Digital Activism and Citizenship in Datafied Societies (L3131A)

15 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

How do citizens today use digital technologies to mobilise struggles for social justice?

How have digital networks reconfigured the structure of social movements?

Can digital activism be effective means for social change or a form of slacktivism?

Does it reinforce neoliberal logics of communicative capitalism?

We’ll address these questions by introducing you to the concept of digital citizenship. This is a way of conceptualising citizenship as citizen empowerment mediated through digital acts: how citizens reassert their position in relation to the state in struggles for recognition of different identities, extension of rights and new ideas of responsibility through the use of digital technologies and platforms. Rather than a formal status, digital citizenship involves the informal, performative and participatory nature of citizenship. It examines the relation between the digital and the political as it takes shape within the bottom-up networks of civil society.

This module will give you:

• an advanced understanding of the broad topics, perspectives and debates within the field of digital citizenship
• a critical assessment of the prospects for democratisation through digital acts within the context of economic and political forces that attempt to subvert it. This ranges from processes of datafication and surveillance capitalism, to information gatekeeping and networked authoritarianism.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 20 hours of contact time and about 130 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.