Field Notes

 

Hybrid activism under the radar: Surveillance and resistance among marginalized youth activists in the United States and Canada | New Media & Society

Ashley Lee
July 7, 2022

Hybrid activism under the radar: Surveillance and resistance among marginalized youth activists in the United States and Canada | New Media & Society

Ashley Lee
July 7, 2022

Social media and digital platforms have become essential tools for the new generation of youth activists. However, these tools subject youth to both new (and old) forms of surveillance and control. Drawing on in-depth interviews and social media walkthroughs with 61 youth activists, I examine hybrid tactics that these youth employ to resist surveillance and other forms of digitally mediated control as they participate in politics and social movements. I show that even in democracies like the United States and Canada, for individuals along intersecting axes of marginalization (e.g. race, gender), public political acts do not capture the full range of young people’s political repertoires. Young people, especially those from marginalized groups, adopt hidden, under-the-radar tactics in response to pressures of social, state, and corporate surveillance. I develop the concept of “digital infrapolitics” referring to the ways in which digital politics and activism go below the radar under surveillance and control.

Source: Hybrid activism under the radar: Surveillance and resistance among marginalized youth activists in the United States and Canada – Ashley Lee, 2022