La diffusione delle nuove tecnologie informatiche trasforma in modo dirompente la nostra vita individuale e collettiva. Cambia il campo della politica, dalle tecniche di costruzione del consenso alle modalità di gestione del policy making.
Leader e/o Partiti
2/2021
Close
INDICE 1/2021
RIVISTA DI DIGITAL POLITICS
Numero 1- Politiche virali
Dopo un ventennio di egemonia incontrastata del virus digitale, quello biologico si è preso la rivincita. Rubandosi la scena mediatica e politica, e costringendoci a riflettere sui limiti del prometeo tecnologico. Al tempo stesso, la risposta alla pandemia sarebbe stata impossibile – per ampiezza e tempestività – senza il ricorso alle risorse della connettività planetaria. Dall’uso dell’informazione no-stop e low-cost alla marcia trionfale del biotech per la nuova generazione di vaccini, dallo smartworking che sta ridefinendo contesti urbani e strategie aziendali all’e-learning che sta rivoluzionando le metodologie e l’ampiezza della galassia educational: il virus biologico si è rivelato uno straordinario volano della digitalizzazione.
Il primo numero della Rivista di Digital politics riflette sull’intreccio tra informatizzazione e pandemia, analizzandone le implicazioni per gli indirizzi delle politiche pubbliche e per l’infrastruttura – culturale, economica, democratica – della nostra vita associata.
FOCUS
- – Mauro Calise, Virus contro Virus
- – Leonardo Morlino, Ripensare la rappresentanza: la manipolazione digitale
- – Daniela Piana, Augmented democracy. More open, less free?
- – Giliberto Capano, Rincorrere, rincorrere, rincorrere. Anti-Covid Italian Style
- – Susanna Sancassani, Dalla multiversity alla netversity
- – Fortunato Musella, Amministrazione 5.0
SAGGI
- – Maurizio Ferraris, Documanità. Istruzioni per l’uso
- – Federica Nunziata, Platform Leaders
- – Paolo Natale, Il terzo paradigma: lo studio del web
WEB REVIEWS
- – Valentina Reda, Web Reviews. Cosa, come, perché
- – Mauro Santaniello, Sunburst. La grande eclissi della cybersecutity Usa
- – Marco Valbruzzi, Il dilemma delle presidenziali Usa tra sicurezza e protesta
- – Luigi Rullo, Corti online
- Mauro Calise, Tecnopartiti
- Marco Valbruzzi, C’è un PD digitale. Negli Usa
- Francesco Raniolo, Valeria Tarditi, Rivoluzione digitale e trasformazioni organizzative dei partiti
- Paolo Gerbaudo, Social media activism and the funnelling of participation
- Robin Piazzo, Connective campaigning: Ground-wars in the digital age
- Sofia Eliodori, Trump’s populism and the Twitter diplomacy
- Martina Carone, Matteo Cavallaro, Giovanni Diamanti, Claudio Riva, Donne ed elezioni, gioie e dolori
- Matteo Giardiello, Populismi digitali al tempo del Covid-19
Close
Abstract: Tecnopartiti
Mauro Calise
TECHNOPARTIES
Political parties are by far the most adaptive of all political institutions. Over more than two centuries of democratic life, their organizational structure has changed several times, from elitist factions to mass political machines, eventually evolving into a symbiotic relationship with state administration, and functions. However, through all these changes, they have retained their original technological asset: the strength and the leverage of a human network. The impact of Ict is modifying this genetic feature. First radio and television, then social media, have all forced political parties to re-engineer their inner structure. A disruptive innovation whose outcome is hard to envisage, let alone control.
KEYWORDS: Technoparties, Digitalization, Platformization, Leadership.
Close
Abstract: C'è un Pd digitale. Negli Usa
Marco Valbruzzi
THERE IS A DIGITAL DP. IN THE US
The article analyzes the transition of the main Us political parties from traditional, offline organizations into the digital world. In particular, it focuses on the technological innovations introduced by the Democratic party over the last two decades. The analysis begins with an exploration of Howard Dean’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2003-2004 and reveals its enduring legacy on the Democratic innovativeness in technology over the whole period considered. Then, the article discusses the role played by the first «social media president», Barack Obama, in making the Democratic party an even more digitally-enabled organizations in which digital, data and analytics have become central components of the party technological infrastructure. The last section focuses on the consequences of Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and, more specifically, on the countermeasures that the main leaders of the Democratic party have taken, in terms of technological innovation, as a reaction to the unexpected electoral success of the Republican party.
KEYWORDS: Digital Parties, Political Parties, Party Digitization, Social Media, Us Politics, Democratic Party.
Close
Abstract: La rivoluzione digitale e le trasformazioni organizzative dei partiti
Francesco Raniolo, Valeria Tarditi
DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF PARTIES
The article proposes a reinterpretation of party typologies, starting from a criterion of relevance identified in the transformations of communicative ecologies. The article focuses on the impact generated by new digital information and communication technologies (Icts) in changing operational environments of parties. In this framework, we consider the opportunities Icts offer in terms of innovation potential not only with reference to communication, but also to other functional and organizational aspects. In particular, it is highlighted how the absorption of new technologies can generate different levels of innovation (in the organizational models of parties) on a continuum between «sustainable innovations» and «disruptive innovations». The former, typical of established parties, imply an instrumental conception of new Icts as resources for the effective performance of certain functions, without particular organizational consequences; the latter, instead, which can be found in some new parties born in the age of the Internet, are linked to a constructivist conception of Icts which assume the role of frames that incorporate radical and innovative visions of political reality. Adopting a dynamic perspective, the article therefore proposes to integrate the concept of «original model» considering a further factor, namely that of technological imprinting. The technological dimension, in fact, plays a crucial role in the twenty-first century in influencing the construction and organizational evolution of parties, offering opportunities but also establishing conditions for change and opening new risks for the quality of democracy.
KEYWORDS: Political Parties, Sustaining/Disruptive Innovations, Original Model, Organizational Model, Typology.
Close
Abstract: Social media activism and the funnelling of participation
Paolo Gerbaudo
SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISM AND THE FUNNELLING OF PARTICIPATION
To understand the way in which social media have influenced the transformation of protest and politics it is important to get to grips with the spatial and organisational transformation of forms of mobilisation that has been facilitated by the diffusion of new platforms and apps. To this end in this article I will reflect on and expand the concept of choreography of assembly introduced in my first book Tweets and the Streets, as a means to capture the way in which social media concur in the process of creation of events, and the construction of the space of mobilisation. I will argue that the new forms of action that are associated with social media and in particular the format of the flash mob, involve the idea of the protest event as a moment of assembly of individuals that are otherwise socially and spatially dispersed. In this context, the construction of the event is not just a manifestation of the protest movement that exists in other forms but something more radical: the precipitation of an online crowd into a physical gathering. This precipitation is filtered through a number of operations, such as the fixing of specific times and places where it is due to occur, the present of various instructions that are meant to guide the process of gathering and finally the narratives and symbols that accompany this process. Movement leaders in this context appear in the form of choreographers, namely as «namers», «placers» and «programmers» of a movement which while relying on the collaboration of manifold individuals is nevertheless stamped with the initial instructions, the «concept» that has been established by the initial group of creators. This view of protest as the result of a process of social media construction can help us better understand what happens in the genetic phase of a social movement and appreciate the importance of the moment of concept-development and design of the movement performance, thus overcoming the usual opposition between organisation and spontaneity and showing how rather the two act in concert.
KEYWORDS: Social Media, Activism, Mobilisation, Sales Funnel, Movements, Political Communication
LEGGI QUI: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.53227/101943
Close
Abstract: Connective campaigning: Ground-wars in the digital age
Robin Piazzo
CONNECTIVE CAMPAIGNING: GROUND-WARS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
This paper aims to analyze the forms taken by digitally enabled ground campaigns for political elections in the last fifteen years in Anglo-Saxon countries. First of all I will develop a theoretical framework allowing a deeper understanding and the categorization of the different cases of digitally enabled ground campaigns. The first step is the revision of the categories of collective and connective action proposed by Bennet and Segerberg (2013), in order to develop the concept of connective campaigning. I will then turn to integrating Flanagin, Bimber and Stohl’s (2006, 2012) concepts of interactivity and engagement within Stromer-Galley’s (2014) controlled interactivity framework, to provide a new theoretical framework useful to compare different forms of digital management of interactions within connective campaigns. The article also develops the concepts of digital and human infrastructure, in order to distinguish the different components of connective ground campaigns. Once the theoretical frame is completed, the article analyses four case studies of connective campaigns: Howard Dean’s primary campaign; Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008; Bernie Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic Party primary in 2016; and finally Labour Party’s campaign for the general election of 2019, with a specific focus on the app My Campaign Map developed by Momentum. The comparative analysis shows that all these campaigns combine high personalizability in the level of individual involvement with a medium level of interactivity and tightly controlled engagement. This confirms the results of previous research by Stromer-Galley (2014), according to whom the constraints of electoral competition lead organizers to manipulate the affordances of digital technologies in order to reduce the participants’ margins of organizational autonomy; moreover this article adds to Stromer-Galley’s reading a specific focus on the interrelation between digital and human infrastructure as affecting both engagement and interactivity patterns.
KEYWORDS: Campaigning, Connective Action, Digital Infrastructures, Participation, Political Parties.
Close
Abstract: Trump's populism and the Twitter diplomacy
Sofia Eliodori
TRUMP’S POPULISM AND THE TWITTER DIPLOMACY
After the electoral defeat of Donald Trump in 2020, the «populist moment» in the West seems to have taken a break. It is now time to reflect upon the effects that this particular period has had – and will have – in the future of international politics and the possible decline of liberalism. This paper aims to start a conversation on this topic, beginning from the analysis of the legacy of Donald Trump in American foreign policy-making. In order to interpret the 45th President’s foreign policy approach, a general framework – related to the characteristics of his specific kind of populism – will be adopted. The thesis is that the traits of Trump’s populism are nativism, anti-globalism, and isolationism; those facets applied to American foreign policy influenced the perception of change of the international role of the United States, being no longer the hinge of the global liberal order. Above all, the focus of the theoretical investigation will be the connection between his foreign policy decisions and statements and his peculiar use of the so-called Twitter diplomacy. Based on this perspective, the paper underlines the functions that his «social routine» of digital political communication played in American foreign policy through the global spread of his political thinking. Indeed, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, declared that at the time he was in charge he used to print the President’s tweets early in the morning to schedule his daily agenda of foreign policy and diplomacy. In doing this, President Trump was not only bypassing the traditional media, but he was also bypassing other governmental bodies and the State’s bureaucracy. Hence, the digital revolution plays a crucial role in detecting the novelty of the effects that Donald Trump’s foreign policy had on fostering the perception of a possible decline of the international liberal order and the West as we have known it so far.
KEYWORDS: Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Twitter Diplomacy, Populism, Theoretical Framework.
Close
Abstract: Donne ed elezioni, gioie e dolori
Martina Carone, Matteo Cavallaro, Giovanni Diamanti, Claudio Riva
WOMEN AND ELECTIONS, JOYS AND PAINS
Our paper focuses on the intersection of three different dimensions: female leadership, local electoral competition, and digital communication. We wish to capture the main differences between female and male candidates in terms of digital campaigning, investigating the strategies and narratives used on the social media, the levels of interaction, the degree of personalization and intimate politics, the influence of pop politics, and the presence of gender issues. We do so by quantitively analysing Facebook posts collected over the 2016-2020 period, corresponding to five different local election campaigns. In total, our sample includes of 42 women and 70 men candidates for the office of mayor for one of the three major Italian political families (Centerleft, Center-right, 5 Star Movement), for a total of over 19,000 «election campaign» posts (i.e. published two months prior to the first election round). Through the study of different metrics and the development of an ontological dictionary, we test the existence of gender differences in local political leadership both in reference to the strategies adopted (frequency of publication, chosen themes) and in terms of digital success, that we operationalize as the number of post interactions. Our analysis suggests that there are indeed differences in the communication style and success of male and female candidates on social media, although these are often embedded and more easily appreciated within each political family.
KEYWORDS: Female Leadership, Local Electoral Competition, Electoral Campaigns, Digital Campaigning, Social Media.
Close
Abstract: Populismi digitali al tempo del Covid-19
Matteo Giardiello
DIGITAL POPULISM AT THE TIME OF COVID-19
The paper aims to analyze populist digital communication at the time of Covid-19. It is going to focus on the Italian case and the Usa case, two of the most affected countries by the pandemic crisis. Four different case studies will be analyzed, two per each country: for the Italian context, the digital communication of Giuseppe Conte (M5s, movement-party example of valence populism) and the opposition carried out by Matteo Salvini (Lega, example of right-wing populism); for the Usa, the communication campaign of Donald Trump (Republican Party, famous example of right-wing populism) and the opposition carried out by one of the components of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Socialists of America (Dsa), whose main exponents are Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (symbols of the new american left-wing populism). The analysis uses both a quantitative and a qualitative method, by comparing the points of convergence and differences between the communicative strategies of the three different types of populism. While crises have always been an important opportunity for populisms, the extraordinary nature of the pandemic crisis has led to different outcomes. Populist communicative strategies have varied in accordance to the position of the actors on the government/opposition and right/left axes.
KEYWORDS: Populism, Covid-19, Crisis, Digital Communication, Digital Leadership.
Close
Abstract: Cultural virology. The principle of virus in modernity and the digital era
Susanne Ristow
CULTURAL VIROLOGY. THE PRINCIPLE OF VIRUS IN MODERNITY AND THE DIGITAL ERA
The Corona pandemic has recently given the virus topical significance, but viruses and virality have been among the central concepts of a manipulative fusion of nature and technology in contemporary Western culture at least since the post-war modern era. As a synonym for change and an evolutionary «all-rounder», the virus is presented in the context of the technological preconditions for the storage and transformation of cultural information. If viruses did not exist, they would have had to be invented. The virus, which in contrast to bacteria has only been studied in detail in the late 1920s, must reprogram foreign cells as an obligatory parasite in such a way that mass reproduction of the virus itself takes place in the host body. Mutation and recombination are the most significant criteria of the viral. All important discourses of the 20th century come together in the «principle of virus». However, with virality, the so called «going viral» of information in mass culture, something arises that can by no means be spoken of as a familiar biologistic metaphor, but which testifies to a new communicative phenomenon of the 21st century, rapidly accelerated by digital reproduction technology. The cultural virology proposed here provides a broad overview of the virus as a figure of thought for interaction, transmission, interdisciplinarity, connectivity and interdependence in the 20th and 21st centuries. Regarding artistic, pop cultural and philosophic viral potentials» one must ask to review the contemporary pandemic mood: could it be possible to imagine the virus as a principle of freedom and transformation?
KEYWORDS: Virus, Border Opening, Mutation, Data Viruses, Virality, Viral Marketing.
-
- Davide Azzolari, Valeria Marina Borodi, Diego Garusi, Il Forum degli Incel: la costruzione del consenso politico nella manosfera italiana
- Massimiliano Panarari, Il Leviatano digitale e il neototalitarismo soft
Close
Abstract: Il forum degli Incel: la costruzione del consenso politico nella manosfera italiana
Davide Azzolari, Valeria Marina Borodi, Diego Garusi
THE FORUM OF THE INCEL: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE POLITICAL CONSENSUS IN THE ITALIAN MANOSPHERE
Since the advent of Web 2.0 and social media, a particularly toxic brand of antifeminism has become evident in a wide range of online networks and platforms. Indeed, the digital environment allows a new relational modality that can promote more cosmopolitan attitudes, but at the same time is likely to encourage the creation of movements marked by a more exclusive sense of identity. An example of this is the manosphere, characterized as a composite and often contradictory set of different forms of masculinities which, despite multiple internal conflicts, is generally united by an adherence to the red pill philosophy, or to one of its many variants. Although the manosphere has attracted the attention of several scholars, literature on the subject has largely overlooked the political demands made by its constituent communities. Therefore, this work aims to investigate through which discursive strategies minority and ideologically connotation movements that inhabit the manosphere try to build a widespread consensus and legitimize their political demands. Specifically, this article is focused on one of the most active and well-known realities in the Italian manosphere, the «Forum degli Incel». With more than 1300 users, about 7000 discussions and almost 420.000 total visits, this forum, thanks to its public nature, allowed us to do a naturalistic netnographic analysis, to collect valid empirical material and provide an adequate response to our research questions. Our findings suggest that their political demands are promoted and justified through alleged scientific and philosophical discourses, conveyed within an echo chamber.
KEYWORDS: Political Consensus, Manosphere, Incel, Italy, Netnographic Analysis.
Close
Abstract: Il Leviatano digitale e il neototalitarismo soft
Massimiliano Panarari
THE DIGITAL LEVIATHAN AND THE SOFT NEW TOTALITARISM
The crisis of political representation and liberal democracies offers one of the most investigated topic, both on an academic side and a cultural and political perspective (at large). Some books recently published – coming from a variety of approaches and orientations – suggest the idea of a «Soft New Totalitarianism» related to the digital revolution. And the birth of a «Tech-Leviathan» at the confluence of Surveillance Capitalism, biopower, postdemocracy and restrictions of personal freedom. A process accelerated in the present pandemic age, which is testing the boundless rise of high-tech firms influence and a renewed public intervention. This review article reconstructs a path of scholars and books designing a multiple critical and «Tech-pessimist» theory concerning the risks of «Soft New Totalitarianism» for western audience democracies.
KEYWORDS: Soft New Totalitarianism, Surveillance Capitalism, Liberal Democracy, Biopower, Imaginary.
Call for Paper
La Rivoluzione Digitale: Movimenti, Partiti, Leader
Per il prossimo numero della rivista (2/2021), si prevede un Focus monografico dedicato all’impatto delle trasformazioni digitali sui nuovi movimenti sociali, sui mutamenti organizzativi dei partiti politici e sulle più recenti tecniche di costruzione delle leadership contemporanee.
—
The digital revolution: movements, parties, leaders
The next issue of the journal (2/2021) will host a special Focus dedicated to the impact of digital transformations on new social movements, on the organizational changes of political parties and on the most recent techniques for contemporary leadership formation.
Governing Digital Education
L’emergenza Covid ha determinato una accelerazione del processo di inclusione della didattica digitale nelle strategie delle Università di tutto il mondo. In poche settimane, oltre il 90% della popolazione studentesca mondiale e delle attività didattiche sono state trasferite online, dando luogo al più grande esperimento di digitalizzazione della formazione mai realizzato.
—
Governing Digital Education
The Covid emergency has led to an acceleration of the inclusion of digital learning in university strategy throughout the world. Within weeks, 90% of the global student population and all teaching and learning activity had been transitioned online, giving rise to the greatest digital education experiment ever seen.
L’innovazione Digitale per la PA: Software vs Hardware
Con l’avvento dei social media e l’esplosione dello smartworking, la digitalizzazione della PA investe il suo software di funzionamento: le sue linee gerarchiche, i suoi codici formali, la centralità degli uffici.
—
Digital Innovation for Public Administration: Software vs Hardware
With the advent of social media and the explosion of smartworking, digitalization of the PA has affected its operating software: its hierarchical structure, its formal codes and the core value of its office space.
Oltre ai focus indicati, per tutte le call for paper verranno prese in considerazione submission (saggi o web reviews) sui diversi temi della digital politics.
