Digital Media, Space and Politics: Cosmopolitan Citizenship in Coffee Activism

Abstract

This chapter situates and scrutinises the significance and impact of digital and geographical space in the practice of coffee activist politics; it delves into an exploration of a politics of space and the space of politics. A politics of space is investigated through the exploration of digital media and mobilisation. Here, the spaces of initial contact and the spaces of maintaining contact with information on fair trade are discussed in terms of the significance for spaces of information and spaces of action. Spaces of information concern the physical or media environments where information is sought after or given and this chapter explores how these might impact upon perceptions of what fair trade is and how one should act on it. The analysis centres on the reception of information and communication in coffee activism through and beyond digital media. Collective action has been characterised by patterns of high diversification and personalised individual action through the instigation or employment of digital media over the past decade.¹ Bennett (2012) suggests that contemporary politics, a politics of personalisation, is characterised by a high velocity and organisational capacity of digital media for collective action and network activation, an ethos of diversity and inclusiveness and a personalised attachment to causes through rhetorical frames; this conceptualisation of a cosmopolitan politics is best encapsulated in recent collective protests.