Art Hactivism as a Form of Market Resistance

Laura Mihai

Bournemouth University


Abstract

Over the past decade, marketing and consumer research texts have accorded significant attention to consumer resistance as scholars recognise the diversity of approaches that can be used in describing this phenomenon (Murray and Ozanne, 1991; Hoy, 2004; Zwick and Dholakia, 2004). This study describes the practice of ar hacktivism as a form of resistance within a consumer research context. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s model of discursive power, this paper focuses on regimes of practice in order to determine how the circulation of art hacktivism discourse is produced. The regimes of practice are explored through an analysis of practice elements such as knowledge and general understandings, skills and competences, projects, rules and teleoaffective dimensions. The preliminary findings highlight an eclectic community whose practices can be defined by using Hardt and Negri’s concept of “multitudeâ€. As a result, this paper aims to offer a better understanding of the relationship between power and resistance within the art hacktivism discourse.  Key words: art hacktivism, resistance, Foucault, practice, multitude

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