Stefan Milan on the Activism of Insiders, Outsiders and Beyonders

Discussion

Primavera de Filippi:

"In her book, “Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change”, Stefania Milan illustrates the different approaches of social movements in materializing their ideas into the world (Milan 2013). Insiders adopt a cooperative attitude: they recognise existing institutions as a legitimate source of power and actively engage in their game, through advocacy and traditional decision-making procedures (Moe 2005). Outsiders adopt a more confrontational attitude: they reject the rules of these institutions and choose instead to exert pressure from the outside, through campaigns, protest or other form of political resistance (Maloney & al. 1994). Finally, what she refers to as beyonders are a wholly different bunch.

Beyonders simply refuse to engage with existing institutions: they do not want to fight them nor do they want to change them, they simply regard them as a leftover from a past era—which they are trying to render obsolete by building new systems (Hintz & Milan 2011). Thus, relatively to the other two groups, beyonders operate in a way that is more autonomous or independent; they do not play for or against the established political system, they just decide to ignore it or bypass it.

Is it fair to conclude that beyonders do not play a political role in society? Clearly not. By creating an alternative to existing institutions, they exert an indirect pressure forcing them to adjust themselves to maintain their position. Perhaps more so than insiders and outsiders, who operate within a given political framework, beyonders are deeply concerned with social change. Their political action is the result of a constructive reaction to the current state of affairs. They are responding to their own needs using new schemes and methodologies, leveraging the power of communities to create new institutions that will help them fulfill their missions—through what essentially amounts to a new form of political organisation."

(https://globalcit.eu/cloud-communities-the-dawn-of-global-citizenship/3/)