In October 2017 #MeToo mobilised an international movement against sexual discrimination. What had started over a decade ago as grass root work in the South of the United States became a global community of survivors and allies. Local and global actions are now combined under the umbrella of #MeToo. Regarding the MeToo movement it is evident that the developmental conditions of political bodies and resistance practices have changed. One reason for this are social media and digital networks whose importance not only for the constitution of the MeToo-movement but also for the rise and conjuncture of populist, alt-right and fundamentalists groups in recent years, is undeniable. Nowadays, digital media enable alliances between people living in different geographical locations and time zones. MeToo serves as an example for deterritorialised practices of resistance, which are becoming increasingly important in times of new nationalisms, increasing territorial demands and hardening border regimes.
However, MeToo also shows that social media transformed the dynamics, scope and reference framework of actions and created new forms of participating in social and political processes. Via social media people are not only involved in local processes, but can participate in global politics. Moreover, we witness increasing reciprocal effects between actions on the global and local level in social networked formations.
In this paper I will argue that the term “affective net” can help to understand why people participate not only in local but in global fights and political processes. The term also allows to grasp the impact local and global actions have on each other and to see how alliances can be formed beyond territorial borders. I advance this term against the background of the immanent ontology of substance and affect theory Baruch de Spinoza proposes in the Ethics. By referring to the MeToo movement I aim to illustrate this affect-theoretical concept. Overall, I will formulate a contemporary approach towards political participation in networked societies and stress the importance of affects in political processes.

Marie Wuth is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Aberdeen and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow. She holds an M.A. in Philosophy and a B.A. in Cultural Sciences and Philosophy. Her research focuses on the role of affects for political agency and the formation and dynamics of political bodies.

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