Pirate Politics: Information Technologies and the Reconfiguration of Politics

Abstract: This thesis sets out to address the question of how Information Technologies (ITs) become politically relevant, both by drawing on different theoretical approaches and by undertaking a qualitative study about the Swedish Pirate Party. The first source of puzzlement that composes our main research question is the phenomena of how ITs have been taking center stage in recent political disputes, such as controversial legislations in Sweden and abroad (ACTA, Data Retention Directive, etc.), and how a new public became engaged in the formation of a political party regarding these issues. This work will address different theoretical approaches, especially Actor-network Theory, in order to revisit how recent developments in information and communication technologies can be of political relevance. It will thus be proposed a political genealogy of ITs – from the moment they are developed to the moment they result in issues to be debated and resolved in the institutional political arena. It is the latter moment in particular, represented in the research of how the “pirates” make sense of ITs, that will be of significance in this thesis. The focus will be laid upon the role they see themselves playing in this larger process of politicization of ITs and how they are actively translating fundamental political values of democracy and freedom of speech.