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From hackers to hacktivists: speed bumps on the global superhighway?

University of Leeds, UK, P.a.taylor{at}leeds.ac.uk

This article traces the emergence of the new social movement of hacktivism from hacking and questions its potential as a source of technologically-mediated radical political action. It assesses hacktivism in the light of critical theories of technology that question the feasibility of re-engineering technical systems to more humane ends. The predecessor of hacktivism, hacking, is shown to contain certain parasitical elements that provide a barrier to more politically-orientated goals. Examples are provided of how such goals are much more in evidence within hacktivism. Its alternative conceptualization of the human-technology relationship is examined in terms of a purported development from conceptualizations of networks to webs that incorporate new ways of producing online solidarity and oppositional practices to global capital.

Key Words: agora • electronic civil disobedience • hackers • hacktivists • neo-tribes • the hack • the Prince

New Media & Society, Vol. 7, No. 5, 625-646 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1461444805056009


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