Abstract

In the first decade of 21st century postmodern campaigning has apparently begun to turn into something else. First in the USA, the renewed attention toward local ground campaigning and the adoption of digital technologies that lower coordination and communication costs have led to an increased involvement of citizens. This has sparked several optimistic commentaries on the decentralizing and therefore democratizing potential of such new forms of campaigning, apparently substituting hierarchical command with the facilitation of peer-topeer interaction. However. as platforms are still centrally managed and access to data is limited campaign leaders continue to exert a high degree of control over the activities of volunteers. In this paper I will propose that it is not only the structure of digital platforms that shapes the levels of interactivity and decentralization, but also that of the human infrastructure; with this concept I refer to the ensemble of organizational structures and systems of representation and legitimation that shape the collective use actors make of digital tools. After proposing this framework, I will analyse the specific case of the 2019 Momentum ground campaign for the Labour Party in the General Election, the first case of fully fledged connective campaigning outside the USA, focusing on the interplay of centralization and decentralization and digital and human infrastructures