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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Iain Munro
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Whistleblowing is an important form of radical political activism, influencing social reform by fundamentally changing the way we see our world. This article contributes to understandings of whistleblower- activism in cases of wrongdoing on the part of state institutions. Extant theorizations of organizational whistleblowing fall short in explaining such instances. In contrast, this article develops four key dynamics of state whistleblower-activism: disclosures radically outside both organization and state, extreme dependence on supporters, democratic activism through alternative loyalties, and parrhesia revealing a crisis in Western democracy. These insights are elaborated through in-depth exploration of the exemplar case of U.S. national security whistleblower Edward Snowden. We argue that the emergent concept of ‘exilic whistleblowing’, inspired by Hannah Arendt’s work on exile, offers novel insights. Contributions extend understandings of whistleblowing theory and practice highlighting critical aspects of exilic whistleblowing as activist resistance: how it can be used strategically as part of activist critique aimed at changing the status quo, and how the exiled whistleblower acts as a vanguard helping to bring about a new political consciousness concerning the state of modern democracy and its capacity to uphold constitutional and international human rights.
Author(s): Munro I, Kenny K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Organization
Year: 2024
Volume: 31
Issue: 6
Pages: 994-1008
Print publication date: 01/09/2024
Online publication date: 30/08/2023
Acceptance date: 27/07/2023
Date deposited: 17/08/2023
ISSN (print): 1350-5084
ISSN (electronic): 1461-7323
Publisher: Sage Publications
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084231194824
DOI: 10.1177/13505084231194824
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/f1r0-3y21
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