Abstract

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the popular uprisings in Iran in 2009, the revolutions in several Arab countries at the beginning of 2011, and the occupy movements in the U.S. and elsewhere in the global north have indicated a growing resistance to dictatorships and decades of neo-liberal globalisation. From the streets of Tehran to Tahir Square, Syntagma Square, Puerta del Sol, and Zuccotti Park, we have witnessed a new wave of resistance to a system that has failed to generate wealth and freedom for all. The past decade has also provided some of the most evocative moments when power met its opposite; in some cases, in decisive and surprising ways. Technology, again and again, has emerged as one of the main explanations for this new wave of revolts.