Contemporary political participation: exploringthe relationship between technology and politicsin late modernity

摘要

T his thesis by publication analyses emerg- ing forms of civic engagement, focusing particularly on conceptualising technology’s relationship with politics. It explores three central issues within current debates on alter- native forms of political participation. First, it critiques the dualism between arena and process definitions of politics, and suggests how it can be overcome (Halupka 2017). Second, it examines the division between collective and connective action movements in both theory and practice (Halupka 2015). Third, it focuses upon the impact that new technology, specifically the internet, has had on political participation (Halupka 2014). Taken together, this thesis addresses a number of significant conceptual and theo- retical issues that the literature had largely ignored. Consequently, this paper looks to extend current theoretical and empirical debates, and, in this way, to move the lit- erature in new directions.