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Political Agency at the Digital Crossroads?

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Kaun

    (Media and Communication Studies, School for Culture and Education, Södertörn University, Sweden)

  • Maria Kyriakidou

    (School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies, University of East Anglia, UK)

  • Julie Uldam

    (Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University, Denmark)

Abstract

This thematic issue presents the outcome of the 2015 ECREA Communication and Democracy Section Conference “Political Agency in the Digital Age” that was held at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. It problematizes changes in the configurations of political agency in the context of digital media. The articles represent a shift from an exclusive focus on political elites to the interrelation between institutionalised politics and political processes in other societal spheres in the field of media and politics research. Political agency as the main notion of the thematic issue draws attention at the (media) practices through which social actors reproduce, reorganise and challenge politics. At the same time, the issue poses questions about the structures—economic, political and social—that allow for, define and also limit these practices. The contributions gathered here suggest an understanding of agency as constituted through the use of knowledge and resources, themselves embedded within structural contexts; at the same time, agency is transformative of the structures within which it is embedded by making use of knowledge and resources in creative and often radical ways. In that context the development of digital media marks a rupture or critical juncture that allows and requires a rethinking of conditions of political agency. Accordingly the contributions critically scrutinize the role of digital media moving beyond celebratory accounts of democratizing potential of digital media. The rethinking of the grammar of political agency is at the heart of this thematic issue.

Suggested Citation

  • Anne Kaun & Maria Kyriakidou & Julie Uldam, 2016. "Political Agency at the Digital Crossroads?," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 1-7.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v4:y:2016:i:4:p:1-7
    DOI: 10.17645/mac.v4i4.690
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jonas Kaiser & Markus Rhomberg & Axel Maireder & Stephan Schlögl, 2016. "Energiewende’s Lone Warriors: A Hyperlink Network Analysis of the German Energy Transition Discourse," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 18-29.
    2. Anastasia Kavada, 2016. "Social Movements and Political Agency in the Digital Age: A Communication Approach," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 8-12.
    3. Kerry McCallum & Lisa Waller & Tanja Dreher, 2016. "Mediatisation, Marginalisation and Disruption in Australian Indigenous Affairs," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 30-42.
    4. Julia Velkova, 2016. "Free Software Beyond Radical Politics: Negotiations of Creative and Craft Autonomy in Digital Visual Media Production," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 43-52.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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