Illegitimate Civic Participation

Abstract

In this paper we examine the way Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) support forms of community activism that operate outside formal political and institutional channels. We have done fieldwork with local housing justice activists in order to gain insight into the way ICTs play a role in complementing forms of civic engagement that challenge, rather than work with, institutional authority. We argue that ICTs are instrumental in supporting and shaping three alternate information practices' situating, codification, and scaffolding? that each serve the goals of direct democratic engagement. We also show how local activist communities engage in these three practices through their varied use of ICTs, including the ways they provide mechanisms for informal but politically significant? and legitimate? civic engagement.