Anti-war Activism in the Information Age

Research Workshop

Anti-War Movements in the Information Age

City University, 17th November, 2007

This workshop offered a chance to find out and discuss some of the key findings emerging from the research project. Many thanks to all the participants for lively discussions and challenging questions. The programme for the day was divided into three main segments, each including a presentation from one of the researchers. Some of the relevant materials are available for download below:

Frank Webster - Anti-war Campaigning in A Changing Information Environment (presentation slides, .ppt; audio recording, 24MB .mp3)

Jenny Pickerill - Alliances and Coalitions in the Anti-War Movement (presentation slides, .ppt; audio recording, 31MB .mp3)

Kevin Gillan - New Technologies in Anti-War Activism (presentation slides, .ppt)

 

Academic Articles and Papers

Finding unity across difference? The alliances and fractures of the anti-war movement in Britain.

Jenny Pickerill, 2008

Paper presented at Political Studies Association 58th Annual Conference, 1-3 April, Swansea University.

Abstract: The contemporary anti-war movement is diverse and heterogeneous. It is at once fractured and fragmented, and yet simultaneously full of alliances and coalitions. This paper critically explores these alliances and fractures. Drawing materials from a two year ESRC research project, it provides evidence from in-depth analysis of case studies from a full range of anti-war and peace organisations including Faslane 365, Stop the War Coalition, the Society of Friends (Quakers), Justice Not Vengeance, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and a range of Muslim organisations. It examines a variety of examples of how different groups worked together across difference, how alliances were made, fell apart and the consequences of these changes to the capacity of the movement to voice its objections to war. It also includes a consideration of the role of Information and Communication Technologies in potentially facilitating broader alliances to be built and maintained.

A copy of this paper may be downloaded here: Alliances and Fractures in UK Anti-War Movement.

The UK Anti-War Movement Online: Uses and Limitations of Internet Technologies for Contemporary Activism

Kevin Gillan, forthcoming.

To be published in Information, Communication and Society.

Abstract: This article uses interviews with committed anti-war and peace activists to offer an overview of both the benefits and challenges that social movements derive from new communication technologies. It shows contemporary political activism to be intensely informational; dependent on the sensitive adoption of a wide range of communication technologies. A hyperlink analysis is then employed to map the UK anti-war movement as it appears online. Through comparing these two sets of data it becomes possible to contrast the online practices of the UK anti-war movement with its offline ‘reality’. When encountered away from the Web recent anti-war contention is grounded in national-level political realities and internally divided by its political diversity but to the extent that experience of the movement is mediated online, it routinely transcends national and political boundaries.

An electronic preprint of the article is available for download here: The UK Anti-War Movement Online.

Transnational Anti-War Activism: Solidarity, Diversity and the Internet in Australia, Britain and the United States After 9/11

Kevin Gillan & Jenny Pickerill, 2008.

Article published in Australian Journal of Political Science 43:1, pp. 59-78.

Abstract: The upsurge in activism opposing wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq appears to represent a significant process of transnational collective action. Using data collected through participant observation, interviews and website analysis this paper explores the role of the Internet in facilitating transnational activism between Australia, Britain and the United States. This research confirms Tarrow's (2005a) assertion of 'rooted cosmopolitanism' – a primary commitment to locally contextualised action combined with a desire for transnational support. The Internet is used primarily for gathering news and for sharing symbolic expressions of solidarity. In Australia in particular, with fewer domestic anti-war resources online, international networking proves particularly useful. To an extent, online networks reach across both political diversity and geographical boundaries. However, online resources do not appear to enable the more personal connections required to build stable, working coalitions across borders.

An electronic preprint of the article is available for download here: Transnational Anti-War Activism Preprint. The published version is available from the Australian Journal of Political Science 43(1).

Muslim Anti-War Activism as Positive Political Engagement

Jenny Pickerill, Frank Webster & Kevin Gillan, 2007

Article published in Chatham House Briefing Paper, Islam, Politics and Security in the UK.

Abstract: Concerns over the radicalization of Muslims in Britain have dominated public debate and government policy in recent years. These concerns have been futher fuelled by the myth that there is a simple division between Muslim 'moderates' (those who reject terrorism) and 'fundamentalists' (often equated with terrorists). This kind of rhetoric is not only deeply inaccurate but also ignores the complexity of Muslim identity and many Muslims' ongoing political engagement. There has been little consideration of non-violent Muslim political activism, particularly the opportunities such activism provides for facilitating integration and as a peaceful alternative for Muslim youth to explore their religious and political questions. This paper examines collaboration between Muslims and non-Muslims in recent anti-war protest. We find some important limitations to that collaboration and highlight some potential steps towards overcoming them.

This briefing paper is available for download from the Chatham House website.

The Anti-War/Peace Movement in Britain and the Conditions of Information War

Jenny Pickerill & Frank Webster, 2006

Article published in International Relations 20(4): 407-423

Abstract: Using the concept of Information War we explore the conditions and mediation of contemporary war. Examples from British anti-war and peace movements are then employed to better understand the importance of 'symbolic struggles' focusing on the importance of the internet in recent opposition to wars. These examples signify a shift away from the era where the mediation of war could be closely controlled towards one where the influences of journalists and public opinion are more ambiguous and uncertain. While there is little doubt that those who wage war remain powerful and superior, their need to seek legitimacy amonst their publics, together with the use of new media, provide an environment through which voices of dissent can more easily be amplified.

The paper can be downloaded for free from the publishers' website: International Relations 20(4).

Radical Politics on the Net

Jenny Pickerill, 2006

Article published in Parliamentary Affairs 59(2): 266-282

We begin by delineating some key moments of experimentation and innovation by radical activists in their use of ICTs. These are moments of temporary novelty, inspirational uses which have then evolved or been discarded. The resonance of these uses is then more closely examined through the identification of five emerging themes. First is the importance of democratic tendencies by radical activists expressed through their online activities by careful consideration of participatory processes and consensus decision-making. These practices enable activists to use ICTs to reinvigorate democratic processes online and off. Second, ICTs have facilitated activists' ability to employ symbolism and control the representation of their campaigns. Third, there remain threats, in terms of surveillance and adversary reactions, to continued radical use of ICTs. Fourth, ICTs continue to aid the globality of movements through transnationalism and networks of solidarities. Finally, a commonality between these themes is the acceptance and celebration of difference and multiplicity. Consequently, activists' use of ICTs is articulated around a politics of dissensus.

This paper may be downloaded in pdf format from this link: Radical Politics on the Net.

Anti-War Activism and New Media: New Resource Structure or Creation of Symbolic Power?

Kevin Gillan, 2007

Paper presented to the 8th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Glasgow, September 2007

Abstract: Significant activist groups see information and communication technologies (ICTs) as offering substantial potential in empowering social movements in organisation, mobilisation, and communication of their critiques and demands. Academic studies have begun to demonstrate some of the creative and technologically sophisticated uses to which activists have put new media. However, emphasis on the novel tends to overshadow the degree to which activists' everyday lives are structured by interaction with new communications media. This paper analyses informational practices among UK anti-war and peace activists, demonstrating a far more complex picture of the value of new media to campaigning organisations. On the one hand, we see informational practices that utilise the manifest functionalities of new technologies as absolutely pervasive in contemporary activism. On the other hand, we see some activist groups discovering the latent functionalities of ICTs through stringing together multiple modes of communication or combining technologies with the social and political networks in which they interact. Through such practices activists produce relatively novel communication structures that potentially offer new ways of exerting the power of collective action.

This paper may be downloaded in pdf format from this link: Anti-War Activism and New Media.

The UK Anti-War Movement Online: Uses and Limitations of Internet Technologies for Contemporary Activism

Kevin Gillan, 2006

Paper presented to the international research seminar, Politics on the Internet: New Forms and media for Political Action, at the University of Tampere, November 2006.

Abstract: A striking feature of contemporary social movements is intensive use of the world wide web and email for mobilisation, organisation and discussion. As the use of internet technologies becomes increasingly important to activists, so the experience of a social movement begins to encompass its online presence. However, there are signs that one's understanding of a social movement is likely to be markedly different depending on whether one encounters it through the web, or in the 'real' world of demonstrations and public meetings.

This paper begins with an introductory exploration of the UK anti-war movement, and presents some information from interviews with core activists in order to outline the multiple roles of technology within contemporary anti-war and peace movement groups. A preliminary analysis of the structure of the anti-war movment, as it exists on the World Wide Web, is then presented. Initial findings suggest that the anti-war movement online is both more international and more strategically united than its offline instantiations suggest. That is, when one examines the hyperlinks that structure the online experience, anti-war organisations are connected in continuous fashion, across both international and political/strategic boundaries.

This paper may be downloaded in pdf format from this link: UK Anti War Movements Online.

New Social Movements, Coalitions and Religion: Muslim Anti-war Activists in Britain.

Jenny Pickerill, 2006

Paper presented at research seminar, After New Social Movements, at the Open University, April 2006

Introduction: This paper uses recent work on the peace and anti-war movements in Britain to explore the utility of New Social Movement (NSM) perspectives. In particular it explores the relationships between Muslim activists and 'the left' . The involvement of anti-war Muslims challenges the political left and social movement theorists to accommodate and understand the tensions of religiosity and coalitions in heterogeneous social movements.

Thus, three key questions are asked in this paper:
1. Does the fragmentation and fracturing of contemporary social movements signal the end of NSMs?
2. How can we account for and understand Muslim involvement in anti-war movement(s) in Britain?
3. What is the utility of using NSM approaches to understand coalitions?

This paper may be downloaded in pdf format from this link: New Social Movements, Coalitions and Religion.