From Affordances to Repertoires of Contention

This chapter analyzes the political circumstances and opportunities under which mobile phones emerge as a repertoire of contention. It argues that we should not just look at the use of communication technologies in contention. Instead, an investigation necessitates the perception of communication technologies as a repertoire of contention on the basis of affordances that structure the possibilities of the use of technology. Through fieldwork and in-depth interviews, this chapter indicates that taking (certain functions of) mobile phones as protest repertoire derives from a confluence of given social group’s habitus of media use that manifests particular affordances and the learned experience of the contested means of the past in official mass communication. More interestingly, communication and metacommunication of official media coverage of information and communication technology-mediated political activism modularizes and legitimizes the use of mobile phones in protests, and hence shapes specific ways people have harnessed their mobile phones as a key contentious repertoire.

Toward a Synthetic Framework

In line with the existing scholarship that underlines the relevance of communication, this chapter outlines a framework that integrates knowledge from the fields of communication studies, sociology, and political science and that centralizes and sensitizes communication enabling an interrogation of contentious collective action and, not least, the possible influence from ICTs. Without a scrutiny of the various forms of communication and metacommunication in contention, I specify, it would be hard to rationalize the relevance of digital communication technologies in contentious collective action. Issues of methodology are also discussed in Chapter 2.

Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the implication of the embedding of mobile communication into politics in contemporary China. The political relevance of mobile technologies relies not just on their capacity for providing affordable communication to human agency and generating new mediated visibility, but the relevance of these devices also relies on their capacity to carve out new opportunities for political action, to accumulate social resources as mobilizing structures against authoritarianism, and to shape people’s perception of their (potential) political agency or political subjectivity. Whereas mobile communication technologies entail new affordances to the Chinese people who are engaging in politics, the conclusion further broadens the scope of investigation to cases of political contention beyond China in order to illustrate how and to what extent the communication-centered framework may shed light on the case beyond China to more precisely pin down the influence of ICTs on contentious collective action.

“To Retweet Each and Every Rumor”

This chapter discusses the practice of rumor diffusion via mobile communication, or what I call “mobile rumoring,” against the hegemonic discourse of the authorities. What drives easy diffusion and proliferation of rumor via mobile phones and other ICTs, even in the face of intensified rumor control, surveillance, and punishment from the regime? As the answer unfolds, the Chinese state’s strategies to suppress communication in the guise of so-called rumor unwittingly establishes the socio-cultural foundation for rumor proliferation, while the official denunciation of rumor becomes a political opportunity that triggers the collective practice of rumor diffusion against the authorities. The call for rumor dissemination thus becomes both an action—a type of tactic, or covert resistance—and a frame to contest communication control and political manipulation by the authorities. Both contested identity and dissenting emotion join as counter-authority initiatives that represent the dynamic behind mobile rumoring in China today.

Introduction

The introduction assesses and identifies lacunae and challenges in the existing literature on ICTs and contentious collective action. Through a survey of relevant scholarship on social movement and contentious politics, this chapter proposes to explicitly make communication a key element in a tripartite framework of contentious politics and social movements and, further, to regard communication as an intermediary between ICTs and contentious collective action. The introductory chapter further elucidates the embeddedness of mobile communication technologies within Chinese society and, thus, it has become a context for (political) action as well and can therefore have an impact on contentious politics.

More Than Words

Ingrained into everyday life, mobile communication has woven itself into contemporary social relationships and networking, shaping the structure of society. Yet, what kinds of change are made possible with the introduction of mobile communication into political contention? This chapter advances this topic by probing the mobilization dynamics of mobile communication. I argue that the concept of reciprocity deserves a central place in the study of mobile-mediated micromobilization in light of the mobile phone as “a reciprocal technology” (Ling, 2013, p. 160) that functions most crucially as a mediator (or facilitator) of reciprocity. By taking guanxi-embedded, mobile-mediated mobilization in China in a series of case studies, this chapter sheds greater empirical and theoretical light on the influence of mobile communication on the process of mobilization and recruitment, as well as its broader political and social implications.