Contested Visions: Digital Discourses as Empty Signifiers from the ‘Network’ to ‘Big Data’

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Barassi, Veronica. 2016. Contested Visions: Digital Discourses as Empty Signifiers from the ‘Network’ to ‘Big Data’. Communication and the Public, 1(4), pp. 423-435. ISSN 2057-0473 [Article]

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047316680220

Abstract or Description

This paper engages with two key concepts that define our digital cultures: the ‘network’ and ‘big data’. It critically considers how these concepts are often framed by techno-utopian or techno-dystopian political understandings of historical transformation. In the last years, the relationship between technological discourses and political visions, has lead to the emergence of critical research in the field (Mosco, 2004; Hindeman, 2010; Morozov, 2011, 2013). This research has shown that we cannot fully understand digital discourses without considering the very Western belief that technological innovation necessarily leads to new political possibilities. By drawing on the findings of a cross-cultural ethnographic research amongst three different political groups in Europe, this paper argues that current research in the field has focused too long on how digital discourse is shaped by Western meta-narratives of technological progress. This is to detriment to a careful consideration of the fact that different political actors discorsively construct digital technologies with reference to different political visions. Understanding these contested visions, the paper will show, is of central importance as it could enable us to appreciate that digital discourses have become today ‘empty signifiers’ (Laclau, 1996), which define the basis of contemporary hegemonic struggles.

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Article

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https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047316680220