Modular Politics

Nathan Schneider, Primavera De Filippi, Seth Frey, Joshua Z. Tan and Amy X. Zhang 2021. Modular Politics. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. 5 (CSCW1) 16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3449090

TitleModular Politics
TypeJournal article
AuthorsNathan Schneider, Primavera De Filippi, Seth Frey, Joshua Z. Tan and Amy X. Zhang
Abstract

Governance in online communities is an increasingly high-stakes challenge, and yet many basic features of offline governance legacies-juries, political parties, term limits, and formal debates, to name a few-are not in the feature-sets of the software most community platforms use. Drawing on the paradigm of Institutional Analysis and Development, this paper proposes a strategy for addressing this lapse by specifying basic features of a generalizable paradigm for online governance called Modular Politics. Whereas classical governance typologies tend to present a choice among wholesale ideologies, such as democracy or oligarchy, Modular Politics would enable platform operators and their users to build bottom-up governance processes from computational components that are modular and composable, highly versatile in their expressiveness, portable from one context to another, and interoperable across platforms. This kind of approach could implement pre-digital governance systems as well as accelerate innovation in uniquely digital techniques. As diverse communities share and connect their components and data, governance could occur through a ubiquitous network layer. To that end, this paper proposes the development of an open standard for networked governance.

Article number16
JournalProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Journal citation5 (CSCW1)
ISSN2573-0142
Year2021
PublisherACM
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1145/3449090
Web address (URL)http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3449090
Publication dates
Published13 Apr 2021

Related outputs

Innovation amnesia: Technology as a substitute for politics
Nathan Schneider 2024. Innovation amnesia: Technology as a substitute for politics. First Monday. 29 (11). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i11.13668

Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
Nathan Schneider 2024. Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life. University of California Press.

Perverse attraction: Idolatry, pornography, and the making of infrastructure
Cassandra Dana and Nathan Schneider 2024. Perverse attraction: Idolatry, pornography, and the making of infrastructure. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. 59 (1), pp. 302-320. https://doi.org/10.16995/zygon.11013

Governable Stacks against Digital Colonialism
Schneider, N. 2022. Governable Stacks against Digital Colonialism. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society. 20 (1). https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v20i1.1281

The Tyranny of openness: what happened to peer production?
Nathan Schneider 2022. The Tyranny of openness: what happened to peer production? Feminist Media Studies. 22 (6), pp. 1411 - 1428. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1890183

From Scalability to Subsidiarity in Addressing Online Harm
Amy A. Hasinoff and Nathan Schneider 2022. From Scalability to Subsidiarity in Addressing Online Harm. Social Media + Society. 8 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221126041

Admins, mods, and benevolent dictators for life: The implicit feudalism of online communities
Nathan Schneider 2022. Admins, mods, and benevolent dictators for life: The implicit feudalism of online communities. New Media & Society. 24 (9), pp. 1965 - 1985. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820986553

Exit To Community
Mannan, N. and Schneider, N. 2021. Exit To Community. Georgetown Law Technology Review. 5 1.

No Revolution without Religion
Schneider, N. 2021. No Revolution without Religion. in: Bradatan, Costica and Simon, Ed (ed.) The God Beat: What Journalism Says about Faith and Why It Matters Broadleaf Books.

Enabling Community-Owned Platforms
Schneider, N. 2021. Enabling Community-Owned Platforms. in: Moore, M. and Tambini, D. (ed.) Regulating Big Tech: Policy Responses to Digital Dominance Oxford University Press.

Editorial: Peer Governance in Online Communities
De Filippi, P. and Schneider, N. 2021. Editorial: Peer Governance in Online Communities. Frontiers in Human Dynamics. 3 771586. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2021.771586

Effective voice: Beyond exit and affect in online communities
Seth Frey and Nathan Schneider 2021. Effective voice: Beyond exit and affect in online communities. New Media & Society. 25 (9), pp. 2381 - 2398. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211044025

Mediated ownership: capital as media
Nathan Schneider 2020. Mediated ownership: capital as media. Media, Culture & Society. 42 (3), pp. 449 - 459. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443719899035

User trusts: broad-based ownership for online platforms
Schneider, N. 2020. User trusts: broad-based ownership for online platforms. Informatik Spektrum. 43, pp. 9-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-020-01242-x

Decentralization: an incomplete ambition
Nathan Schneider 2019. Decentralization: an incomplete ambition. Journal of Cultural Economy. 12 (4), pp. 265-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2019.1589553

"Truly, Much Can Be Done!": Cooperative Economics from the Book of Acts to Pope Francis
Schneider, N. 2019. "Truly, Much Can Be Done!": Cooperative Economics from the Book of Acts to Pope Francis. in: Pasquale, F. (ed.) Care for the World: Laudato Si' and Catholic Social Thought in an Era of Climate Crisis Cambridge University Press. pp. 145-166

A Wantless, Workless World: How the Origins of the University Can Inform Its Future
Schneider, N. 2019. A Wantless, Workless World: How the Origins of the University Can Inform Its Future. in: Peters, M.A., Jandrić, P. and Means, A.J. (ed.) Education and Technological Unemployment Springer. pp. 229–244

Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy
Schneider, N. 2018. Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy. Little Brown Book Group.

An Internet of ownership: Democratic design for the online economy
Schneider, Nathan 2018. An Internet of ownership: Democratic design for the online economy. Sociological Review. 66 (2), pp. 320-340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118758533

God in Proof: The Story of a Search, from the Ancients to the Internet
Schneider, N. 2013. God in Proof: The Story of a Search, from the Ancients to the Internet. University of California Press.

Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse
Schneider, N. 2013. Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. University of California Press.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/w82vv/modular-politics


Share this

Usage statistics

64 total views
0 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.