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Mediated Resistance: Alternative Media, Imagination and Political Action in Britain

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Mediated Resistance: Alternative Media, Imagination and Political Action in Britain Mediated Resistance: Alternative Media, Imagination and Political Action in Britain Veronica Barassi PhD Anthropology/Media Studies Goldsmiths College, University of London 2009 I Veronica Barassi, hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any award. Where other sources of information have been used, they have all been acknowledged. This thesis or parts of it cannot be copied or reproduced without the permission. Abstract This research explores the connection between political imaginations, media technologies and social movements in Britain. The relationship between media and dominant ideologies is a central issue of academic debate, but the role of alternative media in the construction of oppositional political discourses is largely under-investigated. This research project explores this relationship by relying on the theories and methodologies of both anthropology and media studies and provides an original and cross-disciplinary reflection on alternative media and political identity; on internet technologies and new forms of political imaginations; and on the possibilities and challenges people encounter in the everyday construction of mediated political action. Drawing from the ethnographic context of campaigning organisations and the Trade Union Movement - and looking in particular at the case of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign - this thesis argues that internet technologies have become the channels within which new political imaginations and possibilities are embedded and transmitted. Yet, to understand the way in which these new political imaginations are re-defining the terrain for political action, it is important to explore the complex dialectics between transformation and continuity - between the technical and the social - rather than emphasising disruption and novelty. It is only by looking at continuity that scholars can understand the complex and imaginative negotiations that enable activists to re-imagine social change in order to adapt to the techno-historical transformations of the last fifteen years. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 Introduction: Mediated Resistance, Imagination and the Reasons for a Cross Disciplinary Research Project 7 Part I - Mediated Resistance: Objectives and Methods of a Cross-Disciplinary Research Project 9 Research Questions and Objectives 9 The Field and the Methods of this Research 12 Ethical Considerations 17 Part II - Alternative Media, Imagination, and Resistance: The Theoretical Foundations of the Research 18 Globalisation, Techno-capitalism and the Spectacle 18 Imagination, Social Creativity and Resistance: The Social Significance of Alternative Media 23 Part III - Mediated Resistance, Imagination and Political Action in Britain: An Overview of Chapters 28 Chapter I - Mapping a Social World: Exploring the Multiple Levels of an Ethnographic Cartography 32 Introduction 32 Concrete Spaces of Political Action: The Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Office on Seven Sisters Road 33 Trade Unions and International Solidarity Campaigns: Connections and Overlaps of a Networked World 38 Networks, Connections and Disconnections: The Making of a Social World and the Problem of Networks 42 Identity Narratives and Shared Experiences: Mapping the Imagined Spaces of an Ethnographic Cartography 50 Conclusion 58 Chapter II - Spaces of Imagination: Alternative Media, Imagination and the Construction of Identity 61 Introduction 61 The CubaSr Magazine, the History of the Organisation and the Production of Collective Memory 66 Material Memories and Biographical Narratives: Alternative Media, Memory and Emotion 73 Spaces of Imagination: Alternative Media and the Construction of Political Identities 76 New Technologies and the Multiplication of Media Platforms: Alternative Media in Theory and Practice 83 2 Conclusion 89 Chapter III - Ideology, Imagination, and Media Rituals: Concepts and Theories for the Anthropology of Mediated Resistance 92 Introduction 92 Alternative Media Practices between Identity, Ideology and Resistance 93 Part I: Ideology, Hegemony and Alternative Media: An Overview of Concepts and Understandings97 Media and Ideology: an Historical Analysis 97 Media, Ideology and Resistance: Understanding Ideology and Hegemony 101 Part II: Media Rituals: Understanding the Emotional Power of Ideology 107 Media as Rituals: the Advantages of a Cross Disciplinary Approach 107 Part III - Rituals of Power, Rituals of Resistance: Media Rituals and the Power of Imagination 113 The Power of Imagination: Ideology, "Projectual Dimension" and Social Change 113 The Power of Imagination and the Struggle over Meaning and over Representational Resources 117 Conclusion 121 Chapter IV - Possibilities and Ambivalences: the Discursive Power of the World Wide Web and its Impact on Political Action 124 Introduction 124 Redefining the Terrain for Political Action: CSC and the 'Media Logic' 125 Internet-Related Beliefs and the New Possibilities of Political Action 129 The Discursive Power of the World Wide Web: Re-Thinking Latour's Actor-Network Theory 133 Internet Technologies and Political Action: Contradictions and Anxieties in Everyday Practice 136 The impacts of Internet Related Anxieties and the Continuing Importance of Printed Media 139 Conclusion 145 Chapter V - Networked Identities: Internet Technologies, Conflicts of Generations and New Forms of Political Imagination 147 Introduction 147 "I don't want to define my Enemies and Friends": New Generations and the Lack of Political Association 148 Tackling the Generation Issue: Internet Technologies, Individualism and Networked Sociality 157 The Network as a Social Imaginary: Internet Networks, Imagination and New Forms of Belonging 162 Networked Affinities: Internet Technologies, Political Imaginations and the Influence of the Movements for Global Justice 164 Is Gramsci Dead? Social Movements between Transformation and Continuity 168 3 Conclusion 172 Chapter VI - Mediating Solidarity: the Cuban Experience, Representation and the Mediation of Social Relationships 175 Introduction 175 Everyday life at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp, in Cuba: A Programmed Routine 177 Mediating Solidarity: The ICAP programme and the Mediation of Social Relationships 181 The Mediation of Collective Experience between Identification and Opposition: the Italian and British Brigades in Comparison 187 The Power of Mediated Experiences: Cuba, Solidarity and 'Projectual Imagination' 195 Conclusion 200 Some Conclusions - Mediated Resistance, Imagination and Political Action 203 Ethnographic Cartographies: Networked Social Movements, Imagined Spaces and Alternative Media Practices 203 Ideology, Imagination and Media Rituals: the Social Significance of Mediated Resistance 208 Internet Technologies and New Political Imaginations: Political Action between Transformation and Continuity 212 Mediation, Representation and Social Relationships: for an Anthropological Approach to the Media 219 List of Abbreviations 224 Bibliography 225 4 Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the people of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, and the other networked organisations, for their stories, understandings and insights. In particular, I would like to show my gratitude to Rob Miller, Trish Meehan, Natasha Hickman, Roger Fletcher, Stephen Hallmark, and Frank Liddiard for having made the everyday context of my fieldwork so lively and fascinating. A special thanks goes to Dean Weston, for his friendship, complicity and support. His patience, and ability to explain even the most complicated contexts, has been of extreme value to me in my development as a researcher. I also would like to thank Daniel Meehan and Adam Old for their critical insights, their sarcasm and their ability to challenge my understandings and interpretations. My immense gratitude goes to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); without their financial support I would have not been able to complete my Doctoral Research. I am equally grateful to the Anthropology and Media and Communications Departments at Goldsmiths College for having believed in my project, and having made my cross-disciplinary research possible. A very special thank goes to Mao Mollona, my supervisor in the Anthropology Department, whose advice and insights were of fundamental importance in the realisation of this project, and in the development of my passion for anthropological research. I am particularly indebted to Natalie Fenton, my supervisor in the Media and Communication Department. Throughout the years, her expertise, vast knowledge and critical reflections have been the source of constant motivation and support. It was thanks to her persistence, understanding and kindness that I completed this doctoral thesis, and was encouraged to develop plans for future research. I doubt that I will ever be able to convey my appreciation fully, but lowe her all my gratitude. I also would like to address a special thanks to David Graeber, for reading my thesis and providing me with many inspirational comments and advice. Over the last year, with his unconventional and creative thinking, he has profoundly influenced my work, and has become more of a mentor and a friend, than a professor. Within both the Anthropology and the Media and Communications Departments at Goldsmiths College there are many people who have helped me throughout my Doctoral training, and there is not the space here to mention them all. I would like 5 first, to express my gratitude to Gareth Stanton in the Media
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