INTERNET, FROM ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AGENCY FORMATION TO POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT? A NEO-MARXIST PERSPECTIVE
INTERNET, FROM ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP AGENCY FORMATION TO POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT? A NEO-MARXIST PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: The present paper constitutes a theoretical research. It argues that the internet does neither constitute the centre of a new epistemological representation of the individual – individual acquiring citizenship agency – nor is it transforming the modes of apprehension towards reality – increase in political participation. The internet is not a displacement media but a spectacle of democracy and thus reinforces preexisting social structures, norms and practices. The principal originality of this paper resides in the development of three models: (i) the mechanistic model; (ii) the pyramidal model; and (iii) the model of system theory, adding theoretical input to the actual state of literature. Furthermore, by interpreting information in a new way, as a social process defined within a relational paradigm of the alter/ego, the very importance of the human agency capacity is evidenciated. Lastly, it is shown that the individual is caught and administered into an imaginary collective conscience since the internet is subjected to marketing and commodification.

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