Rhizome vs Regime: Southeast Asia’s Digitally Mediated Youth Movements

Rhizome vs Regime: Southeast Asia’s Digitally Mediated Youth Movements PDF Author: Yatun Sastramidjaja
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9815104217
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
In Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar, democratic regression and the reconsolidation of authoritarian regimes have triggered the rise of social media-driven protest movements. These are pioneered by a new generation of activist youth, distinguishing themselves from previous student and youth movements by the digitally mediated, decentralized and diverse nature of their protest. While experimenting with digitally mediated repertoires of action adopted and adapted from similar struggles elsewhere, these protesters forge transnational links that give rise to new protest assemblages across and beyond the region. This is exemplified by the social media-based #MilkTeaAlliance, in which the distinct protests in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries are conjoined through extended solidarity and affinity ties in a common “generational” struggle against entrenched authoritarianism. The youth resistance in Hong Kong was instrumental in driving this trend. Like a “rhizome” (Deleuze and Guattari 1987), these movements are characterized by connectivity, heterogeneity, multiplicity and “unbreakable” expansion. This allows for a fluid participation of various activist and non-activist groups (such as K-poppers) and the inclusion of various issues and demands in the protest, which merge into the cause of fighting systemic injustice. It also heightens the movements’ viability and resilience to repression. However, besides physical repression, protesters in all three countries face the added challenge of new modes of cyber-repression. The combined effect of repressive cyber laws, intrusive cyber surveillance and aggressive cyber troops took its toll on the protest movements’ capacities for online agitation and mobilization, thus contributing to the movements’ silencing and suppression. Yet, the resistance did not die out, as activists dodge cyber-repression and make creative uses of digital media and technologies to cultivate their resistance online, at the grassroots level, or in the cultural sphere. Meanwhile, as long as authorities remain repressive and tone-deaf to this generation’s criticism and concerns, the gulf between them looks set to widen. The longer-term implication is that this generation will remain alienated and continue to express their struggle in novel and unpredictable ways.

Rhizome vs Regime: Southeast Asia’s Digitally Mediated Youth Movements

Rhizome vs Regime: Southeast Asia’s Digitally Mediated Youth Movements PDF Author: Yatun Sastramidjaja
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9815104217
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 35

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar, democratic regression and the reconsolidation of authoritarian regimes have triggered the rise of social media-driven protest movements. These are pioneered by a new generation of activist youth, distinguishing themselves from previous student and youth movements by the digitally mediated, decentralized and diverse nature of their protest. While experimenting with digitally mediated repertoires of action adopted and adapted from similar struggles elsewhere, these protesters forge transnational links that give rise to new protest assemblages across and beyond the region. This is exemplified by the social media-based #MilkTeaAlliance, in which the distinct protests in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and other countries are conjoined through extended solidarity and affinity ties in a common “generational” struggle against entrenched authoritarianism. The youth resistance in Hong Kong was instrumental in driving this trend. Like a “rhizome” (Deleuze and Guattari 1987), these movements are characterized by connectivity, heterogeneity, multiplicity and “unbreakable” expansion. This allows for a fluid participation of various activist and non-activist groups (such as K-poppers) and the inclusion of various issues and demands in the protest, which merge into the cause of fighting systemic injustice. It also heightens the movements’ viability and resilience to repression. However, besides physical repression, protesters in all three countries face the added challenge of new modes of cyber-repression. The combined effect of repressive cyber laws, intrusive cyber surveillance and aggressive cyber troops took its toll on the protest movements’ capacities for online agitation and mobilization, thus contributing to the movements’ silencing and suppression. Yet, the resistance did not die out, as activists dodge cyber-repression and make creative uses of digital media and technologies to cultivate their resistance online, at the grassroots level, or in the cultural sphere. Meanwhile, as long as authorities remain repressive and tone-deaf to this generation’s criticism and concerns, the gulf between them looks set to widen. The longer-term implication is that this generation will remain alienated and continue to express their struggle in novel and unpredictable ways.

The Palgrave Handbook of Political Norms in Southeast Asia

The Palgrave Handbook of Political Norms in Southeast Asia PDF Author: Gabriel Facal
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819996554
Category : Southeast Asia
Languages : en
Pages : 635

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Book Description
“The Palgrave Handbook of Political Norms in Southeast Asia offers a fresh and insightful analysis of the dynamics of political change ongoing in the region. The collection brings together a set of highly expert authors from inside and outside the region, who offer a deep understanding of the region’s history and politics, providing a stimulating and colourful take on the region’s contemporary political movements. The Handbook will be invaluable to both longstanding observers of the region and to newcomers seeking to understand both the diversity and complexity of Southeast Asian politics, and its regional distinctiveness.” —Professor Caroline Hughes, University of Notre Dame, U.S.A “A sophisticated and compelling argument about how to conceive and explain political norms and dynamics. Insights from various social sciences expose complex power relationships involving competing interests promoting norms within, across, and in articulation with, Southeast Asia. Conflicts and contradictions are thus brought out of shadows and into light, posing a formidable theoretical challenge to influential orthodoxies. An outstanding collection.” —Emeritus Professor Garry Rodan, Murdoch University, Australia This open access handbook aims to constitute a reference point on political norm dynamics in Southeast Asia, by bringing together the array of normative repertoires that frame the possibilities for citizens to participate in, set agendas for, make decisions in, and contest, not only electoral and institutional politics but also informal and imaginary political spaces. It sheds light on intersecting political and social transformations and their consequences from the vantage point of political norms. While chapters lay out and analyse how political norms across Southeast Asia have been shaped in successive historical phases, the core of the handbook addresses current dynamics involved in defining and transforming political norms. Gabriel Facal is Deputy Director of the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC), Bangkok, Thailand. Elsa Lafaye de Micheaux is Professor in Political Economy at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France. Astrid Norén-Nilsson is a Senior Lecturer in the Study of Contemporary Southeast Asia at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, Sweden.

Defect Or Defend

Defect Or Defend PDF Author: Terence Lee
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 142141516X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Why do certain militaries brutally suppress popular demonstrations, while others support the path to political liberalization by backing mass social movements? Although social movements and media can help destabilize authoritarian governments, not all social protest is effective or culminates in the toppling of dictatorships. Frequently, the military’s response determines the outcome. In Defect or Defend, Terence Lee uses four case studies from Asia to provide insight into the military’s role during the transitional phase of regime change. Lee compares popular uprisings in the Philippines and Indonesia—both of which successfully engaged military support to bring down authoritarian rule—with protest movements in China and Burma which were violently suppressed by military forces. Lee’s theory of “high personalism” and power-sharing among the armed forces leadership provides a framework for understanding the critical transitory phases of democratization. He uses this theory to review and assess Eastern Europe’s democratization events in 1989, the Colored Revolutions of the early 2000s, and the protests and revolutions unfolding in the Middle East. This book will appeal to students and scholars of comparative politics, Asian studies, security studies, and international relations, as well as defense policymakers.

Power Games

Power Games PDF Author: Hah Foong Lian
Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
ISBN: 9814762180
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The unprecedented results of the 2008 national elections took many Malaysians by surprise. The component parties of the ruling coalition suffered huge losses, while the opposition was victorious in several states. Many media scholars and political pundits, including politicians, pointed to the online platform as a democratic tool that had increased support for the opposition. In the 2013 election the ruling party turned its spotlight on new media to try to regain voter support. In order to obtain a better understanding of the much-touted democratizing effects of the online media, this book employs an alternative lens to examine the use of new media at the intersection of social and political realities. It explores the ways individual political bloggers, Facebookers and Twitterers used cyberspace to battle for voter support in the 2008 and 2013 national elections. It examines the cultural practices and the social and political affiliation and aims of individual actors, as well as the social ties that subsequently emerged from the use of the online media. This research employs a political economy approach to the media, Habermas's notion of the public sphere, and the social determinism perspective in order to understand the extent to which online media can enrich political life and bring about new ways of campaigning.

Digital Activism in Asia Reader

Digital Activism in Asia Reader PDF Author: Nishant Shah
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783957960511
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Democracy's Fourth Wave?

Democracy's Fourth Wave? PDF Author: Philip N. Howard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199323658
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Did digital media really "cause" the Arab Spring, or is it an important factor of the story behind what might become democracy's fourth wave? An unlikely network of citizens used digital media to start a cascade of social protest that ultimately toppled four of the world's most entrenched dictators. Howard and Hussain find that the complex causal recipe includes several economic, political and cultural factors, but that digital media is consistently one of the most important sufficient and necessary conditions for explaining both the fragility of regimes and the success of social movements. This book looks at not only the unexpected evolution of events during the Arab Spring, but the deeper history of creative digital activism throughout the region.

Networks of Outrage and Hope

Networks of Outrage and Hope PDF Author: Manuel Castells
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745695795
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 151

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Book Description
Networks of Outrage and Hope is an exploration of the new forms of social movements and protests that are erupting in the world today, from the Arab uprisings to the indignadas movement in Spain, from the Occupy Wall Street movement to the social protests in Turkey, Brazil and elsewhere. While these and similar social movements differ in many important ways, there is one thing they share in common: they are all interwoven inextricably with the creation of autonomous communication networks supported by the Internet and wireless communication. In this new edition of his timely and important book, Manuel Castells examines the social, cultural and political roots of these new social movements, studies their innovative forms of self-organization, assesses the precise role of technology in the dynamics of the movements, suggests the reasons for the support they have found in large segments of society, and probes their capacity to induce political change by influencing people’s minds. Two new chapters bring the analysis up-to-date and draw out the implications of these social movements and protests for understanding the new forms of social change and political democracy in the global network society.

Social Movements in China and Hong Kong

Social Movements in China and Hong Kong PDF Author: Khun Eng Kuah
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089641319
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Het uitgangspunt van dit boek is dat Chinese individuen van hun eigen inzet uit moeten kunnen gaan, ongeacht de beperkingen die hen door de staat worden opgelegd. Om hun belangen beter te kunnen verdedigen sluiten sommige individuen zich aan bij sociale bewegingen, die tot sociale protesten kunnen leiden.

From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation

From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation PDF Author: Aim Sinpeng
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 981495103X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This book reflects on the role of social media in the past two decades in Southeast Asia. It traces the emergence of social media discourse in Southeast Asia, and its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratizing and authoritarian states. It explains the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments, and argues that social media is now an essential platform for control. The contributors detail the increasing role of “disinformation” and “fake news” production in Southeast Asia, and how national governments are creating laws which attempt to address this trend, but which often exacerbate the situation of state control. From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation explores three main questions: How did social media begin as a vibrant space for grassroots activism to becoming a tool for disinformation? Who were the main actors in this transition: governments, citizens or the platforms themselves? Can reformists “reclaim” the digital public sphere? And if so, how?

Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia

Transparency and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Asia PDF Author: Garry Rodan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134308116
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
This book rejects the notion that the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis was further evidence that ultimately capitalism can only develop within liberal social and political institutions.