Organizational resistance as a vector of deterritorialization: The case of WikiLeaks and secrecy havens

Abstract

This article investigates the relations of power and resistance manifest by the WikiLeaks network. The primary research question of this inquiry is, ‘what power relations and possibilities for resistance are presented by WikiLeaks as a novel form of network organization?’ The article shows that WikiLeaks has been able to exert influence from the periphery of existing networks by exploiting vectors of ‘deterritorialization’ to destabilize existing power relations. The article contributes to the literature on the network organization by developing an account of resistance to State and corporate power in terms of an ‘absolute deterritorialization’. This idea has important implications for the tactics of resistance in network organizations, where vectors of deterritorialization have become a defining feature of resistance tactics of the WikiLeaks network.