Key messages Digital storytelling has been adopted as a way of advancing Sweden’s feminist foreign policy to a wider audience. The digital storytelling of Swedish feminist foreign policy draws heavily on Sweden’s state feminist legacy. Sweden’s feminist foreign policy in digital diplomacy serves to connect emotions to political sense-making through success stories. The emphasis on success stories silences intersectional voices and risks undermining the ambitions of feminist foreign policy. Introduction State feminism has defined Swedish
version of the self online that depends on new norms of emotion-laden discourse and visual representations ( Bergman Rosamond and Hedling, 2022 ). Social media and the specific sociopolitical affordances they offer have greatly contributed to the commodification of emotions in political communication ( Stark, 2020 ). In this context, performing ‘digital diplomacy’ requires a different mode of managed emotions from diplomats. In addition to accounting for others’ emotions, or strategically deploying emotions of state personhood on the international stage, diplomats are
In what ways is the meaning and practice of politics changing? Why might so many people feel dissatisfied and disaffected with electoral politics? What approaches do political activists use to raise issues and mobilise people for action? What role does the internet and social media play in contemporary citizenship and activism? This book brings together academics from a range of disciplines with political activists and campaigners to explore the meaning of politics and citizenship in contemporary society and the current forms of political (dis)engagement. It provides a rare dialogue between analysts and activists which will be especially valuable to academics and students across the social sciences, in particular sociology and political science.
primary responsibility for collective defence, including training troops on gender issues, deploying gender-balanced forces and providing gender advisors. However, there is no evidence that gender advisors have been used by NATO members contributing to this operation. More broadly, NATO’s strategic communications and digital diplomacy have not only become a critical site to respond to Russian misinformation, but also give an insight into the alliance’s priorities, in terms of both what it foregrounds and how it foregrounds it. The value of a gender perspective
may explain why it is now absent from NATO’s response. Furthermore, Ukraine is a signatory to NATO’s WPS policy, which requires member states to take primary responsibility for collective defence, including training troops on gender issues, deploying gender-balanced forces and providing gender advisors. However, there is no evidence that gender advisors have been used by NATO members contributing to this operation. More broadly, NATO’s strategic communications and digital diplomacy have not only become a critical site to respond to Russian misinformation, but
the ubiquity of social media, institutions that have traditionally been considered technologically conservative, such as the courts, now have social media accounts aimed at increasing transparency and reducing the perceived gap between society and the law ( Johnston, 2018 ). This leads to the appropriate mediation of emotions becoming an important part of working life for many. Elsa Hedling writes about displaying emotions online in her article on digital diplomacy. She also draws on Hochschild ( 1983/2003 ) to show how digitalisation has amplified and transformed
Spring (Landor, 2011). The BBC WS’s public service remit requires it to contribute ‘to sustaining citizenship around the world’ by providing independent analysis of news events from an international vantage point. Unlike some of its European and North American equivalents, BBC WS does not aim to project a ‘British perspective’, at least not in principle. From an FCO perspective, social media can bring long-term diplomatic benefits to Britain by fostering ‘digital diplomacy’ (Gillespie, 2009). BBC WS broadcasters of course do not see themselves as agents of
