Three Prompts for Collective Action in the Context of Digital Media

2018 ◽  
pp. 6-20
Author(s):  
Bruce Bimber
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media

One Foot on the Streets, One Foot on the Web

2018 ◽  
pp. 443-453
Author(s):  
Paolo Gerbaudo
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Digital Communication ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Digital Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Web

Digital communication technologies are modifying how social movements communicate internally and externally and the way participants are organized and mobilized. This transformation calls for a rethinking of how we conceive of and analyze them. Scholars cannot be content with studying the digital and the physical or the online and the offline separately, but must explore the imbrication between these aspects by studying how the elements of social movements combine in a political “ensemble,” an ecosystem, or an action texture, defining the possibilities and limits of collective action. This chapter proposes a qualitative methodology combining analysis of digital media with observations of events and interviews with participants to develop a holistic account of collective action. This methodology is best positioned to capture the changing nature and meaning of protest action in a digital era, producing a “thick account” of the relationship between digital politics and everyday life.

#MeToo as a Connective Movement: Examining the Frames Adopted in the Anti-Sexual Harassment Movement in China

2020 ◽  
pp. 089443932095679
Author(s):  
Pengxiang Li ◽  
Hichang Cho ◽  
Yuren Qin ◽  
Anfan Chen
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Treatment Recommendation ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Collective Action Frames ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Personal Action ◽  
Media Platform

This study was aimed to contribute to understanding how networked yet fragmented online actors create meaning in digital media–enabled movements like #MeToo. By drawing upon a multidimensional framing analysis, this study investigated how personal action frames, collective action frames, and issue-specific frames were adopted in #MeToo movement in China, and it also shed light on how different groups of social actors respond to sexual harassment issues on Sina Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. This study employed computational content analysis to extract frames from a huge amount of traceable data (i.e., 16,187 Weibo posts) and uncovered seven specific types of frames categorized as personal experiences and emotional commentary (as personal action frames), injustice and opposition (as collective action frames), and problem definition, treatment recommendation, and related news (as issue-specific frames). The results revealed that personal action frames and collective action frames were widely adopted by females and ordinary users, whereas issue-specific frames were more commonly applied by males and organizational users. These empirical findings enhance our understanding of meaning construction with regard to digital media–enabled movements.

The Personalization of Politics

2012 ◽  
Vol 644 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Lance Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Transnational Organizations ◽  
Development Policies ◽  
Personal Action ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Personalization Of Politics

This article proposes a framework for understanding large-scale individualized collective action that is often coordinated through digital media technologies. Social fragmentation and the decline of group loyalties have given rise to an era of personalized politics in which individually expressive personal action frames displace collective action frames in many protest causes. This trend can be spotted in the rise of large-scale, rapidly forming political participation aimed at a variety of targets, ranging from parties and candidates, to corporations, brands, and transnational organizations. The group-based “identity politics” of the “new social movements” that arose after the 1960s still exist, but the recent period has seen more diverse mobilizations in which individuals are mobilized around personal lifestyle values to engage with multiple causes such as economic justice (fair trade, inequality, and development policies), environmental protection, and worker and human rights.

scholarly journals COLLABORATIVE ACTION IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: DIGITAL CAPITAL, PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND POWER NETWORKS

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1(3)) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frol Revin
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Digital Capital

The article explores potential consequences of utilizing digital networks viewed as a consolidating resource for generating trust and shared values necessary to establish credible commitments though e-driven cooperative pursuits. By taking advantage of research on web-facilitated collaborative algorithms I survey their importance for stimulating user civic engagement as well as highlight the resultant digital capital creation within the informational platforms in which they are embedded. Acknowledging the relevance of communication power in contemporary network societies (Castells) it becomes especially poignant to further analyze the fragmentation of authority brought about by ICT exposure rarely evident within the more conventional concentrated hubs of socio-political discourse. Specifically, I conjecture that compared to more traditional forms of public goods creation digital capital as a pioneering form of web-based interaction breads equally novel challenges for collective gains through the use of a virtually wholly decentralized architecture. With the development of ever more elaborate ways of communicating and connecting digital media allows us to make transparent and democratize the emergence of trend-generating communities that facilitate cooperation, discourage group bias while engendering trustworthiness across all levels of the social strata. Current research, thus, pursues the goal of scrutinizing if and how modern digital networks can be considered as effective, durable tools for accumulating social capital able to accrue critical mass necessary to give momentum to and spur its users towards solving collective action problems. While certain prominent theorists (Habermas, Bourdieu) can be interpreted to suggest that modern technology has had a detrimental effect on communal cohesion leading to slanted, overly manipulative depletion of networks through which it can take root and flow, the author has a more charitable outlook on the utility of digitally produced social capital. In particular, I contend that novel communication channels based on high speed broadband connection coupled with portable, on the go mobile communication have the capacity to create a broad societal nexus of trust by maintaining and multiplying bona fide social bonds. Keywords: cooperation, collective action, virtual networks, ICT, social capital, digital capital, communication power, public sphere, fields of influence

scholarly journals Occupy and the Temporal Politics of Prefigurative Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 490-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamilla Petrick
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Rapid Rise ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Prefigurative Politics ◽  
Temporal Dimensions ◽  
Major Cycle ◽  
And Diffusion

This article sheds new light on the Occupy movement by foregrounding its temporal dimensions, particularly in relation to a previous major cycle of transnational contention, the alter-globalization movement (AGM). The discussion engages three temporal considerations in particular: 1) the centrality of instantaneous digital media to both movements’ rapid rise and diffusion 2) the pervasiveness – especially within Occupy – of the temporal ethos of prefigurative politics, and 3) the sustainability and longer term legacy of the Occupy cycle, from the temporal vantage point of the year 2016, i.e. five years since the movement’s rise and prompt demise, and fifteen years since the peak of the AGM. The article’s conclusion insists on the importance of a long term vision when it comes to evaluating the outcomes of collective action.

scholarly journals DIGITAL MEDIA AND THE PERSONALIZATION OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 770-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Lance Bennett ◽  
Alexandra Segerberg
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media

Origin Stories

2020 ◽  
pp. 51-71
Author(s):  
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
Autonomous Movement ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Distinct Features ◽  
Movement Culture

Part II traces 15-M from its origins to the end of the occupation of Madrid’s central plaza, the Puerta del Sol. The Introduction to Part II argues for the need to distinguish analytically between the original 15-M protest, the 15-M occupation camps of the squares (or acamapadas), and the 15-M movement that adopted this label following the original protests and occupations. Although the three are closely connected, each have distinct features that shape their emergence and evolution. Distinguishing between them allows us to evaluate claims about spontaneity, newness, and the role of digital media and tools in creating new organizing logics of collective action. It also introduces key aspects of the Spanish asambleario autonomous movement culture that deeply influenced the organizational forms and orientations of the 15-M movement.

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