scholarly journals Analytic Activism and Its Limitations

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775071 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Karpf
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations

Some of the most important impacts of social media on social movement organizations come not through the new forms of speech that are created but through new forms of listening. This article discusses “analytic activism”—the practice of applying analytics and experimentation to develop new tactics and strategies, identify emergent mobilization opportunities, and listen to their members and supporters in new ways. After defining the key components of analytic activism, the article then develops and illustrates two boundary conditions—the analytics floor and the analytics frontier—that define the limited context within which analytic activism operates. The article concludes by highlighting how a focus on digital listening leads researchers to capture phenomena that have previously been ignored in the social media and collective action literature.

scholarly journals Activists in the dark: Social media algorithms and collective action in two social movement organizations

Organization ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 135050842096153
Author(s):  
Michael Etter ◽  
Oana Brindusa Albu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Information Overload ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Movement Organizations

It is widely established that social media afford social movement (SM) organizations new ways of organizing. Critical studies point out, however, that social media use may also trigger negative repercussions due to the commercial interests that are designed into these technologies. Yet empirical evidence about these matters is scarce. In this article, we investigate how social media algorithms influence activists’ actualization of collective affordances. Empirically, we build on an ethnographic study of two SM organizations based in Tunisia. The contributions of this paper are twofold. Firstly, we provide a theoretical framework that specifies how algorithms condition the actualization of three collective affordances (interlinking, assembling, augmenting). Specifically, we show how these affordances are supported by algorithmic facilitation, that is, operations pertaining to the sorting of interactions and actors, the filtering of information, and the ranking and aggregation of content. Secondly, we extend the understanding of how social media platforms’ profit-orientation undermines collective action. Namely, we identify how algorithms introduce constraints for organizing processes, manifested as algorithmic distortion, that is, information overload, opacity, and disinformation. We conclude by discussing the detrimental implications of social media algorithms for organizing and civic engagement, as activists are often unaware of the interests of social media-owning corporations.

Reinventing the Concept of Civic Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Lichterman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Movement Organizations

This article proposes a new and better concept of civic culture and shows how it can benefit sociology. It argues that a better concept of civic culture gives us a stronger, comparative, and contextual perspective on voluntary associations—the conventional American empirical referent for “civic”—while also improving our sociologies of religion and social movements. The article first considers the classic perspective on civic culture and its current incarnations in order to show why we need better conceptual groundwork than they have offered. It then introduces the alternative approach, which is rooted in a pragmatist understanding of collective action and both builds on and departs in some ways from newly prominent understandings of culture in sociology. This approach’s virtues are illustrated with ethnographic examples from a variety of volunteer groups, social movement organizations, and religious associations.

Mobilizing in Black Boxes: Social Networks and Participation in Social Movement Organizations

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Kitts
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Movement Participation

Recent research has focused on the role of social networks in facilitating participation in protest and social movement organizations. This paper elaborates three currents of microstructural explanation, based on information, identity, and exchange. In assessing these perspectives, it compares their treatment of multivalence, the tendency for social ties to inhibit as well as promote participation. Considering two dimensions of multivalence—the value of the social tie and the direction of social pressure—this paper discusses problems of measurement and interpretation in network analysis of movement participation. A critical review suggests some directions for future research.

scholarly journals Crossing Categorical Boundaries: A Study of Diversification by Social Movement Organizations

2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan J. Wang ◽  
Hayagreeva Rao ◽  
Sarah A. Soule
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Core ◽  
Movement Organization ◽  
Organizational Activity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Do So

When do protest organizations borrow issues or claims that are outside their traditional domains? Sociologists have examined the consequences of borrowing claims across movement boundaries, but not the antecedents of doing so. We argue that movement boundaries are strong when there is consensus about the core claims of a social movement, which we measure by cohesion and focus. Cohesion and focus enhance the legitimacy of a movement and impede member organizations from adopting claims associated with other movements. Analyzing movement organizational activity at U.S.-based protest events from 1960 to 1995, we find that a social movement organization is less likely to adopt claims from other movements when the social movement in which it is embedded exhibits high cohesion and focus. However, when movement organizations do borrow claims, they are more likely to do so by borrowing from movements that themselves exhibit high cohesion and focus. We describe the application of our findings to organization theory, social movements, and field theoretic approaches to understanding social action.

Sector-Level Dynamics and Collective Action in the United States, 1965-1975

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Larson ◽  
Sarah Soule
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Ecology ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Mixed Support ◽  
Movement Organizations

To explain varying levels of collective action by social movement organizations in the United States operating during the height of the 1960s protest cycle, this article examines social movement sector-level dynamics alongside indicators of resources and political opportunities. Drawing on hypotheses from neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness perspectives, the paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the sector-level dynamics of legitimacy, competition, and embeddedness when explaining levels of collective action. Results show strong support for neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness theories, but more mixed support for arguments about how political opportunities and resources affect levels of collective action by social movement organizations.

“The Moral Equivalent of Rosa Parks?” The New Christian Right’s Framing Strategy in the Latest Chapter of the Culture Wars

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Gayte
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Conservatism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Themes ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Movement Organizations

In evaluating recent developments in the New Christian Right (NCR), this paper uses the social movement theory approach of framing. Social movement organizations try to gain advantages with authorities and the public by framing their demands in ways intended to persuade people that their cause is valid. The most effective way of doing this is to align their specific issues rhetorically with larger cultural themes and values, which makes the frame accessible to larger audiences. After debating as to whether a conservative religious crusade can be considered a social movement, this paper examines the NCR as a collective movement whose influence on society and capacity to mobilize are heightened by resorting to the ‘discriminated minority’ framing strategy. I argue that viewing the NCR as a social movement allows us to deepen our understanding of both religious conservatism and of the culture wars. 

A feminist and decolonial perspective on passing the test in activist ethnography

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222
Author(s):  
Claire Jin Deschner ◽  
Léa Dorion
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
European Cities ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Movement Organizations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the idea of “passing a test” within activist ethnography. Activist ethnography is an ethnographic engagement with social movement organizations as anti-authoritarian, anarchist, feminist and/or anti-racist collectives. It is based on the personal situating of the researcher within the field to avoid a replication of colonialist research dynamics. Addressing these concerns, we explore activist ethnography through feminist standpoint epistemologies and decolonial perspectives. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on our two activist ethnographies conducted as PhD research in two distinct European cities with two different starting points. While Léa entered the field through her PhD research, Claire partly withdrew and re-entered as academic. Findings Even when activist researchers share the political positioning of the social movement they want to study, they still experience tests regarding their research methodology. As activists, they are accountable to their movement and experience – as most other activist – a constant threat of exclusion. In addition, activist networks are fractured along political lines, the test is therefore ongoing. Originality/value Our contribution is threefold. First, the understanding of tests within activist ethnography helps decolonizing ethnography. Being both the knower and the known, activist ethnographers reflect on the colonial and heterosexist history of ethnography which offers potentials to use ethnography in non-exploitative ways. Second, we conceive of activist ethnography as a prefigurative methodology, i.e. as an embedded activist practice, that should therefore answer to the same tests as any other practice of prefigurative movements: it should aim to enact here and now the type of society the movement reaches for. Finally, we argue that activist ethnography relies on and contribute to developing consciousness about the researcher’s political subjectivity.

scholarly journals What Strikes the Responsive Chord? The Effects of Framing Qualities on Frame Resonance among Protest Participants*

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Ketelaars
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Collective Action Frames ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Everyday Experiences ◽  
Or Organization ◽  
Movement Organizations

This study analyzes the extent to which collective action frames with certain qualities resonate with protesters. It goes beyond previous research on frame resonance by directly examining the frames that demonstrators use to motivate their participation and by comparing them with the frames of social movement organizations. The data consist of protest surveys from more than 5,000 participants in twenty-nine street demonstrations on various issues in three countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Results show that frames that appeal to people's everyday experiences resonate more than abstract or technical frames do. Also, resonance is higher when blame for the issue is put on a specific person or organization than when intangible forces or causes are held responsible. A comparison of two Dutch student demonstrations illustrates the results. These events were similar in most aspects but differed in framing and the extent to which protesters aligned with the organizers' frames.

Collective Life and Social Change in The GDR

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Deess
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Marked Effect ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Political Exclusion ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Opposition Movement

Research into East Germany's 1989 collapse often uses models developed for Western social movements which emphasize social movement organizations and activists. This approach may neglect important aspects of the social organization of everyday life in repressive contexts and how these affect social movement processes. Unlike the West, East Germany built social life around state-sponsored groups, called collectives, and these had a marked effect on the development of the opposition. Research presented here, based on interviews and archival documents, shows how collective discussions, although never oppositional in the fullest sense, facilitated grievance construction and an awareness of common political exclusion. Over the course of time, especially after Gorbachev's reforms, these practices laid the groundwork for mobilization in the relative absence of an opposition movement. Without understanding the concealed social movement processes operating within collective groups, the state's sudden, and peaceful, collapse is not easily explained.

Reinvigorating The Study of Organizational Processes in Social Movements

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Minkoff ◽  
John McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Organizational Fields ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations

We draw upon diverse theoretical perspectives in organizational analysis to identify four areas where a more serious interface between this "cognate" field and social movement research promises to deepen our understanding of social movement organizations (SMOs). These areas include conceptualizing social movements as organizational fields, thinking of activists as part of a labor market situated in the social movement sector, analyzing SMOs in terms of entrepreneurship and organizational change, and finally, looking more closely at processes of organizational decision making. We discuss studies by social movement scholars that implicitly or explicitly engage the cognate scholarship with an eye to identifying those areas where systematic research is lacking. We close by sketching some methodological approaches for addressing each of the lacunae we identify.

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