and economic power? When and how do these roles conflict, and how are these conflicts resolved? How representative, accountable and participatory are media institutions to all of the publics they are obligated to serve? How does change come about, and how can students effectively participate in those changes? The second approach is an examination of media and cultural production from the point of view of the producers of media texts and cultural content. How do media organizations function as workplaces and sites for excellence in knowledge production and creativity? What factors influence full-time, freelance workers and citizen 'produsers'? What place does creativity take in large, medium and small
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This course introduces students to critical media literacy from a communication rights perspective. Communication rights refers to both the global campaign to institutionalize the human rights for universal interactive communications, and... more
This course introduces students to critical media literacy from a communication rights perspective. Communication rights refers to both the global campaign to institutionalize the human rights for universal interactive communications, and the social and cultural movements around the world that foster people-centered information, knowledge and meaning sharing and deliberative communications. Students will develop both analytical and media skills to better understand the global media system and its limitations and benefits for citizens, and especially the " democratic deficit of the media. " Our starting point will be the current practices of social justice movements, citizens' organizations and educators.
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Description The San Francisco Bay area is home to a wide variety of effective social change communications projects directed by grassroots citizen's groups, social justice movements, human rights organizations, artists and reform-minded... more
Description The San Francisco Bay area is home to a wide variety of effective social change communications projects directed by grassroots citizen's groups, social justice movements, human rights organizations, artists and reform-minded groups of journalists and producers. It is also one of the world's epicenters of alternative and community-based media. This course will take advantage of the local resources, examining this third media sector in the Bay area, as well as looking at some exemplary international projects and efforts. The course will begin by reviewing the historical reasons for the growth of social change media. We will discuss the democratic deficit of the dominant commercial and public service media and the importance of communications among social justice movements and citizens' organizations.
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Communications is key to almost all contemporary changes around the world, and especially to the efforts for social, political, economic, environmental and cultural change. This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding... more
Communications is key to almost all contemporary changes around the world, and especially to the efforts for social, political, economic, environmental and cultural change. This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of how the global media system works, an examination of some of the best practices by social justice oriented groups, and some practical communications skills. Students will then be encouraged to apply their course learning to their own topical and regional interests. We begin by using the lens of power to examine mediated communications. Who are the key players, what are their rules of engagement and relationships, and what are the dynamics for change? We survey critical facets of contemporary communications capitalism, discussing the role of the new global corporate players, legacy and emerging news and entertainment media, multinational organizations and civic and social justice movements in shaping shared meaning systems, public knowledge, discourse and policy debate, and change. We then review the perspectives and practices of social change groups. How are groups around the world using information and communications technologies to critique the dominant analyses, tell their own stories, articulate their visions and mobilizing to make social, cultural, environmental, economic and political change? Combining study and application, students will develop their own analyses of media content, and practice some of the more educational media techniques used by social change organizations. Throughout the course, students will have an opportunity to develop practical skills in blogging, radio production, media relations, and campaign design.
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Submission for the Inaugural Issue of the Journal of Alternative and Community Media
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Research Interests: Social Movements, Social Movements (History), Social Movements (Political Science), Transnational Social Movements, Latin American social movements, and 5 moreNew social movements, Anti Capitalist and Anti Globalisation Movements, Antiglobalization Social Movements, Anti Capitalist Social Movements, and Social Movements/Civil Society
A short presentation for the Plenary Panel "Communications, Development and Social Change" at IAMCR Cartagena, July 17. 2017