Determining social change: The role of technological determinism in the collective action framing of hackers

Author:

Söderberg Johan1

Affiliation:

1. University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, France

Abstract

This article takes the political engagement of hackers as a prism for examining the relations between technological determinist thinking and collective action. The concept ‘collective action framing’ is borrowed from social movement theory to describe how hackers have appropriated notions of a post-industrial, information society in their struggles against intellectual property laws and state censorship. Hackers have reintroduced an element of conflict and antagonism into otherwise politically innocuous visions of post-industrialism. This residual of antagonism can be traced back to the roots of the post-industrial myth in Marxist, historical materialist theory. By exploring these origins, the article proceeds to compare the hopes invested by hackers in the emancipatory force of information technology with the earlier beliefs of labour movements that the forces of history were on their side. Building on this comparison it is argued that technological determinism does not always lead to political resignation, but can also serve as a foundation for collective action.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Sociology and Political Science,Communication

Reference91 articles.

1. Real-Time Politics: The Internet and the Political Process

2. Andersson J (2010) Peer-to-peer based file-sharing beyond the dichotomy of ‘downloading is theft’ vs. ‘information wants to be free’: How Swedish file-sharers motivate their action. PhD Thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

3. Immanent Critique as the Core of Critical Theory: Its Origins and Developments in Hegel, Marx and Contemporary Thought

4. The Regulation Of Liberty: Free Speech, Free Trade and Free Gifts on the Net

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