Technological Aspects of Counter-Hegemony: An Ethnographical Case Study of Institute of Cryptoanarchy in Prague, Czech Republic

• In Event: Counter-Hegemonic Epistemologies as Innovation and/or Contestation - I

Abstract

In my paper I would like to present the results and conclusions of the ethnographical and philosophical research of „Paralelni polis” (https://www.paralelnipolis.cz) , established in Prague by the Institute of Cryptoanarchy (IoC).
The analysis is a part of my individual research project, which focusses on the performativity of the onto-hegemonical objects and their implications for the counter-hegemony epistemology. The IoC describes the area of cryptoanarchy as: „the growing environment of the unregulated Internet, where unlimited data sharing and the development of the free market became possible by using anonymous tools such as decentralized currencies like bitcoin, and anti-spyware encryption tools”
In my research, I am principally interested in how this form of self-organisation can affect the social emancipation through technology and whether it has any potential for an emergence of new social and technologicaltheories.
I am also interested in the use of crypto-funding as a counter-hegemonical method of opposing the capitalism and the state, especially in the peripheral countries of Central Europe. I would like to investigate wheter it is possible to transform this kind of funding and self-organising in order to create a self-sufficient society in areas of social reality, as well as local politics, migration, art and so on.
In the research I use mainly the methods of participant observation in situ, anonymised in-depth narrative interviews and social and philosophical analyses of fundamental notions as “distributed ledger”, “cryptoanarchy” and “ethical hacking”.

Author

• Anna Adamowicz, Institute of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University