In her paper, Left Out? Digital Media, Radical Politics and Social Change, Natalie Fenton tackles the both conceptual and practical issue in critical theory of overlooking the very practice it seeks to study with regard to radical politics. In the introduction, Fenton acknowledges the profound impact of digital media and the internet in building and mobilizing political networks of resistance to counter dominant power structures. She presents her piece as not only noting the radical collective possibilities of online political mobilization but proposing the claim that digital media has changed the landscape of radical politics itself which enabled movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy movement to materialize. Consequently, the actual means
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She conjoins interpretations of Holloway and Gramsci to explain her definition that politics is of a dual nature and encompasses the organizational practices of who gets what, why, how and where. For politics to be radical, it must seek progressive social and political change, but the question becomes – how can radical politics become feasible political systems? Because politics cannot exist without context, Fenton delves into the idea of insisting on the contextual. The context of radical politics in Western democracies includes the tremendous power of corporations and financial agencies over public priorities. The gap between the rich and poor is the largest it has been in the last 30 years, the richest 1% saw huge increases in their global assets while the bottom half of the world’s population own less than 1%. Research shows how inequality damages our society, economy, and democratic system, but it also shows how the poor have no influence over policies and politicians and vote less. Inequality makes some political subjects less visible and because it damages the democratic system, it is not surprising that inequality continues to rise. Just as patterns of economic inequality are duplicated in access to healthcare and education, this pattern extends to access to technology. There is a digital divide and when assessing the impact of
She conjoins interpretations of Holloway and Gramsci to explain her definition that politics is of a dual nature and encompasses the organizational practices of who gets what, why, how and where. For politics to be radical, it must seek progressive social and political change, but the question becomes – how can radical politics become feasible political systems? Because politics cannot exist without context, Fenton delves into the idea of insisting on the contextual. The context of radical politics in Western democracies includes the tremendous power of corporations and financial agencies over public priorities. The gap between the rich and poor is the largest it has been in the last 30 years, the richest 1% saw huge increases in their global assets while the bottom half of the world’s population own less than 1%. Research shows how inequality damages our society, economy, and democratic system, but it also shows how the poor have no influence over policies and politicians and vote less. Inequality makes some political subjects less visible and because it damages the democratic system, it is not surprising that inequality continues to rise. Just as patterns of economic inequality are duplicated in access to healthcare and education, this pattern extends to access to technology. There is a digital divide and when assessing the impact of