Biographical interviews with supporters of the 'Anonymous' movement

These interviews are concerned with how and why activists in the UK came to support the 'Anonymous' movement.
In the process they cover a range of biographical details and information, which are embedded with qualitative descriptions of how and why they arrived at particular political and epistemic positions.
As is customary in this form of anthropological research, the interviews are loosely structured around these themes, and many develop in a free-form way based on the questions which arose in the course of discussion.<p>This project is a study of how an ethical hacking movement known as 'Anonymous' mobilized into a significant form of street-based protest in the UK from November 2013-November 2016. Through the ethnographic methods of interviewing, participant observation and visual and discourse analysis, it sought to uncover why and how supporters of Anonymous came to 'join' the movement over the given time frame. In the process it uncovered that the imagery and discourses of Anonymous enabled its adherents to narrate experiences of personal transformation, and to connect these with real or desired transformations in the UK at large. For many therefore, Anonymous potentiated a particular form of politicization, widely known as 'waking up', which hinged on access to digitally-mediated communication and information.</p>