Giraud, E.H. orcid.org/0000-0003-0845-9804 and Wright, T. (Accepted: 2023) Digital archives as resisting displacement. Cultural Politics. ISSN 1743-2197 (In Press)
Abstract
Amidst wider concern about the emergence of vast data archives that document, and instrumentalize, everyday user activities for the purpose of marketing, research, and governance, this article turns to a series of creative and activist initiatives that preserve heterodox Internet histories. Though a focus on three case studies – artistic engagements with GeoCities, traces left by Indymedia in contemporary activism, and emerging ethical frameworks for reusing social media data – we examine the political and ethical significance of attempts to archive specific instances of participatory online cultures before these cultures disappear. Drawing on, and advancing, Jodi Dean’s conception of displaced mediators, or entities that set in motion the forces that ultimately displace them, we argue that the significance of these digital archives is in their capacity to resist linear, commercial logics of displacement that attempt to narrow user agency. Instead, we argue, the creative and activist argues we foreground generate questions about whether the infrastructures that govern everyday online interactions could be otherwise, through showing how they formerly have been otherwise.
Metadata
Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 Duke University Press. This is an author-produced version of a paper accepted for publication in Cultural Politics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | digital archives; displacement; displaced mediators; Geocities; Indymedia; hashtag activism; participatory cultures |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Sociological Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 Jan 2024 11:33 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jan 2024 11:47 |
Status: | In Press |
Publisher: | Duke University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |