ABSTRACT
It is commonly accepted that political participation and civic engagement are cornerstones of a vital democratic system. Each generation believes in the singularity of their era and the therein expressed characteristics. Even present times do not constitute an exception to the rule because many authors diagnose immense and accelerating social as well as technological processes of change, which they mainly connect to “the Internet”. However, due to media and cultural change, new forms and possibilities of participating in the formation of society are appearing constantly for every individual. For approximately 25 years, the epistemological interest of a continually growing research area within communication and media studies as well as pedagogy, political science and sociology is in how these new forms of participation are used and how they could be judged in comparison to the traditional forms of civic engagement and participation. The current practices of engagement and participation are characterised by huge ambiguities. Despite the evidence of growing disenchantment with institutional politics, electoral turnouts in some countries are increasing. Despite increased possibilities for participation through online media, these are often dismissed as ‘clicktivism’. Despite celebratory discourses on the uses of social media in the Arab spring, the Occupy movement, the Pussy Riot case, the same-sex marriage debates in France and the UK and in LT+ protests, they were and are often grounded and performed in particular physical spaces. Despite their possibilities for challenging mainstream media, online media technologies are still mostly profit-driven. Going beyond established academic discourses about the decline of citizens’ political participation in institutional politics and the rise of alternative forms of political participation, this book aims to explore the issues, platforms, actions, locations and motivations of politically active citizens today. It discusses the opportunities and challenges that new conditions entail for the ways in which digitally mediated social interactions, practices and environments shape everyday participation, engagement or protest, and analyzes their implications for politics, culture and society.
