The Free Range Activism Network began its evolution from disparate activism networks in the early-1990s. The original purpose of the network was skills sharing between environmental activists. This was enabled by the Internet. But it led to the creation of a whole range of activities offline. Eventually, in 1996, it led to the development of of what we now call the Free Range Activism Website - FRAW (please note, the FRAW web site is currently offline for a re-design to take advantage of the new features available from our Internet service provider, but it will be back in a few weeks).
The term 'free rangers' was thought up by members of the network as a means to describe the idea that community and environmental activists could work together, with no organisation except that which they agreed to, and with no limitation to the range of issues and tactics they choose to work on. At the time this was a novel concept for community groups. But in the corporate world the same idea was also developing - where it was called 'disintermediation'. A rather grand name for what essentially means 'cutting out the middle man'.
Disintermediation is the subject of many of the books now being written by management gurus. But it also has implications for civil society. Traditionally civil society has relied upon large, centrally organised campaign groups to represent them, in much the same way civil society has utilised political parties in representative politics. But in an era when the state is shrinking, and corporations are becoming more powerful, is the state, the political party, or the NGO, a relevant unit of analysis? Can civil society represent themselves more effectively through developing their own activism networks?
The Internet allows this change because it is possible to build networks of trust and co-operation without geographical barriers. The technology that enables the Internet - primarily computer systems - also allows many of the administrative tasks that previously required a large commitment of resources to be automated at very little cost. People can therefore associate freely - without the intervention of 'gatekeepers' such as traders, wholesalers, the mainstream media, or mainstream campaign groups - in order to get what they want. That could be an online auction to but a cheap CD. But it can also be combining with others to develop a campaign or an action.
Many people disparage the idea of loose coalitions of campaigners as being ineffective. But this ignores out outcomes of 'Net-enabled work within civil society over the last years. Much of the anti-capitalist movement has been organised - or rather 'disorganised', because there is no central co-ordinating body - via the Internet. Other major civil society campaign movements, such as the campaign against genetically modified crops, were developed via the Internet, and were only later picked up by the major campaign organisations.
This force has serious implications for how the major NGOs will work in the future. The current 'activist' generation has not been raised with this technology. The next one will be. The NGOs therefore have perhaps ten years to change how they work, or perhaps suffer the same fate that political parties are suffering today. Already some organisations talk of a 'crisis in volunteering'. This is one interpretation. Another is that people are no longer willing to work for a cause they do not have an active part in directing.
A Brief Guide to Free Range Activism The Internet, Disintermediation and Discourse in Civil Society
http://www.fraw.org.uk/rangers/general/free_range_activism.shtml