Digital Culture as a Framework of Civic Activism
Keywords:
digital culture, civic activism, the Internet, civic identityAbstract
The basic assumption of the paper is that digital culture, regardless of how much it is based on technological progress, is not determined by it, but necessarily arises from the values, ways of thinking and acting that are grounded in that technology and by it, and that have enabled its development. Thereby, the introduction will be dedicated to a critical deliberation on digital culture as a platform for the (de)construction of individual and collective identities, analysing its participative, mobilizational and subversive potential in the context of agitation and realization of social and cultural changes, civil rights and freedoms. The main purpose of this paper is to explain from the sociological point of view how digital culture has determined, shaped and transformed the paths of civic activism, especially in the last few years in Serbia. By using secondary sources of data, the paper will analyse to which extent the Internet and social networks represent important instruments of communication and mobilization of citizens for protesting and organization of various political events. A special critical emphasis will be directed towards the effects, advantages and limitations (activation or passivization) of civic engagement in the context of digital culture. The application of the comparative method in the final part of the paper will point out how much Serbian civic activism follows or differs from European movements that also rely primarily on the Internet and social networks as a medium for mobilization.