By combining the main theoretical contributions of Structuralism, Phenomenology and Critical Theory, this article starts from the premise that the vulgarization of the term “network” has contributed for an apologetic understanding of contemporary phenomena related to the subjects of politics and comunication, including the practice of “cyberactivism”. In order to remove the ideological load of the concept, this article summarizes the changes in the relationship between individual and the public sphere since the ancient Greece, during the Industrial Revolution and in contemporary modernity. From this theoretical and historical context, it was possible to make a critical analysis of the correlation, present in common sense, between “cyberspace” and the public sphere, “cyberactivist” and political subject, as well as to point out the virtualization of nature and environmental issues, perpetrated by NGO campaigns. Thus, we present the concept of “electronic animal” as an allegory for an “antipolitics”, for the absence of the political dimension that characterizes men and distinguishes them from themselves and the natural domain.
Political Culture; Communication; Public Sphere; Environmentalism; New Technologies; Deterritorialization