The title of our book is open to multiple interpretations, and purposely so, with the deliberate insertion of ‘beyond.’

For example, on a philosophical level, the word beyond means to examine the metaphysical character of the relationship between the Internet and dissenting voices. This isn’t abstract, because metaphysics is based on searching for the nature of reality, identity, of understanding causality, theorizing time and space.

So, the ‘nature of reality’ is to examine the relationship between the Internet and Dissent, which then allows us to understand ‘causality’. ‘Identity’ speaks for itself, and ‘time and space’, for example, is central to many indigenous peoples’ thinking in Latin America with regards to ancestral issues, colonialism, and relations with nature.

It also includes issues concerning potentialities (dissent and activism), which connects to our central question: What is the relationship between the Internet and dissent?

On a concrete level, we know that the relationship between technology and resistance differs according to the context of each struggle. Many resistance groups and individual dissenting voices embrace the Internet, whilst others do not, and this is what we are seeking to explore and understand.

The perfect dream of technolibertarians or cyberlibertarians that the Internet would enhance freedoms, free from state authority, is over, if ever it had begun.

In many cases, the Internet has become a form of State surveillance over the activities and thoughts of political activists forcing groups to move ‘offline’, or to use old fashioned terminology, ‘take to the streets.’

But conversely, many dissenting voices embrace the Internet and social media, and it’s our purpose to explore the uses the Internet may or may not have in specific contexts.

Thus, our aim is to listen to the voices of those at the sharp end of resistance, and to inquire what role, the Internet plays, in their respective forms of resistance.

CONTENTS

When Radicalism Becomes Dissent (David Berry)
The Internet & Dissent (David Berry)
The Cheran Insurrection: Peoples’ Grassroots Democracy (Victor Alfonzo Zerthuche Cobos)
Kurdish Resistance & Homeland (Name Pending)
New Weapons of Resistance in the Amazon (Sue Branford & Mauricio Torres)
Burmese Guerilla Warfare, Technology & Identity (Maran Ja Yi Ma)
Struggles for Nationhood: Comparing the Mapuche of Chile & the Welsh (Franco Ramos Guiterez & David Berry)
In Conversation with Caoimhghin O’ Croidheain: Radical Irish Artist (Iglika Gerganova)
An Interview with Iranian Artist Roshi Rouzbehani (David Berry)
Defenders of the Land: The Colombian Minga (Valentina Murillo)
Grassroots Journalism in India: the story behind Khabar Lahariya (Rosa Sylvia Parks)When Radicalism Becomes Dissent (David Berry)
The Internet & Dissent (David Berry)
The Cheran Insurrection: Peoples’ Grassroots Democracy (Victor Alfonzo Zerthuche Cobos)
Kurdish Resistance & Homeland (Name Pending)
New Weapons of Resistance in the Amazon (Sue Branford & Mauricio Torres)
Burmese Guerilla Warfare, Technology & Identity (Maran Ja Yi Ma)
Struggles for Nationhood: Comparing the Mapuche of Chile & the Welsh (Franco Ramos Guiterez & David Berry)
In Conversation with Caoimhghin O’ Croidheain: Radical Irish Artist (Iglika Gerganova)
An Interview with Iranian Artist Roshi Rouzbehani (David Berry)
Defenders of the Land: The Colombian Minga (Valentina Murillo)
Grassroots Journalism in India: the story behind Khabar Lahariya (Rosa Sylvia Parks)