PhD Defence Patricia Reyes Benavides | The Technopolitics of the Climate Movement

The Technopolitics of the Climate Movement

Patricia Reyes Benavides is a PhD student in the department Philosophy. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr. E. Turnhout and dr. N. Gertz from the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), University of Twente and prof.dr. I. Robeyns from the University of Utrecht.

This dissertation examines the relationship between the Internet and the climate movement through a reconceptualization of ‘technopolitics.’ The examination is conducted using autoethnographic methods, reviewing empirical research on the climate movement, engaging with historical and philosophical analyses on the relation between technology and politics, and adopting a Political Ontology approach.

The main findings of this dissertation are, first, that the climate movement’s politics should be understood as radically plural. The encounter of different experiences, worldviews, and practices within the climate movement can lead to ontological conflicts. Second, that the Internet plays a constitutive role in facilitating the exchange of different positions and approaches among climate activists, weaving what can be conceptualized as different ‘threads’ in the fabric of a global climate movement.

Based on these findings, the dissertation proposes to conceptualize the technopolitics of climate activists engaging with the Internet as a way of worlding, a way of enacting non-hegemonic worlds. Such a proposal is presented with some caveats. To engage with the Internet in non-hegemonic worlding practices, climate activists must address significant challenges, including confronting Big Tech’s centralization of control over the Internet’s multiple layers of functionality, and the intricate interdependency of material resources and connectivity.