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The politics of cyberspace is of importance both for the future use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and within traditional political arenas, commerce and society itself. Within Britain there are many different political groups that have a presence online and utilise CMC, including for example members of the far right, human rights advocates, religious groups and environmental activists. This book examines the relationship between the strategies of environmental activist movements in Britain and their use of CMC. It explores how environmental activists negotiate the tensions and embrace the opportunities of CMC, and analyses the consequences of their actions for the forms and processes of environmental politics. It serves as a disjuncture from some broader critiques of the implications of CMC for society as a whole, concentrating on unpacking what CMC means for activists engaged in social change. Within this broad aim there are three specific objectives. It first evaluates how CMC provides opportunities for political expression and mobilization. Second, the book examines whether CMC use has different implications for established environmental lobbying organisations than it does for the non-hierarchical fluid networks of direct action groups. Third, it elucidates the influence of CMC on campaign strategies and consequently on business, government and regulatory responses to environmental activism.
does for the non-hierarchical fluid networks of direct action groups, and thus to identify what challenges the technology poses for activism; and, third, to elucidate the influence of CMC on campaign strategies and consequently on business, government and regulatory responses to environmental activism. Environmentalists’ use of CMC The Internet has become a major organizing and mobilizing tool for environmentalists around the world, raising people’s consciousness about alternative ways of living, and building the political force to make it happen. (Castells 2001: 280