Digital Justice and Feminist Activism

Abstract

Throughout this book we have explored and developed an understanding of the ways in which societal inequalities are further practised through technologies, at the same time as digital cultures and practices are implicated in the production and reproduction of these inequalities. Yet the mutually productive nature of technology and society is simultaneously capable of opening up spaces for challenging inequality and driving new social justice movements and activism towards cultural and social changes. Of most relevance in the context of this book are the ways that digital technologies are being harnessed to pursue justice and activism, both by and for individual victim-survivors of technology-facilitated sexual violence, as well as in response to sexual violence more broadly. In this chapter we explore the innovative ways in which digital technologies are facilitating the pursuit of ‘digital’ or ‘informal’ justice, as well as feminist activism, in response to sexual violence. Such modes of informal justice being sought online by victim-survivors of sexual violence can serve to validate women’s individual and collective experiences and ultimately challenge the gendered misrecognition at the heart of both technology-facilitated sexual violence and ‘rape culture’ more broadly. Indeed, while much of this book has examined how communications technologies have influenced sexual violence and harassment of women, here we consider how such technologies may be influencing technosocial practices of justice and feminist activism.