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Civic Writing on Invisible Walls: Annotation as Critical Interrogation

Sun, April 15, 2:45 to 4:15pm, Sheraton New York Times Square, Floor: Second Floor, Metropolitan West Room

Abstract

Purpose
Acknowledging the justified “political anger” (Ruitenberg, 2009) and disengagement from traditional civics that some youth of color have demonstrated (Watts & Flanagan, 2007), this paper considers how online annotation practices serve as an open and accessible pathway for developing critical civic literacies. In as much as “the dreams, possibilities, and necessity of public education” defined what youth engagement in civic life looks like, this paper explores how civic voice is shaped through a “civic interrogation” (Author 1, 2017) via online annotation.

Perspectives & Analysis
In exploring the liberatory possibilities of civic annotation, this paper draws on a framework that extends contemporary definitions of “connected learning” (Ito et al., 2013) and “participatory politics” (Cohen, Kahne, Bowyer, Middaugh, & Rogowski, 2012). We consider how annotation shifts the murky boundaries of producer and consumer by reframing youth’s relationship with text as part of a larger “connected civics” enactment, or “a form of learning fostered via participatory politics that emerges when young people achieve civic agency linked to their deeply felt interests, identities, and affinities” (Jenkins, Ito, & boyd, 2015, p. 17).

This paper analyzes the role of the open annotation platform Hypothesis, which “is specifically structured to counteract the politics of the siloed version of the web we have now, which is not conducive or structured for enhancing civic engagement” (Author 2, 2017). Exploring practices, dispositions, and communities shaped by annotation, we highlight how civic writing on invisible walls grounds a pedagogy of participatory politics across open learning environments.

Findings
Through analysis of projects, dialogue, and public engagement afforded by the open web annotation platform Hypothesis, this paper argues that web annotation engenders a repertoire of civic practices. Annotation efforts associated with projects like Youth Voices, the Digital Polarization Initiative, and Letters to the Next President suggest this repertoire includes: lowering barriers to public critique; increasing access to a plurality of voices in conversation and for dissent; citizen ownership of both the means and the content of digital civic discourse; and establishing civic trails across texts and contexts.

By reframing both what civics can look like in online spaces - and by redefining the boundaries of civic literacies - this repertoire of civic annotation shapes a broader argument that youth civic interrogation is centered around their interests, voices, and expertise. Our findings suggest civic annotation is a “sociotechnical formation” (Facer, 2011), or a negotiation among material designs, everyday social practices, and knowledge systems that can be harnessed through partnership and ethical action toward more just social futures.

Significance
While online tools like Twitter played a central role in the Arab Spring and #BlackLivesMatter movements, we recognize that participatory politics finds youth already leveraging digital resources. Yet unlike Twitter and other commercial platforms that profit off movement-building and activism, our analysis suggests an alternative repertoire of civic practices afforded by digital annotation platforms and practices. Web annotation is one means of speaking - and writing - truth of power, hence our effort to research how a repertoire of civic annotation supports youth expression, resistance, and activism across online texts and contexts.

Authors