My PhD Synopsis as of April 2007

Well, my original proposal for my PhD was very big and completely unrealistic. And the first 18 months have been spent either ignoring it or trying to shape it into something do-able. So now I have a skinny synopsis, and some tendrils of questions...

Working title: Small Media, Soft Ecologies: exploring digital-social interventions

Running Synopsis:

A study of three innovative digital-social interventions built by small groups and networks of cultural activists, writers, programmers and members of local or interest-based communities. Are these and other similar “small media” projects employing/creating new opportunities and methods for generating lasting social change, change both within their constituent communities, and as linked to larger networked social movements? Can we think of these projects in terms of a “participatory globalisation”. Are they connected, philosophically and practically, to historical emancipatory movements? How does the digital element inflect and help the social relations around new forms of production and exchange? What is the relationship/s with social change movements and networks?