There are a series of practices and movements that disrupt the way politics is practiced and political action is carried out today. Through unique and innovative forms of self-organization and self-governance, local governments, activists, technologists, social innovators and citizen groups are creating protected spaces within and more radically outside the institutional setting. They have the capability to create a new geography of politics through altering the way decision making, citizen/community participation and place-based development occurs in different places.
This study rests at the intersection of techno-politics, translocal networks and political processes and movements. The umbrella theoretical framework for all the chapters in the study is predominantly informed by systems theory, while supplementary conceptual tools are developed to each chapter according to the content and context. Though the content covered in this study is diverse and multidisciplinary, it is bound together by a simple question: how does the design and implementation of socio-technical systems influence the practice of politics and policymaking?
This main relationships critically investigated are:
- Civic tech and power relations
- Direct democracy and scale of politics
- Technological design-implementation and political processes
- Technological design-implementation and geography of politics and political action
- Transformative/disruptive potential and implementation approaches (incorporative or radical projects)
Political processes, political technologies and their relationship to grassroots and social movements are rigorously investigated to tease out and articulate the normative political imaginations they employ.
Relevance of the study
Emerging technologies (blockchain) have a burgeoning impact on how global and local politics is practiced. However, analysis of multidisciplinary perspective. Premises of technological and political design are questioned: decentralization of decision-making, distribution of power, participatory or collaborative politics, the desirability of public involvement etc. Many scholars have claimed that 21st century political systems are severely out of date. This study investigates some of the most innovative socio-political processes and movements which utilized technology and develops methodologies to encourage them.
Key topics: radical municipalism, blockchain, place-based political action and movements, civic technologies, Political Imagination, human- scaled collaboration
Publications:
- Husain, Franklin and Roep (2019) Decentralizing Geographies of Political Action- Civic tech and place-based municipalism, Journal of Peer Production, #13 OPEN
News
Researcher: Omer Husain
Email:syedomer.husain@wur.nl
Website:
Host: Wageningen University
Supervisor: Dr Dirk Roep
Co-supervisor: Dr Alex Franklin
1st secondment: Sustainable Places Research Institute CU
2nd secondment: Visionary Analytics