Disputation i statsvetenskap
Alesia Rudnik försvarar sin doktorsavhandling i statsvetenskap "Machinery of Dissent: People and Technology in Political Protests in Autocracies"
Doktorsavhandling Alesia Rudnik 2025:29
Nedan följer en kort beskrivning av innehållet (ur baksidestexten):
Technology is no longer a passive tool to be picked up and set aside; it has become an integral part of the political fabric of contemporary societies. It does not merely solve problems – it co-creates them, shapes them, and frames them. This doctoral thesis investigates the role of technology as a counterpart to protesters within authoritarian regimes, focusing on its active integration into political dissent. By examining two empirical cases – the incorporation of Telegram and TikTok into the Belarusian protests of summer 2020 and the Russian protests in January 2021 – the thesis explores how digital platforms are drawn into protests through socio-technical networks co-mediated by humans and technology. To conceptualise this entanglement, the thesis introduces the metaphor of the machinery of dissent: a network in which protestors, coordinators, technologies, and infrastructures function as interconnected cogs and gears. Within this machinery, technology operates not as an external facilitator, but as a constitutive force – a gearwheel that shapes the rhythm and direction of dissent itself. By tracing the functioning of the sociotechnical network and agencies involved, this thesis offers both an empirical investigation and a conceptual framework for understanding how technology becomes part of political struggle within autocratic regimes.
Händelsen är öppen för allmänheten.
Medverkande
- Mariëlle Wijermars, opponent, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University
- Alexandra Segerberg, betygsnämnd, docent, Uppsala universitet
- Joakim Ekman, betygsnämnd, professor, Södertörns högskola
- Ala Sarah Alaqra, betygsnämnd, docent, Karlstads universitet
Upplysningar
- Maria Alakangas
Telefon: 076-101 21 72
E-post: maria.alakangas@kau.se