PosterVote: expanding the action repertoire for local political activism

Vasilis Vlachokyriakos, Rob Comber, Karim Ladha, Nick Taylor, Paul Dunphy, Patrick McCorry, Patrick Olivier

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Online and digital technologies support and extend the action repertoires of localised social movements. In this paper we examine the ways by which digital technologies can support “on-the-ground” activist communities in the development of social movements. After identifying some of the challenges of deploying conventional voting and consultation technologies for activism, we examine situated political action in local communities through the design and deployment of a low-cost community voting prototype, PosterVote. We deploy PosterVote in two case studies with two local community organisations identifying the features that supported or hindered grassroots democratic practices. Through interviews with these communities, we explore the design of situated voting systems to support participation within an ecology of social action.

Author: Open Lab