July 27, 2021

Hacktivists as Heirs of the New Left

The issue of Quaderni journal dedicated to hacking has just been published. In it, I published an article on hacker action repertoires and their connection to the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. Here is the abstract: After recalling the connection between the pioneers of hacker activism and the anti-technocratic tactics employed by the New Left, this article proposes to interpret the wave of repression that hit hackers in the late 1980s as one …

June 14, 2019

‘Direct Action Against Computerization (1960-1990)’

In the political genealogy of computers, and even more so in the dominant historiography of the Internet, [neo-Luddite] opposition has been largely overlooked. Among the actors who contributed in one way or another to shaping these technologies and the discourse surrounding them before the 1990s, postwar humanist scientists and technophile hippies of the 1960s are often mentioned (see, for example, the works of Fred Turner). Together, they helped …