[ecrea] Movenet. Congress on Social Movements and NTIC / CFP

Movenet. Congress on Social Movements and NTIC / CFP

Activist use of the New Technologies of the Information and 
Communication (NTICs) is increasingly important for social movements and 
civil society. Experiences such as Movimiento Zapatista (1994) or 
Altermundista (1999), like many others which have followed, are a 
highlight example of social appropriation of NTICs. Protests like EDESA 
II (Philippines 2001), the Venezuelan contra-coup (2002), the student 
revolts against First Employment Contract in France (2005), the 
Icelandic rebellion (2008), the African-Arab Spring (2010 ), the various 
Occupy Camps in the Anglo world, unrest in UK or Geraçao À Rasca in 
Portugal (2011), the Mexican movement # Yosoy132 (2012) or, in the 
Spanish context, the movement for Dignified Housing (2006) and 15M 
(2011), demonstrate the key role that ICTs are assuming at the social 
movements operating worldwide.

Move.net tries to be a meeting point for share both reflections and 
theoretical analysis that helps to contextualize and figure out the 
social implication of the NTICs, as experiences and practices from the 
own activists that would allow understand the reality of the social use 
of technology. Move.net wish to promote proposals and projects that 
enhance this kind of social appropriation with emancipatory aims. This 
initiative comes from the collaboration between Universidad Pablo de 
Olavide and Universidad de Sevilla, its aim is to be a space for 
reflection and debate, approaching the theory and practice of the social 
and political uses of the technologies of communications. Move.net is an 
academic Congress, based on rigorous scientific investigations, and a 
public discussion space open to experiences and reflections that come 
from the social activism and general citizenship.

The event will take place on Universidad Pablo de Olavide and on 
Cooperativa Tramallol (Seville) on Thursday 5th, Friday 6th and Saturday 
7th February 2015.

As a basic guide of the discussion we will focus on the next topics:

Technological Sovereignty: The emancipatory potential of new 
technologies comes often at odds with their dominance by large 
corporations and the legislative control of the states. Surveillance and 
control are a real risk for privacy and the users’ right of anonymity, 
in particular, for all of those social activists that would may suffer 
the repression by the powers they face. Despite these inherent risks, 
movements follow doing a disruptive use of the commercial technologies, 
but they also bet for the development of autonomous projects in 
technical innovation. Which are the risks and threats by the use of 
movements of technologies that have been made for oligopolistic 
companies? ¿What dangers have surveillance of the governments and large 
corporations for activism? Which will be the challenges of these 
initiatives for autonomous development of technological tools by social 
movements? Is it worth using outside disruptive technologies despite 
their risks?

Digital Rights: Nowadays Intellectual Property is being disputed by the 
new possibilities that come from the Internet. At the same time, new 
laws rise to protect and reinforce copyright, or to deal with new threat 
such as pedophilia or terrorism, and, so often, with other goals more 
spurious. While governments follow this path, user suffers serious lacks 
in the net neutrality and freedom of expression, meanwhile, the own 
access to the net has been reclaimed as a new civil right. How have to 
understand copyright in the new digital world? How to reconcile the 
remuneration of authors with the ease of digital copy? How adapt the 
industry to the new digital environment? The intellectual property 
rights, does suppose a threat to digital nets? To what extent should 
legislate? In what sense? Should it considered access as a new civil right?

Ciberactivism: Social movements use technology to do some tasks, as 
organization or communication (inside/outside), but these are used too 
in the political fight, adding to their repertory, actions which are 
virtually organized but implemented on the physic space, and sometimes, 
combined with actions on the Internet. Therefore, the Internet is not 
only a tool of struggle but, at times, it is the own battlefield or the 
object of the claim that guide collective action. Are effective actions 
that take place only in the virtual space? How they complement with the 
actions in the physic space? What relationships can be seen between 
classic activism and virtual? Which are principal innovations on real 
praxis that can show the cyberactivism?

Digital Democracy: The Internet is not only a struggle weapon, but turns 
into a symbol of new forms of participation and organization. The 
Internet allows a large scale horizontal communication, questioning the 
classical approach and opening new ways to critic about representative 
system inevitability. On the other hand, digital democracy is also a new 
use of the networks by classic politic parties, but without a real 
change onto their hierarchies or their proposals. Campaigns as the Obama 
reflect a contradiction between bigger citizenship’s participation that 
would may counter the influence power of large companies and the “Big 
Brother” that means the massive use of the surveillance techniques. How 
can NICs enlarge participation and improve democracy? But too, can they 
worsen the situation through finer propaganda techniques or to ease 
dissemination of populist discourses? Which are the risks of digital 
participation? How can complement politic representation and 
participation through NTICs?

Open Data: Philosophy and practice of open data pursue the openness of 
certain data, especially from governments and public bodies, for all 
citizens. Finally, these vindications have get the implementation of 
several transparency lesser laws. Once get to convince certain Public 
Administrations to free some data and facilitate their access emerge 
questions about their scope, utility of the data or the existence of 
public and reserved information. Are enough these transparency laws? 
What utility have the opened data for a effective government control by 
citizens? To what extent must maintain some data confidential?Are the 
leaks of information classified as secret in certain cases (wikileaks, 
Snowden, Falcini …) are legitimate? Can help digital networks to 
citizenship to control their governments or only serve to surveillance?

Digital Culture and Collective Memory: Culture on the Internet, its 
language, its memes and its myths are embedded on politic action of the 
social movements. These have the ability to move network’s cultural 
frame, adopting their language and their values. Anonymous masks, 
slogans as “Error 404: Democracy not found” or documents as “Open Code 
Manifesto” draw the weight of the network cultures (hackers, mass 
culture reappropriations, freak culture… etc.) on language and symbolic 
frameworks for mobilization. At time, the published information by the 
movements on the Internet not only helps for a quickly visibility, but 
also for conservation and diffusion of collective memory of the social 
struggles. Which are cultural referents used by cyberactivism? How does 
the cyberculture in discourse and political practices? What are the 
relationship between mass culture and popular culture on the new digital 
environment? How does the Internet contribute to maintain collective 
memory of social movements? Does exist the real risk of censorship on 
this kind of memories by large technological companies when the 
commercial services are used?

Critical Analysis of the Internet: Due to mutable nature of the 
Internet, endless open, it is ought to elaborate critical epistemologies 
that overcome capitalistic view. Fabrication of new conceptual tools is 
essential to see power relationships that are established in this new 
field. As quickly the Internet turns an important aspect on daily live, 
new forms of control arise, the “default power” on the more popular 
social networks is a good example. Therefore, the needs for new tools of 
analysis, that might break up the limits of the old ones, turns on a 
very urgent goal for understand the network and to carry out deeper 
studies on power, and his conformation, across the Internet. Without 
taking Luddite English though, Is the Internet a real sphere of social 
emancipation? Is emancipatory use of the NTICS idealized? Does exist a 
middle point between the Utopian technological determinism and the new 
Luddism to the critic reflection?
Follow this topic on Twitter with the hashtag: #InternetCrítico
Mass Media on the Internet: The Internet is, overall, a mass media. In 
it emerge initiatives to create own mass medias for the social movements 
that interact with traditional medias. New digital medias arise 
(Periodismo Humano, Indymedia, Madrilonia.. etc.); discussion and scope 
of the alternative medias on traditional format are reinforced 
(Diagonal); a new space is created based on the debete of the 
information of blogs and conventional media (Menéame); from traditional 
medias on crisis arise projects in which the own journalists seek their 
independence using the network (La Marea). In addition to this, on-line 
debate breaks on through the conventional mass media agendas and, 
sometimes, it can counter the enormous power of big corporative medias 
favoring a real turn on the public opinion (13M), this fact is giving to 
social movements a certain independence from institutional media.

Abstracts (around 300 words) are invited on these topics. Please, 
address your proposals to the e mail address 
(comunicaciones /at/ congreso-move.net). This should contain title, author, 
academic affiliation and email. Papers will be accepted in either 
Spanish, English, Portuguese or Italian. Selected papers will be 
published on the Congress Book.

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS IS OCTOBER, 5TH, 2014.

More info on http://congreso-move.net/english/call-for-papers/




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