I've been searching blogs and Twitter trying to find people interested in social networking and discussing electronic civil disobedience and (if possible) in relation to Henry David Thoreau. I stumbled upon civil disobedience & nonviolence: Manuals for resistance with the help of Internet, a blog "on civil disobedience, innovative resistance without protest, direct action and plowshares disarmament". In this post that I have linked, the author (who I believe is Per Herngren, an author of several texts online that discuss non-violence and the practices of civil disobedience) provides links to websites that teach internet activists how to use Twitter in times of conflict (providing a variety of languages including Farsi) and mentions that "Quite a few of my postprotest hacker friends are involved in making the manuals." This sparked some interest in that in my last post I mentioned hackers on the internet (more in depth posting of hacktivism to come in future blog posts). Herngren is familiar with postprotest hackers and commemorates each blog posting to an act of civil disobedience or nonviolent action.
A recent article found in the NY Daily News speaks about an act of civil disobedience occurred this past
Tuesday in Manhattan as a crowd of protestors gathered in front of the Federal Building protesting immigration laws. Ever since Arizona passed the SB1070 immigration law, incidents have occurred all over the country.
Arizona's new law has reawakened Latino and immigrant communities. They're not about to let Congress and Obama dodge the question any longer.
If they do, watch the number of people arrested for civil disobedience climb from a just few hundred into the tens of thousands.
Although this article discusses a physical form of civil disobedience, there are forms of ECD that are occuring along the same issue as well. Twitter users tag #Arizona and #immigration to discuss disturbances about Arizona's new law. Twitter users hate Arizona's new immigration law according to the Huffington Post. Activists are spreading the word about the Arizona anti-immigration law through social networking cites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs.
Online news articles discussing civil disobedience are getting several comments. By participating in some of the comment streams I think I'll be able to get my ideas out there and even form new ones as discussion allows.
Tuesday in Manhattan as a crowd of protestors gathered in front of the Federal Building protesting immigration laws. Ever since Arizona passed the SB1070 immigration law, incidents have occurred all over the country.
Great idea to post comments on these civil rights issues. Here's one from about a month ago, but you may be interested.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2010/05/04/photos-civil-disobedience/
Nice work! Great job finding a blog you could follow and comment on!
ReplyDeleteReally good research on current events!
Great pics, very relevant and helpful with seeing what's going on!
Maybe sub-headers would help but I think it's good as is as well = )
I think you've got all sorts of interesting stuff posted here, but I'm wondering if there is a specific structure to the argument that you are making. I don't see a lot of links between your blog posts, nor a main post that offers an outline of the different posts you intend to make or topics you intend to analyze.
ReplyDeleteI think your great research would benefit from being linked to other posts in such a way that it was clear that there is a direction for your arguments, and not just isolated moments of research.
This is a good post for progressing your topic. It's important to recognize how electronically mediated civil disobedience differs from, complements, or relates with more standard kinds of protest. What can be done via social media for the purposes of civil disobedience that cannot be done in other ways?
ReplyDeleteA couple of relevant books to consider:
Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice (Martha Mccaughey); Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet (Graham Meikle).