Digital Dissent. The Russian Internet as Space for Individual Freedom and/or als Alternative Publik Sphere

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Henrike Schmidt
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 263487196

Think different: Dissent seems to be literally encoded in digital and networked culture, as the famous Apple slogan illustrates. To think differently in the realm of new media affects cognitive (hypertext), social (creative counter cultures) and political (counter public spheres) levels. The events of the so called ¿Russian Winter" in 2011-2012, when a significant part of the Russian population expressed their dissent with regard to a politically controlled public sphere, underline the actual significance of the Internet (blogs, social networks, digital television) as an alternative public sphere, which promotes alternative modes of action as well. The proposed project aims to analyze 1) discourse and rhetorics (samizdat, dissident culture, tactical media), 2) structures and protagonists, and 3) political, social and aesthetic potentials of "digital dissent" as expressed in the Russian Internet (RuNet). It aims to do so by differentiating two distinct epochs in the development of the RuNet over the last two decades, that is: the early RuNet of the 1990s as a space for individual freedom and the late RuNet of the 2000s as an alternative public sphere. These dynamics of Russian digital and networked culture shall be contextualized as a part of global networked culture. The project applies for funding of a post-graduate research position as well as several publications, including a volume with documents and memoirs of Russian ¿digital dissent".

• DFG Programme: Research Grants