Thinking about Cyborg Activism

Abstract

AbstractOne of the qualities of South African cities that surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic is the inefficient city structure and resultant inequalities that define their everyday functioning. Several civil society organisations have engaged this dilemma directly and poignantly through a host of on- and offline strategies, employed to heighten awareness of the marginalized, assist with resource mobilization, and put pressure on the state to address these issues more effectively. Through examination of two examples, this chapter’s author focuses on the qualities of these mobilization strategies, how they combine technologies, strategies, and stories to enable collective action. What emerges is engagement with public and private spheres, a play between emotion and cool-headed politics, and movement between rational strategy and expressed passion. All these qualities are enabled through a toolkit of digital and analogue techniques, displaying a material-human interface that is dynamic and reflexive. The author explores the term “cyborg activism” as a holding concept for a form of city activism that traverses conceptual and physical spaces.