Abstract for conference Grounding Cosmopolitanism: Theory and practice through the prism of women's
rights, Bahcesehir University in Instanbul, Turkey, 18.03.2013 - 19.03.2013



Title

       New media activism: A consciousness-raising tool for the contemporary women's movement?

Speaker

       Vanda Cernohorska, Department of Sociology, Masaryk University, Czech Republic




My research explores new media activism as a contemporary feminist strategy. While recognizing the
work of scholars focusing on the ways in which digital technologies interplay with the dynamics of
social movements, I raise the following question: How do new media shape the face of the
contemporary women's movement in transnational perspective? In contrast to analyses that focus
solely on changes in modes of mobilization and forms of campaign strategies, I do not reduce my
attention solely to the organizational effects of digital technologies. In other words, while
bearing in mind the practical impact of new technologies when it comes to overcoming geographical,
social, and economical borderlines of communication among the activists, I concentrate on the more
symbolic or, better said, cultural level. If one calls digital technologies
the consciousness-raising tool of 21th century then how does the expansion of feminist activism
within cyberspace redefine the relationships between concepts such as global and local, personal
and political, continuity and innovation? Researching new media (feminist/gender equality) activism
from the perspective of cultural sociology could be, I argue, especially relevant in today's
cosmopolitan reality. Moreover, while contrasting this rapidly expanding phenomenon with mainstream
media which often describe women's movement as being "dead" or "dated", one can contribute to a
discussion about the relationship between information/knowledge and empowerment.