Anthropology, Culture & Society: The Rise of Nerd Politics : Digital Activism and Political Change (Paperback)

The Rise of Nerd Politics is a lively anthropological exploration of the role that 'freedom technologists' play in sparking new processes of political change in the digital age. Drawing on the author's anthropological fieldwork into social media and digital activism in Spain, Indonesia and Malaysia, the book focuses on technologists as a new class of transnational political actors, arguing that ‘freedom technologists’ have managed to shape the hybrid media worlds in which today's political change unfolds.
 
Taking as its centrepiece the recent wave of uprisings and protests around the globe, The Rise of Nerd Politics considers the dynamic interrelation among mediated events, practices and trends. Postill explores the role that social media plays in processes of political change, entering the space of institutional politics through new citizen parties such as Podemos and Barcelona en Comu, as well as anti-institutional groups such as Wikileaks, Anonymous, and various pirate parties.
 
Comparing Spain's ongoing techno-political transformation to those of Tunisia, Iceland, the US, Malaysia and Indonesia, Postill argues that in all five countries ‘freedom technologists’ are playing significant roles in highly uneven, ongoing processes of political change - each of which has ramifications for the future of political change in the digital age.