How does the Chinese government use digital technology to sustain its political legitimacy? This paper seeks to offer new insight into the ways by which the Chinese state adapts to and utilizes...Show moreHow does the Chinese government use digital technology to sustain its political legitimacy? This paper seeks to offer new insight into the ways by which the Chinese state adapts to and utilizes technological advancements to their own advantage. At first, this paper provides an introduction of prominent existing literature on the relationship between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and authoritarian regimes. The overarching motivation for this exploratory paper is that previous studies do not provide for a comprehensive enough overview of the use of ICT by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). As such, the findings of this paper largely moves away from the well-documented ways in the literature on “repression technology” in China. This paper argues that the Chinese government has successfully aligned its interests with private technological corporations within the country, thus giving it a new avenue to e-governance and maintaining political legitimacy. The most prominent example that will be discussed is the use of digital technology for poverty alleviation purposes. Finally, the paper sheds light on the false dichotomy of “liberation technology” versus “repression technology”, arguing that the case of China does not fall into either category.Show less
After the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand bill, squatting was criminalized and is now punishable with a prison sentence. This poses the question of “What is the impact of the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand...Show moreAfter the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand bill, squatting was criminalized and is now punishable with a prison sentence. This poses the question of “What is the impact of the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand legislation on the squatter movement in the Netherlands?”. I hypothesize that the squatter movement adopted infrapolitical tactics to fly under the radar of the state which in turn allows the movement to continue operating despite repression. I conducted an in-depth interview with a member of the squatter movement and, moreover, analyzed the 2016 policy report of the Kraken en Leegstand legislation and the Squatter Yearbook 2018 to answer the research question. I found that the squatter movement was greatly impacted by the 2010 legislation regarding its organization, tactics and identity. Furthermore, the movement indeed adopted infrapolitical means to survive. These findings are significant for the study of new social movements and political opportunity structures because it demonstrates that infrapolitics are a viable strategy for new social movements in unfavorable political opportunity structures. This introduces a novel way to think about the relationship between state repression and social movements in social movement theory.Show less
