Deciphering the Paradox of Digital Citizenship

This article deciphers the apparent paradox of democratic citizenship in Western societies that are deeply affected by digital technologies. This paradox of digital citizenship, for short, consists in the fact that the contemporary literature suggests that digital technologies are both empowering and disempowering democratic citizenship. To decipher this paradox, the article provides a multi-perspectival analysis of digital citizenship, showing that depending on whether the focus is on agential or structural aspects, national or transnational scales, or ideal or nonideal approaches to democratic citizenship, one will deem digital technologies either empowering or disempowering. This result suggests that, by clearly identifying the perspective from which the relationship between digital technologies and democratic citizenship is analyzed, there is no paradox of digital citizenship.