Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Elisabetta Ferrari, "Appropriate, Negotiate, Challenge: Activist Imaginaries and the Politics of Digital Technologies"
Date: November 29, 2025
Host: Megan Finn
Guest: Elisabetta (Betty) Ferrari

Episode Overview

This episode features Elisabetta Ferrari discussing her new book, "Appropriate, Negotiate, Challenge: Activist Imaginaries and the Politics of Digital Technologies" (University of California Press, 2024). The conversation delves into how activist groups conceptualize and engage with digital technologies, unpacking the dominant "technological imaginary" propagated by Silicon Valley and exploring the frameworks within which activists either appropriate, negotiate, or challenge these discourses. Through comparative case studies, Ferrari provides a nuanced view of the political, cultural, and practical factors shaping social movement technologies in Hungary, Italy, and the United States.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Elisabetta Ferrari & Her Research Path

• Ferrari describes her interdisciplinary background, combining political science, communication, and digital studies, with a focus on the intersection between the Internet, activism, and social movements across different national contexts.
  • "I'm interested in the social and political implications of digital technologies... the relationship between the Internet and activism and social movements." (02:24, Ferrari)

2. Motivation for the Book

• Noting a gap in previous literature, which often focused on how activists use technology, Ferrari wanted to explore how activists think and talk about technology as inherently political.
  • "...what really drew me to writing this book was trying to make sense of how activists, well, people in general, but activists in particular think and talk about technology." (04:06, Ferrari)

3. Silicon Valley’s Technological Imaginary: Core Ideas

• Ferrari identifies three key pillars to Silicon Valley’s dominant technological narrative:

  • Freedom, Democracy, and Autonomy: Technologies seen as inherently liberating (but defined through market participation, not necessarily social justice).
  • Techno-solutionism: The belief that technical innovation can (and should) solve social and political problems, often sidelining policy or collective action.
  • Neoliberalism Made Cool: Not just economic principles, but a cultural and political embrace of neoliberal ideals marketed as youthful and revolutionary.
  • "The dominant technological imaginary of Silicon Valley is based around three sort of key ideas... freedom, democracy, autonomy; techno-solutionism; and an adherence to neoliberalism." (06:24, Ferrari)

• She highlights the fusion of technocracy (claiming to solve policy problems better than states) and populist rhetoric (presenting themselves as underdogs combating elites), underlining the political nature of Silicon Valley’s discourse.

  • "This is very clearly a political view, and it is political at a foundational level..." (09:58, Ferrari)

4. Activist Frameworks: Appropriation, Negotiation, Challenge

• Ferrari proposes a conceptual framework for understanding activist approaches:
  • Appropriation: Activists accept both Silicon Valley’s imaginary and its technologies.
  • Negotiation: Activists reject Silicon Valley’s ideology but still use/draw on its technologies (with friction and ongoing debate).
  • Challenge: Activists reject both the imaginary and its technologies, seeking alternatives or abstaining entirely.
  • "The three sort of concepts that give the title of the book: appropriation, negotiation, and challenge." (13:58, Ferrari)
• The formation of activist imaginaries is influenced by ideology, specific political context, and interaction with other prominent imaginaries in their environment.

Detailed Case Studies & Methodology

Methodological Approach

• Ferrari intentionally selected diverse, non-tech-centric activist movements in three countries:

  • Hungarian Internet Tax Protest (2014): Anti-Orban movement, mass protest against an Internet usage tax.
  • Lume Student Collective (Italy): Occupied social center with anti-capitalist, anti-fascist ideology.
  • Philly Socialists (USA): Grassroots socialist group rejecting electoralism, focused on direct action.
    • "I wanted to study what I think of as movements that are not necessarily particularly interested in technology..." (20:57, Ferrari)

• Used qualitative research: participant observation, document analysis, in-depth interviews, and a creative visual focus group activity (asking participants to draw their conception of the Internet to stimulate conversation).

  • "The core of the empirical data came from in depth interviews...I developed a creative method...called the visual focus group." (24:41, Ferrari)

Appropriation: The Hungarian Internet Tax Protest

• This group embraced the Silicon Valley imaginary, viewing the Internet as modern, liberatory, and inherently tied to democracy and Western liberalism—even as mundane entertainment practices acquired political meaning in a post-communist context (opposition to Orban equated with opposition to a backward, anti-modern policy).
  • "They think about the Internet as an instrument for equality and development...as a symbol of the future and of progress..." (27:20, Ferrari)
  • "They're not reproducing [Silicon Valley ideas]...but they are reinterpreting...to make sense in the post-communist context..." (30:14, Ferrari)

Negotiation: Lume (Italy) & Philly Socialists (USA)

• Lume (Italy):

  • Critical of corporate power, extraction, and capitalist domination online.
  • Nevertheless, they see digital tools as indispensable for activism—"fighting the system with the tools of the system."
    • "...they see this as the expression of how corporate power dominates how digital technologies operate...these technologies are also crucial, and there’s no alternative to them." (31:38, Ferrari)

• Philly Socialists (USA):

  • Concerned with online toxicity, weak ties, and police surveillance.
  • They justify using these platforms as a practical necessity: "organizing where people are."
    • "...these spaces are not necessarily ideal, they're also good enough for right now to recruit people into the socialist camp because people are already there." (34:31, Ferrari)

• Ferrari emphasizes that although these both fall under "negotiation," the political rationales differ considerably due to each group’s ideology and context.

  • "They're also kind of different...they rest on different political ideas and different interpretations..." (35:49, Ferrari)

Challenge: Theoretical Only

• Ferrari didn't find a real-world case among her data, noting that true "challenge" (rejecting both the technologies and their political frame) is rare in practice due to resource constraints and the risk of isolation from potential supporters.

  • "Challenge is hard...it requires resources...and there’s also always the risk of alienating potential supporters." (38:06, Ferrari)

• She theorizes two "challenge" types:

  • Refusal: Collective abstention from digital tools.
  • Alternatives: Developing activist-owned platforms (e.g., Mastodon migrations, abolitionist tech).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Silicon Valley ideology:
  • "Silicon Valley is making neoliberalism cool." (08:45, Ferrari)
• On friction within negotiation:
  • "This imaginary, as you might imagine, is not frictionless. This requires a lot of continued discussion..." (32:32, Ferrari)
• On the difficulty of challenge:
  • "Challenge is probably less popular than the other categories...the difficulty comes from the reach of the power of Silicon Valley and its imaginary." (39:33, Ferrari)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:24] Ferrari’s interdisciplinary research background and central questions
• [04:06] Rationale for the book: Beyond instrumental views of tech in activism
• [06:24] The three pillars of Silicon Valley’s technological imaginary
• [13:58] Activist frameworks: Appropriation, Negotiation, Challenge
• [20:06] Methodology and selection of case studies
• [27:03] Case example: Appropriation in Hungary
• [31:22] Case examples: Negotiation in Italy and USA
• [37:12] “Challenge”—Why it’s rare and difficult
• [41:14] Ferrari’s new research on mutual aid and digital technologies

Ferrari's Current & Future Work

Ferrari is now researching mutual aid activism during/after COVID-19, exploring how solidarity was facilitated and restricted by digital technologies across the US, UK, and Italy.

• "...what is the role of technology for solidarity, particularly under conditions of emergency, as we have lived through during the pandemic." (41:53, Ferrari)

Conclusion

Elisabetta Ferrari’s book offers a timely and rigorous analysis of the subtle, complex, and often contradictory ways activist groups contend with the pervasive politics of Silicon Valley’s technological vision. Through comparative methodology and nuanced theory, the conversation uncovers not only how technology is used, but how it is imagined and contested—shining light on the profound entanglement of politics, ideology, and digital infrastructure in contemporary activism.