The challenges of anti-corruption technologies from the grassroots

The chapter further discusses Anti-Corruption Technologies (ACTs) through a structured reflection on four critical aspects. First, the chapter explores the symbolic elements of ACTs, highlighting their ability to evoke and embody three distinct democratic imaginaries: monitoring democracy, agonist democracy, and deliberative democracy. Second, the chapter examines the material components integral to ACTs, showing how anti-corruption practitioners combine different technologies, often in complex configurations, and emphasizing that the mere presence of material elements, such as robust Internet infrastructure, does not guarantee the adoption of digital media in anti-corruption efforts. Third, the chapter discusses the recombination of social elements within ACTs, highlighting the collaborative efforts required to construct composite ACTs. It illustrates how different social actors need to harmonise their aspirations, capabilities and anti-corruption perspectives when designing and creating ACTs. In the final section, the chapter synthesises key findings from the previous sections and delves into a nuanced consideration of the long-term sustainability of grassroots anti-corruption efforts using digital media. It considers how the interplay of symbolic, material and social elements in ACTs influences their durability over time, one of the key challenges facing grassroots anti-corruption.