Postdigital Science and Education: Lies, Bullshit and Fake News Online
An operational framework for an online community based on the commons, dissensus and shared knowledge
Hulya Ertas, Burak Pak and Caroline Newton*
*KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture, Campus Sint-Lucas, Rue des Palais 65, 1030 Brussels, Belgium
+resources(all the pdfs and links in e-mails and skype conv)
Since 2016, the impact of the media, both the old mainstream and the new digital ones, has become undeniable. The Trump election, Brexit, the refugee crisis, just to name a few which have turned truth into opinion. Blommaert(2016) argues that this shift marks the end of the“informed citizen”, a crucial precondition for our democratic system. While we have seen(and understood) the political influence of newspaper magnates such as Rupert Murdoch, the effects and the power of new technologies and social media on politics, and the electoral process in particular, are still under-researched.
Social media(e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and online forums(e.g., Reddit, Discourse) allow people from all around the world to discuss their political views or their concerns about societal issues. These platforms act as knowledge hubs and shape the views of their online communities, independent from their countries of origin. From alt-right groups to the propagators of postcapitalism we can detect a wide range of political perspectives sharing knowledge. Building on Blommaert(2016) we argue that these platforms and associated online communities are constructing their own bricolage of“truths”. During this process of bricolage, conflicts occur naturally because truth, as a social construct,can have multiple facades. Starting with Weber’s criticism of objectivity in social science, philosophers such as Nietzsche, Lyotard, Derrida, Heidegger, Foucault have made significant efforts to dismantle the factual truth(Angermuller, 2018), discussed its unreliability and even invented concepts to replace it(McIntryre, 2018).
In this context, the aim of our contributionis twofold: First, we will reveal how truth and post-truth are constructed within an online community. Second, we will propose a conceptual basis for a novel online platform that incorporates, in its inceptions, the threats that come from fake news, hoaxes and misinformation.The article will critically examine in more detail the construction of truthsand seek for a novel methodology to build and sustain online communitiesthrough three central concepts:commons, dissensus, and shared knowledge.
The commons are central toour discussion. As a social practice, governing the construction of truths on the platform, this concept will be unpacked. Gielen’s(2018)understanding of the commons as a“heterotopian environment where conflicting interests intersect”will help to achieve this. Refusing to boildown the discussions within the community into a singular truth, we will elaborate on how the practices of commoning can embrace the bricolage of truths. This does not necessarily mean production, reproduction or dissemination of post-truth but signals an opening to allow for dissensus. Building on Rancière(2010)dissensus allows us to cut across different voices within online communities, with their own truths and offers the opportunity to introduce the other truths into these different frames of reference. This contrasts heavily with the current conflict management practices in online communities, whereby each person in conflict makes concessions to meet in the middle-ground, which is in itself an adaptation of the neoliberal managerial logic into self-organisation. In this consensus seeking process the shared knowledge is funnelled down to a singular truth, and in turn limits not only the knowledge sharing but also governs the wider contribution of the community. In contrast, multiplication, amplification and forking of truth is possible through dissensus mechanisms and allows a critical knowledge commons to emerge.
In order to critically address the issues brought above, our study starts with constructing a theoretical framework connecting the concepts of dissensus, the commons, and shared knowledge, and in this way set a novel frame for discussion and action(Section 1). Using this frame, we will make an analysis of an intentional online community centered around the practices of sharing and the commons: the P2P Facebook group with 6371 members(Section 2). The focus of this analysis will be on the protocols and(non)hierarchies for sharing and editing knowledge, particularly the conflicts and how they are managed. Synthesizing the theoretical study and the results of our analysis, we will propose an operative framework for a novel online community based on dissensus, the commons and shared knowledge(Section 3). In conclusion, we will critically discuss the future directions on the realisation this online community, and identify challenges and critical success factors(Section 4).
(Section 1: 1500)
dissensus, the commons, and shared knowledge
(Section 2: 2000)
(Section 3: 2500)
(Section 4: 1000 Words).
Acknowledgements:This paper is co-created as a part of the PhD research project of Hulya Ertas“Building a Knowledge Commons for Commons Architecture” at KU Leuven Department of Architecture, Campus Sint-Lucas Brussels, co-advised by Burak Pak and Lieven de Cauter. The online platform proposed in this chapter will be implemented as a part of the PhD process.
References
Angermuller, J.(2018). Truth after post-truth: for a Strong Programme in Discourse Studies. Palgrave Communications, 4(1).
Blommaert, J.(2018).Durkheim and the internet: Sociolinguistics and the Sociological Imagination.London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Gielen, P.(2018). Common Aesthetics: The Shape of a New Meta-Ideology. InN. Dockx & P. Gielen eds. Commonism: A New Aesthetics of the Real. Amsterdam: Valiz.
McIntyre, L.(2018).Post-truth. Cambride: MIT Press.
Ranciere, J.(2010).Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics. London & New York: Continuum.
Section 3. An operative framework for a novel online community based on dissensus, the commons and shared knowledge
An operational framework for an online community based on the commons, dissensus and shared knowledge
+resources (all the pdfs and links in e-mails and skype conv)
Section 3. An operative framework for a novel online community based on dissensus, the commons and shared knowledge