scholarly journals Digital Solidarity, Analog Mobilization: An Ethnography of the Technology-Embedded Protest Networks of the Québec Student Strike

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug Tewksbury
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Changement Social ◽  
Mouvements Sociaux ◽  
The Social ◽  
Democratic Action ◽  
Community Belonging ◽  
Community Organizers

Background  This article presents the results of an ethnographic study of the online and offline communities participating in the “Maple Spring” student strike in Québec as a case study for theorizing the trajectory of the technology-embedded social movement. AnalysisAnalyzing data collected during field visits that include over 50 interviews with participants, community organizers, union representatives, community-media producers, and activists, this article argues that it is the practices of online-offline sharing, belonging, strategizing, and affectively being together that allowed for a hybridized practice of social movements to translate into concrete direct democratic action. Conclusions and implications  The social and mobile media uses of the Québec student-strike participants suggest that the strategy of using mediated exchanges in order to both build community belonging and share information/knowledge can be effective in mobilizing boots-on-the-ground actions as a means of democratic participation and social change for today’s hybridized social movements and direct actions. Contexte  Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude ethnographique sur les communautés en ligne et hors ligne qui ont participé à la grève étudiante du Printemps érable au Québec. Cette étude de cas sert à l’analyse de la trajectoire de ce mouvement social renforcé par certaines technologies de la communication.Analyse  L’auteur a recueilli des données à partir d’enquêtes de terrain comprenant plus de 50 entretiens avec des participants, des organisateurs communautaires, des représentants syndicaux, des producteurs de médias communautaires et des activistes. En se fondant sur une analyse des données recueillies, l’auteur soutient que c’est une combinaison de pratiques hybrides (partage, solidarité, formulation de stratégies, camaraderie, et ce, tant en ligne que hors ligne) qui a permis la mise en œuvre d’une forme de démocratie directe.Conclusions et implications L’utilisation de médias sociaux et mobiles par les participants au Printemps érable montre qu’il peut être efficace de recourir à des technologies de la communication pour créer un sentiment d’appartenance communautaire et pour partager des informations et savoirs. Ces technologies peuvent en outre motiver les participants à entrer dans le feu de l’action, encourageant la participation démocratique et le changement social au sein des mouvements sociaux hybrides et de l’action directe d’aujourd’hui.

scholarly journals Violence expressive, e-participation et mouvements sociaux: le caractère identitaire des revendications politiques

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Paton
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Participatory Media ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Mouvements Sociaux ◽  
Political Dimensions

While expressive violence as a disruptive event is an instrument used in social movements, the changing media landscape has renewed the methods linked to this form of action and the investigation possibilities of its sociological origins. This double evolution is grasped here: the article observes how participatory media co-determine political messages when expressive violence serves as a vector for social movements and then considers the sociological roots from which this form of action stemmed and developed. The phenomenon of school shootings serves as a case study. A three-year ethnographic study of the e-participations published by authors of expressive violence and their public on YouTube serves to show how participatory media renew forms of adherence and social protest. It also unveils the reasons for this type of action. The author demonstrates how these media usages are exploited as a means of individuation, this use prevailing over their political dimensions. The expressive violence is actually used by some social movements not to promote ideals or political aspirations but rather to glorify individuality, sometimes posthumously, and to send a message of vengeance, demanding recognition as an individual from an imaginary enemy.

Mobile Media and Social Interaction

2016 ◽  
pp. 357-379
Author(s):  
Manuel José Damásio ◽  
Sara Henriques ◽  
Inês Teixeira-Botelho ◽  
Patrícia Dias
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
Mobile Media ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transformation Processes

This chapter discusses the new social configurations society is undergoing on the basis of media emergence. Media are embedded in the arousal of communication and information transmission becoming the form, the infrastructure and the institution for the social and culture. This chapter focuses on mobile communication, having as central goal to debate on the processes of mediatization and mediation of society, as well as on the processes of belonging and social cohesion. Data from mobile internet adoption and use will be discussed in the light of the above mentioned theoretical approaches. An empirical case study will also be approached and results will provide contributions for the understanding of this type of technology adoption processes and the increasing importance of mobility in cultural and social practices, promoting an exciting discussion on the centrality of media nowadays and the current transformation processes society is undergoing.

scholarly journals Care and Education. a Case Study: Understanding Professional Roles and Identities of Teachers Within A Welsh Pru

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Phil Smith ◽  
Mark Connolly
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Academic Needs ◽  
Professional Work ◽  
Complex Needs ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Approach To Teaching

This paper considers the professional work of teachers within Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in Wales. Traditionally neglected by both policy and research, PRUs have become a focus of attention due to debates around attainment and the 'off rolling' of pupils from traditional schooling. Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of one Welsh PRU, this paper illustrates how teachers working within PRUs see themselves as occupying a hybrid space between teacher and social worker within a social pedagogic approach to teaching. We illustrate how this approach is underpinned by a strong moral and ethical account of their professional work. From this we illustrate how policy scrutiny and Welsh educational reforms have resulted in changes to teachers' perceptions of their working role and identity. While this policy focus is welcomed we suggest that any accountability frameworks introduced to judge Welsh PRU success need to adopt a highly contextualised approach which recognises the complex needs and backgrounds of PRU pupils and does not reduce success to only measures of academic attainment. By recognising the hybrid nature of professional practice and developing metrics of success which capture the social as well as academic needs of pupils within the Welsh PRU setting, Welsh Government (WG) will reinforce the social pedagogic approach of Welsh PRU teachers.

scholarly journals Interculturalización fallida. Desarrollismo, neoindigenismo y universidad intercultural en Yucatán, México

Revista Trace ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Genner de Jesús Llanes Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Mouvements Sociaux ◽  
The Social ◽  
Failed Attempt ◽  
Different Sources ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

En el presente artículo sugiero que si bien la “interculturalidad” se ha convertido en un término de moda entre los movimientos sociales y las instituciones gubernamentales, su contenido real es sujeto de constantes disputas y negociaciones debido a su propia naturaleza transformativa y cuestionadora. La reflexión se basa en el fallido intento de creación de una universidad intercultural en el estado de Yucatán. Con información recopilada de fuentes diversas (entrevistas, observación participante y notas periodísticas) se presenta aquí un ejercicio de análisis de la compleja interfaz entre los distintos actores sociales, sus definiciones propias acerca de la interculturalidad y los contextos históricos y políticos desde los que actúan. Una de las ideas principales que se proponen es que para evaluar la interculturalización de este tipo de proyectos se debe prestar atención tanto al proceso de construcción y negociación de éste como a su resultado.Abstract: In the present work I would like to advance the idea that while “interculturality” has become a buzzword within the social movements and governmental fields, its actual boundaries are constantly contested given its transformative and questioning nature. This reflection draws on the failed attempt at creating the Intercultural University of Yucatan. With information collected from different sources (interviews, participant observation and events reported on newspapers) I undertake the analysis of the complex interface between different social actors, their own ideas about interculturality and the historical and political contexts where their actions take place. My contention in this paper is that, in order to assess interculturalization of specific projects, attention should be equally paid to both the process of construction and negotiation and to the final outcomes of those projects.Résumé : Dans cet article, j’avance que, bien que « interculturalité » soit devenu un terme à la mode au sein des mouvements sociaux et des institutions gouvernementales, son contenu réel est cependant l’objet de nombreuses disputes et négociations, ceci à cause de sa nature transformative et interrogatrice. Le point de départ de cet exposé est la tentative manquée de création d’une université interculturelle dans l’état de Yucatán. Grâce à l’information obtenue de différentes sources (entrevues, observation participante et notes journalistiques), est présenté ici un exercice d’analyse de l’interface complexe entre les différents acteurs sociaux, leurs propres définitions au sujet de l’interculturalité et les contextes historiques et politiques d’où ils tirent leur origine. Une des idées principales proposées ici est que, pour évaluer l’interculturalisation de ces types de projets, il est indispensable de prêter attention autant à leur processus d’élaboration et de négociation qu’au résultat même.

Space in a Social Movement: A Case Study of Occupy Central in Hong Kong in 2014

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 434-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xu Wang ◽  
Yu Ye ◽  
Chris King-chi Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Occupy Central

Few studies have examined the role of space in social movements. The existing studies have primarily emphasized the physical nature of space (e.g., space as distance) and overlooked other attributes of space, such as space as the materialization of power relations and space as lived experience. In this article, we explore the role of space in social movements based on a case study of the Occupy Central in Hong Kong in 2014. During the protest, the organizers occupied and reconfigured the campuses and mobilized the participants both through and in space. We find that the campus space helped stimulate the feelings and emotions of the students and increased their enthusiasm to participate in the demonstration. The participants were then sent from the campuses (mobilization spaces) to the demonstration spaces where they occupied and transformed the urban public spaces into private spaces, thus leading to contention over and of space with the state powers. Our findings reveal that the campus space is an important resource that organizers can use for mobilization. We also find that the special features of a campus, including aggregation, networks, isolation, and homogeneity, can facilitate the formation of social movements. We argue that the three attributes of space interact with one another in facilitating the social movement. Thus, our findings suggest that space acts as not only the vessel of struggle but also a useful tool and a target of struggle.

Losing space in Occupy London: fetishising the protest camp

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Halvorsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
The Social

This chapter examines the case study of Occupy London and argues that the protest camp is inevitably susceptible to fetishisation, understood as the subordination of process to form. It begins by examining the work of Henri Lefebvre and John Holloway – two authors who discuss the challenges of creating counter forms from below - in order to ground the discussion in theoretical debates surrounding fetishisation and institutionalisation. Based on militant research with Occupy London – involving interviews, ethnography and archive analysis - the remainder of the chapter examines the losing of Occupy London’s principal occupied space, the camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral, and points toward a wider set of issues surrounding protests camps and territorial forms of struggle. It concludes by conceptualising the protest camp as an antagonistic form that necessarily exists against-and-beyond the social movements that constitute it.

scholarly journals Beyond Social Media Determinism? How Artists Reshape the Organization of Social Movements

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630511775071 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Cossu
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Organizational Models ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Creative Workers ◽  
Digital Methods

Artists and creative workers are engaged once more in the social and political space. In the current wave, which started in the early 2010s, they have taken part in broad social movements (e.g., Occupy, Tahrir Square), created movements of their own (e.g., Network of Occupied Theaters in Italy and Greece), experimented with alternative economic models and currencies (e.g., Macao and D-CENT), carried out social research and radical education, partnered with institutional and social actors, supported neighborhoods, filled the void left by states’ retreat from the social, and hosted and co-produced art at a time when the budget for culture and independent art is being decreased in numerous countries across the world. This article aims to investigate the organizational and relational aspects of artistic social movements. Drawing on a 2-year-long ethnographic study conducted for my PhD dissertation and deploying a number of research techniques, including participant observation, digital methods, and semi-structured interviews, I propose a new understanding of the meaning of organization in contemporary artistic social movements. My article, focusing especially on data gathered on Macao, “The New Centre for Arts, Culture and Research of Milan,” constitutes an attempt to reflect on emerging organizational models in social movements.

Uses and Abuses of “State and Civil Society” in Contemporary Turkey

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Navaro-Yashin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Social Scientific

The categories of “state” and “civil society” have too often been used as oppositional terms in the social sciences and in public discourse. This article aims to problematize the concepts of “state” and “civil society” when perceived as separate and distinct entities in the discourses of social scientists as well as of members of contemporary social movements in Turkey. Rather than readily using state and society as analytical categories referring to essential domains of sociality, the purpose is to transform these very categories into objects of ethnographic study. There has been a proliferation of discourse on “the state” and “the civil society” in Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s. This article emerges out of an observation of the peculiar coalescence of social scientific and public usages of these terms in this period. It aims to radically relativize and to historically contextualize these terms through a close ethnographic study of the various political domains in which they have been discursively employed.

scholarly journals Transformative Adult Learning in New Social Movement – a Case Study from South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-171
Author(s):  
Marta Čubajevaitė
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Abstract New social movements in South Africa could play a prominent role in mobilizing the communities to reflect critically and address the repercussions of the neo-liberal agenda which manifests itself in perpetual exclusion of under-educated adults and provision of poor quality education. Few studies especially from the perspective of the activists leave a potential research area of a very interesting phenomenon of how people learn while struggling for social justice. Therefore this article based on a single multi-site case study on a social movement cohering around literacy issues in Gauteng, South Africa, aims at answering, what forms of learning and education the social movement encompassed, how did the group conscientization occur and what are the individual transformations. Semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion were held with 13 learnersactivists and 2 adult educators. By applying Mezirow’s individual transformation and Freirean group conscientization models the analysis of primary and secondary data, revealed that the engagement in the social movement challenged and changed learnersactivists’ understanding of educational status within their respective communities. This in turn led to transformative action addressing the problems identified. On the individual level, some learners-activists became more tolerant and willing to cooperate with those of different political ideologies, able to tap into community resources. Finally, the potential of social movements as adult learning environments are outlined.

scholarly journals Social Movement based on Religiosity as a New Model of Social Movements in Jakarta (The 212 Social Movement in Jakarta 2016)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Ubedilah Badrun
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
News Media ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
National Monument ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Main Motive ◽  
New Social Movement

Social movements can be understood as a group of people organized in self-awareness that continuously challenges the existing system and values. This study aims to read the phenomenon of the 212 Movement (2016) in Jakarta, Indonesia using the perspective of the theory of social movements (1848-2013). This research used qualitative approach with descriptive methods. Data collected through observation, interviews and analysis of literatures and news media. This case study found the Movement 212 was able to mobilize millions of people including the category of the Social movement Based on Religiosity because militancy that mingled with voluntary attitudes that were seen in the behavior of the figures and the mass of the action. The religious basis is the main motive for the new social movement 212. The 295.8 km long march carried out by the Ciamis community led by K.H. Nonop Hanafi towards the Jakarta National Monument which later inspired the Bogor and Bekasi people to do the same is a fact of militancy and voluntary which is carried out with a high and sincere awareness on the basis of their religiosity. There are five main actors of this movement, K. H. Nonop Hanafi, Bachtiar Nasir, Muhammad Zaitun Rasmin, Muhammad Alkhathath, and Habieb Rizieq Shihab. This movement has a semi-moderate Islamic ideology with the Islamic model Ahlussunnah Waljama'ah. The implication of this research is the New social movement 212 can uphold Islamic values by upholding the law against what they call the Islamic oppressors. And the other side, the New social movement 212 can be strengthening ukhuwah Islamiyah (Islamic brotherhood), ukhuwah wathoniyah (nationalism), and demanding justice for all the people of Indonesia.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document