ABSTRACT
#Akademiuppropet was a digital intimate counter-public collective action against sexual harassment and sexism, one of more than 65 different hashtags created in Sweden during 2017 to give voice to victims of sexual harassment in different organisational settings. In this chapter, the author consults literature from the fields of feminism, social movements, and media and communication to argue that while feminist research has focused on the ways in which women use information technology for community building activities, social movement researchers have shown that due to “slacktivism” and “clicktivism”, digital online activism does not have the same impact as traditional offline activism. Media and communication scholars have, instead, argued that information and communication technology (ICT) creates new possibilities for traditional social movements and the participation in these movements. The author argues that social (and traditional) media are to be seen as tools for shaping this counter-public space that was essential for social organising.
