scholarly journals Transnational social movements in the internet era: The case of „Avaaz”

Sociologija ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-517
Author(s):  
Mladen Stojadinovic

The paper will deal with concept and range of transnational social movements at the beginning of 21st century, which is a period characterized by huge growth of importance of new technologies and Internet. We will be interested in the role of transnational social movements which base or at least overwhelmingly organize their activity through Internet and social networks; ?Avaaz? will be taken as an example since it is the most popular activist community at the mentioned network. The key aim will be to describe and partly explain the possibilities that Internet provides for functioning of movements, but also to give indications of strategic and tactical changes in their actions, as well as of dangers such type of technology can cause in relation to practical social and political consequences. Firstly, it will shortly be spoken about the concept of transnational social movements, then about the relation between Internet and democracy, conditions that lead to development of new practices such as direct democracy or e-democracy and about the political participation on the Internet. Then the focus will move to ?Avaaz? movement, its recent features and activities, the ethics of this movement that might be defined as cosmopolitan, but also to critics that might be directed to ?Avaaz?. The final part of the paper will be devoted to considerations on transnational social movement?s future and their real and potential impact on emergence of global civil society, in order to assess the achievements of this particular and similar movements.

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Dahl Crossley

Social networks and interpersonal ties are critical to social movements. They help recruit members, sustain organizations, nourish participants' movement identities, and disseminate information. Scholarship has pointed to the formative role of social media and other information and communication technologies in online and offline mobilization. Questions remain, however, regarding how online social and friendship networks shape social movements. In this article, I draw from literature on social networks, online mobilization, and women's movements to examine the role of online feminist social networks in feminist mobilization. Presenting qualitative data from a racially and geographically heterogeneous group of college feminists, I argue that Facebook and feminist blogs enlarge and nourish feminist networks, create online feminist communities, expand recruitment bases for online and offline mobilization, and increase opportunities for online interaction with adversaries. Finally, I consider generational shifts in the feminist movement, and the broader relationship between friendship networks and online and offline mobilization.


Author(s):  
Mahesh K. Joshi ◽  
J.R. Klein

New technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, machine intelligence, and the Internet of Things are seeing repetitive tasks move away from humans to machines. Humans cannot become machines, but machines can become more human-like. The traditional model of educating workers for the workforce is fast becoming irrelevant. There is a massive need for the retooling of human workers. Humans need to be trained to remain focused in a society which is constantly getting bombarded with information. The two basic elements of physical and mental capacity are slowly being taken over by machines and artificial intelligence. This changes the fundamental role of the global workforce.


2021 ◽  

The current political debates about climate change or the coronavirus pandemic reveal the fundamental controversial nature of expertise in politics and society. The contributions in this volume analyse various facets, actors and dynamics of the current conflicts about knowledge and expertise. In addition to examining the contradictions of expertise in politics, the book discusses the political consequences of its controversial nature, the forms and extent of policy advice, expert conflicts in civil society and culture, and the global dimension of expertise. This special issue also contains a forum including reflections on the role of expertise during the coronavirus pandemic. The volume includes perspectives from sociology, political theory, political science and law.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-94
Author(s):  
Reza Abedi ◽  
Fatemeh Daneshvar Muhammadzadegan ◽  
Roqayyeh Sadat Hosseini Kerman ◽  
Fatemeh Miri Kolah Kaj

With an ever-increasing development of internet communications, human reactions have interred a new phase. The results of these communications are a most significant matter considered by the sociologists. Using the internet is developing and forms a significant part of individuals` lives. The advantages and disadvantages of this easiness in communicating and traveling through boundaries should be considered. Breaking the norms happened in the light of these reactions should be discussed, also increasing in awareness and availability to information, joining to global information networks and communication is another face of this placeless and timelessness. This contrasting face challenges the position of cyber space in the social communications, a challenge of which there is no escape by the society. In this research it is an attempt to criticize this challenge through criticizing the position of internet and to consider the role of social networks. We suppose that it is not possible to neglect the advantages of virtual space in developing a new level of human occasions but via this method lack of proper awareness in principle using of it results in some problems which should be covered by a proper training and comprehensive informing. Online spaces penetrate in human`s life in an extended way and it is a good opportunity to have good use from social networks as the basic condition. The results of this presence form reaction in individuals which will be considered in the present study.


Author(s):  
Encarnación Soriano-Ayala ◽  
Adán Hermosilla-Rivera ◽  
Verónica C. Cala ◽  
Rachida Dalouh

ABSTRACT This work addresses the risk that adolescents face when they misuse the Internet. The results of an investigation carried out with 206 adolescents about the use of Internet, cyberbullying and sexting are presented. The results showed that parents of adolescents are unaware of their children's use of social networks, girls practice sexting more than boys, and there are more boys who practice cyberbullying in the role of executioner, while girls star in it as the victim.RESUMENEste trabajo aborda el riesgo que corren los adolescentes cuando hacen un mal uso de Internet. Se exponen los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo con 206 adolescentes en los que se analiza el uso de Internet, el ciber acoso (ciberbullying) y el sexting. En los resultados señalamos que los padres de los chicos y las chicas adolescentes desconocen el uso que hacen sus hijos de las redes sociales, las chicas practican más el sexting que los chicos en la adolescencia, siendo el sexting una nueva forma de sexismo impulsado por las tecnologías, y son más los chicos que practican el ciberbullying en el rol de verdugo, mientras que las chicas lo protagonizan desde el papel de víctima.


1979 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Mowlam

CENTRAL TO THE STUDY OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICS IS THE IDEA of popular control over the activities of elites. More specifically, how can the preferences of citizens be aggregated into a political choice for a government policy or government personnel? Popular control, the effects of citizen participation in political life, is the basis of a major value orientation in the discipline: the notion of participant democracy. The degree of citizen participation becomes the key to the nature of democracry in a society : the more participation, the more democratic the political life of a country becomes. Political participation may take a variety of forms, e.g., running for office, holding office,voting, soliciting votes, and campaigning for, or contributing funds to, I the party of one's choice. However, voting is the most emphasized aspect of citizen participation, since it is the only form of active participation many engage in. The limitations placed on voting as a mechanism for popular control over political choices are well documented. Voters do not choose when to vote, nor the agenda. They have minimal input into the selection of candidates and the choice of issues which divide the parties at elections. Public participation in the selection and resolution of important policy issues between elections is severely restricted.


2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Correa ◽  
Joseph D Straubhaar ◽  
Wenhong Chen ◽  
Jeremiah Spence

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
D.G. SELTSER ◽  

The purpose of the article is to clarify the place and role of the decree in the general course of the political process and highlight its direct consequences for the fate of the CPSU and the USSR. The scientific literature on the topic is analyzed. It is concluded that scientists draw a direct connection between the final events of the history of the USSR – Yeltsin's decree about departisation, degradation of the CPSU, resistance to the Emergency Committee and the liquidation of the CPSU / USSR. The author describes the stages of the personnel actions of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In his opinion, the nomenclature system was expected: «construction» of the elite (1985–1987), elections in the party (1988–1990), elections in the state (1989–1990), decree about departisation (1991). The decree is seen as the final stage in the denationalization of the party. The CPSU, having lost power and property, ceased to be a state. The content of the decree, the behavior of political actors in connection with its adoption and the political consequences of the decree are considered. In conclusion, it is concluded that the decree was a domino effect, a provocation to the instant collapse of the USSR.


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