Reload Disobedience

re:publica 17 - Politics & Society

Civil disobedience is a crucial political practice of our times. Since the early 90s, civil disobedience was partly transformed in digital practices by artists, activists and political technologists. The concept of civil disobedience is contested by itself, but the digital transformation adds a whole new set of questions to this exceptional phenomenon of political action. This talk will bring political theory about civil disobedience in dialog with claims and actions by the political subjects that reinvented what civil disobedience means in the digital era.

• Theresa Züger

Civil disobedience is a crucial political practice of our times. It defends the justification of political action, which is unlawful or at least in conflict with the law and at the same time aims for more just society or is directed against all kinds of democratic deficits. In human history civil disobediences proved itself as an effective element of democratic politics to foster political change and social transformation.

Since the early 90s, artists, activists and political technologists started to explore how digital actions could become new forms of civil disobedience. While on one side, adapting ideas of more traditional forms of civil disobedience, digital disobedient actions also reinvented and challenged the concept with a whole new set of questions that arose with its digital realization.

This talk will bring political theory about civil disobedience in dialog with claims and actions by the political subjects that reinvented what civil disobedience means in the digital era. It will present stories of digital disobedience the help understand what huge potential but also what possible boundaries and challenges this extraordinary political act entails.