Untitled - socium.ge

Networked social movements 351a decentralized network of PGA “Infopoints” in order to give more visibilityto the network and promote the struggles, activities, and values of participatingcollectives.Within movements such as the MRG or PGA, the cultural logic ofnetworking has given rise to what grassroots activists in Barcelona call the“new way of doing politics.” By this they mean precisely those networkbasedforms of political organization and practice based on non-hierarchicalstructures, horizontal coordination among autonomous groups, open access,direct participation, consensus-based decision-making, and the ideal of thefree and open circulation of information (although this is not alwaysconformed to in practice). While the command-oriented logic of traditionalparties and unions is based on recruiting new members, developing unitarystrategies, political representation through vertical structures, and the pursuitof political hegemony, network-based politics involves the creation of broadumbrella spaces, where diverse organizations, collectives, and networksconverge around a few common hallmarks, while preserving their autonomyand identity-based specificity. Rather than recruitment, the objectivebecomes horizontal expansion and enhanced “connectivity” through articulatingdiverse movements within flexible, decentralized information structuresthat allow for maximal coordination and communication. Guided bythis networking logic, key activists become relayers and exchangers, generatingconcrete practices involving the reception, interpretation, and relayingof information out to the diverse nodes within and among alternative movementnetworks.Following Diane Nelson (1999), who employs the term “Maya-hacker” tocharacterize Mayan activists engaged in cultural activism and transnationalnetworking, global justice activists can be similarly viewed as “activisthackers,”generating innovative networking practices guided by the culturallogic of networking. Like computer hackers, activist-hackers receive,combine, and recombine cultural codes, in this case, political signifiers,freely sharing and circulating information about projects, mobilizations,strategies, tactics, and ideas through global communication networks. Aswith computer hackers, activist-hackers seek to enhance the connectivity ofsocial movements, widening and diversifying networks through the opensharing and circulation of information. For example, a member of the PGAnetwork support group, the son of Chilean exiles who grew up in Germanynear the French border, stressed the value of “proficiency in multiplelanguages” and “cultural flexibility” for contributing to the group, signalingboth the importance of recombining codes and connecting people throughdiversity and difference. In addition, a Barcelona-based activist, widelyrecognized as a key social relayer and exchanger, developed a system forinstantly sending messages to hundreds of list-serves around the world.