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- Svensson, Jakob, 1976-
(author)
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Deliberation or Updating? : The Case of Southern Stockholm Activists Online
- 2012
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In: Proceedings of the 12<sup>th</sup> European Conference on eGovernment. - Reading : ACI Academic Conferences International. - 9781908272416 - 9781908272423 ; , s. 691-697
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on a (n)ethnographic inspired study of middle class activists in southern Stockholm, the aim is to understand contemporary political action and to discuss changing practices of participation in digital and late modernity. More specifically this paper addresses the Internet and its promise of deliberation. However instead of echoing techno-deterministic and optimist accounts of the Internet and online social networking affording a digital public sphere where deliberation can flourish, this paper argues that it is more accurate to understand the practices among the activists in southern Stockholm as updating. Updating is described here as a two-way practice,to be updated what is happening in your social networks as well as updating your social networks what is happening.These practices of updating are understood in light of late modern theories of reflexivity, identity negotiation and maintenance, practices that arguably are heightened in digital and networked societies. Hence to avoid determinism without resorting to the idea of technology as neutral, the paper is based in atechno-social dialectical understanding of our time as digital late modernity.The paper will end with a brief discussion of the implications of updating on political participation in digital late modernity. Even though not deliberation, practices of updating has consequences for participation and political action that perhaps could be considered positive and encouraging for democratic tradition in general.
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| 4. |
- Svensson, Jakob
(author)
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Lurkers and the Fantasy of Persuasion in an Online Cultural Public Sphere
- 2018
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In: Managing Democracy in the Digital Age. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319617077 - 9783319617084 ; , s. 223-242
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This contribution revolves around political discussions in forum discussion threads on the Swedish online LGBTQ community platform, Qruiser. Political discussions in these online forum threads are studied as cultural participation in an online cultural public sphere. The specific question the chapter seeks to answer is what role so-called lurkers play for active participants’ meaning-making practices. Lurkers could be understood as a fantasy, an imagined audience willing to listen and be persuaded by active participants’ arguments. However, applying a Lacan inspired analytical framework, the chapter will conclude that the fantasy is not so much about the lurkers themselves (that may be imagined or just invisible), but the belief in persuasion. Hence, the answer to the question of why users participate in verbal battles with each other online would be because they are driven by a fantasy of persuasion as a way to cope with the lack of enjoyment in terms of them being split from a harmonious world of political unity.
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| 5. |
- Svensson, Jakob, 1976-
(author)
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Artificial intelligence is an oxymoron : The importance of an organic body when facing unknown situations as they unfold in the present moment
- 2023
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In: AI & Society. - : Springer. - 0951-5666 .- 1435-5655. ; 38:1, s. 363-372
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Departing from popular imaginations around artificial intelligence (AI), this article engages in the I in the AI acronym but from perspectives outside of mathematics, computer science and machine learning. When intelligence is attended to here, it most often refers to narrow calculating tasks. This connotation to calculation provides AI an image of scientificity and objectivity, particularly attractive in societies with a pervasive desire for numbers. However, as is increasingly apparent today, when employed in more general areas of our messy socio-cultural realities, AI- powered automated systems often fail or have unintended consequences. This article will contribute to this critique of AI by attending to Nicholas of Cusa and his treatment of intelligence. According to him, intelligence is equally dependent on an ability to handle the unknown as it unfolds in the present moment. This suggests that intelligence is organic which ties Cusa to more contemporary discussions in tech philosophy, neurology, evolutionary biology, and cognitive sciences in which it is argued that intelligence is dependent on having—and acting through—an organic body. Understanding intelligence as organic thus suggests an oxymoronic relationship to artificial.
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| 6. |
- Svensson, Jakob, et al.
(author)
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ICTs and Opportunities of Empowerment in a Context of State-Sanctioned Homophobia : The case of the LGBTQI community in Kampala
- 2018
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In: Proceedings of the International Conference EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2018. - 9783903150225 ; , s. 229-236
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- After decades of growing acceptance of LGBTQI human rights in the West, Uganda began an African backlash in 2009, when it introduced an Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Even if the Bill was eventually defeated, it signaled the beginning of a new era of state-sponsored homophobia and wide-spread societal discrimination. State-sponsored persecution has however not silenced the Ugandan LGBTQI community. In the following reflections we explore the Ugandan LGBTQI community’s remarkable resilience and quest for change and in particular their use of ICTs for empowerment. Based on a pilot study conducted in November 2016, and ongoing online observations, tentative results are that the community organizes their communication practices around a division between intra-group organization (so-called deep information), and broadcasting and human-rights advocacy (surface information), due to perceived risks as well as opportunities of different communication modes and platforms.
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| 9. |
- Svensson, Jakob, 1976-, et al.
(author)
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The Emergence of a New Media Logic : A Theoretical Approach
- 2013
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper we argue that online social media platforms operate with a decidedly different logic than traditional mass media. This has led to different ways of producing content, distributing information and the way recipients use media. The changes in the media and communication landscape are embedded in a larger societal transformation context of fragmentation, individualization and reflexivity, a late modern context that sustains the modus operandi of social media platforms. By discussing the differences between traditional mass media and social media platforms, we carve out the central elements of a new network media logic - that is, the inherent rules of the game on social media platforms - and this logic's consequences for political communication and political actors.
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