PosterVote: expanding the action repertoire for local political activism

Vlachokyriakos, V; Comber, R; Ladha, K; Taylor, N; Dunphy, P; McCorry, P; Olivier, P

doi:10.1145/2598510.2598523

PosterVote: expanding the action repertoire for local political activism

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Vasilis Vlachokyriakos, Dr Robert Comber, Dr Karim Ladha, Dr Nick Taylor ORCiD, Dr Paul Dunphy, Patrick Mccorry, Professor Patrick Olivier ORCiD

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of a conference proceedings (inc. abstract) that has been published in its final definitive form by ACM Press, 2014.

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Abstract

Online and digital technologies support and extend the action repertoires of localized social movements. In this paper we examine the ways by which digital technologies can support "on-the-ground" activist communities in the development of social movements. After identifying some of the challenges of deploying conventional voting and consultation technologies for activism, we examine situated political action in local communities through the design and deployment of a low-cost community voting prototype, PosterVote. We deploy PosterVote in two case studies with two local community organizations identifying the features that supported or hindered grassroots democratic practices. Through interviews with these communities, we explore the design of situated voting systems to support participation within an ecology of social action.