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Critical Human Security and Cyberspace: Enablement Besides Constraint

Alan Collins Orcid Logo

Digitalisation and Human Security, Pages: 83 - 109

Swansea University Author: Alan Collins Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7_4

Abstract

Whether it is accusations of Russian meddling in Western elections by shaping public opinion through social media, or fears that democracy is endangered by algorithms that restrict news access through social media, or that social media is infected by trolls that commit cyberbullying and spread misin...

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Published in: Digitalisation and Human Security
ISBN: 9783030480691 9783030480707
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2020
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa55062
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Abstract: Whether it is accusations of Russian meddling in Western elections by shaping public opinion through social media, or fears that democracy is endangered by algorithms that restrict news access through social media, or that social media is infected by trolls that commit cyberbullying and spread misinformation, it is evident that social networking sites, and more broadly the infrastructure that underpins Information and Communication Technology (ICT), has not been the unmitigated success that the early pioneers had hoped. Nevertheless, it is also true that the digital revolution ushered in an age of transparency that, at least initially, severed elites’ control over information, and thus knowledge, and connected like-minded people on a scale not previously possible. In this chapter I explain that conceiving of cyberspace as an arena for human empowerment or human containment is what a critical human security approach can bring to the debate. It will reveal the duality of trends in social media that espouse an emancipatory potential while embedding constraints on human agency.
Keywords: Critical Human Security; Echo Chambers; Faces of Power; Emancipation
College: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Funders: Enablement Besides Constraints: Human Security and a Cyber Multi-Disciplinary Framework in the European High North (ECoHuCy) - Funded by NordForsk (81030)
Start Page: 83
End Page: 109