Collective Action 2.0. The Impact of Social Media on Collective Action. A volume in Chandos Information Professional Series

177 Pages·2017·1.69 MB·English

by  Shaked Spier (Auth.)

Chandos
soCial Media series
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Collective Action 2.0
The Impact of Social M edia
on Collective Action
Shaked Spier
Chandos Publishing is an imprint of Elsevier
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Copyright © 2017 Shaked Spier. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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To my grandfathers, role models and constant inspiration;
may you rest in peace.
Biography
Shaked Spier graduated in Information Science and Gender Studies at the
Humboldt University, Berlin. His research and writing includes a variety of
topics related to the connection between information and communication
technologies and society, information ethics, digital policies, and digital rights
using interdisciplinary approaches. At present, he works as project manager in
diverse information technology projects. Politically, he volunteers as spokes-
person of the workgroup on Internet policy, digital society, and digital rights in
the German leftwing party DIE LINKE and cooperates with various nongovern-
mental organizations in this field.
xi
Acknowledgments
Work on this project was a journey that began on that Mayday 2010 in Berlin,
while standing up to a Nazi march through my hometown, Berlin. It was a day
that gave me the first inspiration, which led to the writing of this book.
The journey continued as I wrote my thesis on the subject. Therefore I would
like to begin with expressing my appreciation to my lecturers Prof. Vivien Petras
and Olaf Eigenbrodt from the Humboldt University of Berlin for enabling me
to pursue a research topic somewhat outside the mainstream of our faculty.
During the writing of my thesis, I was inspired by the protesters of Tahrir
Square and Rothschild Boulevard, claiming their rights of freedom, democ-
racy, and social justice. In the years between these events and the completion
of the book, I had the pleasure of participating in movements and protests
that not only were academically intriguing, but also moved me as an indi-
vidual with grievances and anger, with hopes and dreams. I would like to
express my deepest thanks and appreciation to the many activists, protesters,
and movements—from good friends to total strangers—for the conversations,
ideas, insights, and inside views, especially to those with whom I had the plea-
sure to stand in the way of Nazi marches, demand social justice, protest against
the occupation in my homeland (Israel), and spend endless days and nights
preparing refugee accommodations, sorting clothing donations, serving food,
and building collectives I hitherto never thought possible. This book is their
accomplishment as it is my own.
I would like to thank the colleagues, friends, and fellow activists, who took
the time to exchange views on the topics discussed in this book; with special
thanks going to Rafael Capurro, Gad Yair, and Julia Schramm for their helpful
comments and ideas. And to Mathias Stallauke, that special someone, for all
the support and putting up with me during long days (and nights) of writing.
And last but not least, I thank George Knott, Harriet Clayton, Anna Valutkevich,
and Omer Mukthar from Elsevier for their editorial support and input on the
various stages of the work.
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
ABSTRACT
This chapter serves as an introduction to the topic of social media and collective
action. The chapter stresses the importance of addressing the discourse that
accompanies the topic. Furthermore, the connection between social media
and collective action is regarded as part of the continuous development of the
reciprocal relations between information and communication technologies
(ICTs) and collective action; and in a broader sense between ICTs and society.
Keywords: Collective action; Discourse; Hype cycle; ICTs; Labor day; Social
media; Social movement theory; Social networks.
CONTENTS
1.1 #1Mai_Nazifrei ..........................................................................................1
1.2 Hype Cycle and the Need for a Theoretical Framework ...........................3
1.3 Reciprocal Relation Between Information and Communication
Technology and Collective Action .............................................................8
1.4 Book Outline ............................................................................................10
References .....................................................................................................11
1.1 #1MAI_NAZIFREI
On Labor Day (May Day) 2010, the German right-wing party NPD planned to
march through the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood in Berlin. Over the years, a
tradition of peaceful protests that stand in the way of these provocative right-
wing demonstrations has emerged, which is supported by many civic move-
ments, activists, political parties, and civilians. Prior to the march on May 1,
2010, several activist and antifascist groups as well as an alliance called 1. Mai
Nazifrei (May Day without Nazis) called for counterdemonstrations, publish-
ing information regarding the Nazis’ organization and their demonstration’s
1
Collective Action 2.0. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-100567-5.00001-3
Copyright © 2017 Shaked Spier. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 CHAPTER 1: Introduction
possible routes.1 Using the gathered information, thousands of protesters tried
to achieve blockades at as many strategic points as possible, to block all possi-
ble routes and thus stop the march.
The counterprotests on that day, however, have added a new dimension to the
protest’s on-site organization—many protesters used Twitter to communicate
the developments on-site. Since there were many spots to block and the police
had put up a major effort to secure the area, communication between protest-
ers was crucial. Individuals used hashtags such as #1Mai or #1Mai_Nazifrei and
delivered updates regarding developments in their current locations (about the
music and cultural activities taking place in some spots; police (mis)treatment;
useful breaches in the police’s barricades; if the spot is occupied enough or if a
certain spot is understaffed and needs reinforcement to block the Nazi march),
retweeted other people’s messages, and provided those who did not make it
to the protests after the police sealed the area with information. Furthermore,
the 1. Mai Nazifrei alliance’s Twitter account was accompanying the counter-
protests, giving out important information and updates gathered from the alli-
ance’s activists on the field as well as from other activist groups and twitter
users among the protesters.
As a participant and observer, I was fascinated with the new dynamics that this
sort of real-time, ad hoc communication and organization has given the demon-
strations—a certain spot is understaffed? Escalation with the police at a certain
spot, so that other protesters should stay away? Information regarding a new alter-
native route that needs to be blocked? Good music and street dancing at one of
the spots? A few tweets get into circulation, amplified by retweets and the official
Twitter account, and many further protesters beyond those within the reach of
the “classical” on-site communication channels are informed and can act accord-
ingly. Especially, this communication has given the protesters advantage over the
hierarchical, centralized manner of communication deployed by the police.
At the end of the day, the NPD groups could not march for more than sev-
eral hundred meters, facing the first blockade of citizens who refused to let
this kind of groups enter their neighborhoods. Since the police had to seal
the surrounding area, many of the NPD sympathizers could not have reached
their demonstration’s starting point and the police, informed that all possible
routes were being blocked, canceled the Nazi demonstration. An alternative,
unregistered demonstration in a different part of town was stopped and the
participants were arrested.
The communication over Twitter was not the decisive factor of the 1. Mai Nazifrei
protests and their success, but rather a supplement to weeks of preliminary
1 Retrieved from: www.antifa-berlin.info/1mai2010/home.html.
1.2 Hype Cycle and the Need for a Theoretical Framework 3
research and fieldwork, on- and offline mobilization, on-site communication
between activists and protesters, as well as a complex mixture of German soci-
etal and historical aspects, resentments toward the NPD Party and Nazi ideol-
ogy, and a developed protest culture in the city of Berlin. Nonetheless, the new
qualities that the protests gained from the additional mode of communica-
tion were visible on several levels—mobilization of participants and resources;
dissemination of protest-relevant information, pictures, and videos (many of
them shared on social media platforms such as YouTube); and on-site ad hoc
communication, coordination, and organization.
The phenomenon that was hitherto still in emergence quickly became an integral
part of a wide arsenal of tools and methods applied by social movements and
activists around the world. The deployment of social media platforms has given
many instances of collective action (e.g., social protests, flash mobs, political cam-
paigns, collection of donations) new qualities that, in some cases, fundamentally
affected them. On the other hand, in many cases social media usage had nega-
tive effects such as demobilization, neglect of other important sources due to an
exaggerated belief in the power of social media or “the Internet,” being subjected
to state and/or corporate surveillance, or handing over power to those in control
of the platforms and infrastructure on which they are built. Furthermore, law-
enforcement and other state institutions have also adapted their methods to
handle the use of social media on demonstrations. For example, in many demon-
strations I visited in the past years in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, the police
force interfered with 3G cell-phone reception in the area of the demonstration,
which denied cellular Internet usage by demonstrators in a certain radius.
May Day 2010 was the occasion on which I became aware of the relation between
social media platforms and collective action. Over the following years, this
reciprocal relation was granted a considerable amount of media, social, and
academic attention. The attention to the subject peaked as the events of the
Arab Spring were framed as “Twitter revolutions” or “Facebook revolutions”
and continued during a wave of social protests around the world in the first
half of the 2010s. As the prominent quote of the journalist Andrew Sullivan
in light of the protests surrounding the Iranian 2009 elections declared: “The
revolution will be twittered” (Sullivan, 2009).
Or will it?
1.2 HYPE CYCLE AND THE NEED FOR A THEORETICAL
FRAMEWORK
The term Social Media, which describes a wide collection of technologies and
practices, comprises an essential, but in most cases hidden, aspect of technol-
ogies per se, namely, being social. Technologies are designed and deployed in
4 CHAPTER 1: Introduction
social contexts and therefore contain affordances and biases in their deploy-
ment. The reciprocal relation between technology, especially Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) and social media, and society is mani-
fold and will be critically examined from a variety of perspectives throughout
the book.
Beyond its social dimension, the application of technology—the manner in
which it is used, the objectives pursued by the users, etc.—is accompanied, in
turn, by a discourse. Framing the discourse regarding the application of social
media in the context of collective action is helpful to understand the reciprocal
relation between the former as a technology with implicit and explicit social
dimensions and affordances, and the latter as the social context, in which this
technology is applied.
The information technology research and consulting firm Gartner has devel-
oped the Hype Cycle methodology to represent what it terms as maturity,
adoption, and social application of specific technologies (Fenn and Raskino,
2008). In the Hype Cycle representation, Gartner claims that technologies go
through the following five stages in the adoption and application (Fig. 1.1):
1. Technology Trigger: “A potential technology breakthrough kicks things
off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant
publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is
unproven.”
2. Peak of Inflated Expectations: “Early publicity produces a number
of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some
companies take action; many do not.”
FIGURE 1.1
Gartner Hype Cycle. From Gartner, Inc., 2015. Research Methodologies: Gartner Hype Cycle. Gartner.
Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp.