Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet AgeMuch attention has been paid in recent years to the emergence of "Internet activism," but scholars and pundits disagree about whether online political activity is different in kind from more traditional forms of activism. Does the global reach and blazing speed of the Internet affect the essential character or dynamics of online political protest? In this book the authors examine key characteristics of Web activism and investigate their impacts on organizing and participation. They argue that the Web offers two key affordances relevant to activism: sharply reduced costs for creating, organizing, and participating in protest; and the decreased need for activists to be physically together in order to act together. A rally can be organized and demonstrators recruited entirely online, without the cost of printing and mailing; an activist can create an online petition in minutes and gather e-signatures from coast to coast using only her laptop. Drawing on evidence from samples of online petitions, boycotts, and letter-writing and e-mailing campaigns, they show that the more these affordances are leveraged, the more transformative the changes to organizing and participating in protest; the less these affordances are leveraged, the more superficial the changes. The rally organizers, for example, can save money on communication and coordination, but the project of staging the rally remains essentially the same. Tools that allow a single activist to create and circulate a petition entirely online, however, enable more radical changes in the process. The transformative nature of these changes, they suggest, demonstrate the need to revisit long-standing theoretical assumptions about social movements.--Book jacket. |
Other editions - View all
Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age Jennifer Earl,Katrina Kimport Limited preview - 2011 |
Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age Jennifer Earl,Katrina Kimport No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
activists African Americans and/or argue automated Barry Wellman Bimber boycotts chapter civil rights claims collective action collective identity communication coordinated cost affordance create discuss e-mobilizations e-movements e-tactical forms Earl and Schussman effects email campaigns entirely online example Facebook facilitated fax campaigns Google Gurak hacktivism hosted or linked ICT usage impact important instance Internet large number letter-writing campaigns leverage the cost linked to e-tactics low cost ment MoveOn networks non-SMO sites nonwarehouse e-tactics nonwarehouse sites offline online actions online participation online petition online protest organizational paigns PetitionOnline physical copresence political population potential power law privacy policy processes protest actions protest opportunities repertoire of contention report participation resource mobilization sample Shirky signatures signers sites hosted SMOs social move social movement scholars social movement studies Sociology specific strategic voting supersize tactical forms target theoretical ticipation tion UFPJ URLs users warehouse e-tactics warehouse sites