To an increasing extent, social movements such as those ongoing in Spain –and
elsewhere in Europe and the world- are becoming a conscious opportunity
for exploring new paths for democracy. These explorations seem not to
be the result of any technological fate, but rather a feat of
sociotechnical change, with some concrete antecedents.
You may have not heard about it yet, but you´ll probably hear about it
soon: there are civil protests going on in Spain, and they’re getting
bigger and louder each minute, on and offline.
In previous entries
in Soapbox, on webcams and cyberbabies, the authors reflected on the challenges
that technologies pose to contemporary humans in their attempts to achieve good
– decent and/or happy – lives in common, for themselves and others. The proposed
ways to face those challenges were tied to education. A somehow shared idea was
that individuals should be, first, raised in specific ideas, values, and
practices, such as civility, respect for others, etc., and, second, that they
should be educated for thinking and approaching technologies in certain ways...
