Book Review: The Political Web: Media, Participation and Alternative Democracy, by Peter Dahlgren

Abstract

The Political Web: Media, Participation and Alternative Democracy. Peter Dahlgren. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 195 pp. $90 hbk. $28 pbk.Understandably, Peter Dahlgren, an emeritus professor of communication and media at Lund University in Sweden, writes primarily about European media and politics. Indeed, in his introductory chapter to The Political Web he uses political transformations tak- ing place in Modern, post-communist Slovenia as an example of kinds of moves that are being made toward development of paths to democracy. However, although his institutional references to governmental bodies tend to focus on parliamentary systems, he devotes an entire chapter to role of alternative and main- stream media strategies used by Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement during its early development in United States. And while contributions of European schol- ars are featured most prominently in his systematic assessments of theoretical frame- works and perspectives that help to make sense of changes taking place around globe, scholars from Canada and United States are well represented.Dahlgren's book is focused on variety of paths being taken by different kinds of individuals in search of alternatives to traditional, arguably limited strategies for bringing about social change by democratic means. What these different paths have in common is their reliance on an array of networked digital communications resources that Dahlgren refers to quite simply as the web. The book is organized into three sections. The two chapters in first section are used to set stage with an overall assessment of current state of democracy, public participation, and attributes of web that establish its centrality in current period of transition. Three chapters in second section provide something akin to case studies through their exploration of discursive strategies pursued during first six weeks of OWS, and an assess- ment of characteristics and influence of online public intellectuals. The third chapter in this section uses an assessment of web journals through lens of cos- mopolitanism as an emergent framework for understanding transnational political agency. The two chapters in third section are used to explore a broad range of approaches to subjectivity and media-based agency, as well as media and communication research.This is a very well-written book. Its style is accessible, and while Dahlgren clearly has his own well-developed and critical perspective on most of issues he explores, his treatment of scholars and traditions they represent is respectful, even when their contributions are being subjected to extended critique. For example, in chapter on democracy, participation, and media, Dahlgren finds numerous opportunities to remind reader that politics, democratic or not, is about exercise of power. After an extended presentation of different that are thought to explain why young people do, or do not, engage in political activity, Dahlgren accepts that levels of participation reflect subjective identities and dispositions that might, or might not, find support within civic culture, but ultimately has to do with power relations. He then proceeds to discuss how it is that we continue to struggle with limited success in incorporating power into our versions of democratic theory.Dahlgren is especially critical of present state of thinking about social capital. In his chapter on web environment, he refers to version of social capital attrib- uted to Robert Putnam as a Trojan Horse. In part, his critique of this economic meta- phor emerges from his deep-seated concern about impact that neoliberal political project has had in a variety of societal domains in which market fundamental- ism degrades social. …