Virtual Nonviolence? Civil Disobedience and Political Violence in the Information Age

FEATURED RESEARCH PAPER, 29 Mar 2021

Andrew Calabrese | Academia – TRANSCEND Media Service

Abstract

Nonviolent civil disobedience is a vital and protected form of political communication in modern constitutional democracies. Reviews the idea of both demonstrating its continued relevance, and providing a basis for considering its uses as an information-age strategy of radical activism.

The novelty of the forms of speech and action possible in cyberspace make it difficult to compare these new methods of expression easily. Whether in cyberspace or the real world, civil disobedience has historically specific connotations that should be sustained because the concept has special relevance to the political theory and practice of constitutional democracy.

Civil disobedience is a unique means of political expression that is used to provoke democratic deliberation about important questions of just law and policy. Among the significant problems that new forms of radical political practice in cyberspace introduce is that their practitioners and advocates neglect the need to distinguish between violence and nonviolence. Examines that problem and others that are central to considering theoretical and political implications of radical activism in general, and civil disobedience in particular, in cyberspace.

TO READ FULL PAPER DOWNLOAD PDF FILE:

Virtual Nonviolence? Civil Disobedience and Political Violence in the Information Age

________________________________________________

Andrew Calabrese is Associate Professor, University of  Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 29 Mar 2021.

Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: Virtual Nonviolence? Civil Disobedience and Political Violence in the Information Age, is included. Thank you.

If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.

Share this article: email mastodon facebook 🔗 copy link

This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.

Comments are closed.