Communication in Collective Action

What is a Social Movement? …Collectivities acting with organizational coherence outside institutional channels with the aim of challenging, resisting or overturning such systems. Snow / Soule, 2011: 6 …an organized effort to change laws, policies, or practices by people without power to make change through conventional channels. Francesca Polleta …an effort by individual / group actors to confront a perceived injustice by mobilizing political, economic, and cultural power collectively in order to remedy the injustice and change the values of society. Marshall Ganz …an organized effort to redefine society’s cultural values in order to promote change. Touraine, 2002: 90

What is a Social Movement? …Collectivities acting with organizational coherence outside institutional or organizational channels with the aim of challenging, resisting or even overturning such systems. Snow / Soule, 2011: 6

What is Necessary for Collective Action? Injustice Trigger that amplifies Injustice. Claim (Story) that explains why is it necessary to correct Injustice, and seeks to attract people to the cause by projecting a vision of something better. Communications Infrastructure that spreads the story about Injustice, the Trigger, and the Claim. Repertoires (practices) that challenge structures of power that elicit consent.

Power, Order, and Consent Society functions on the basis of consent in which individuals / organizations submit to institutionalized rules of power and order. Social movements challenge institutionalized rules of power and the systems of belief underlying power in presenting an alternative.

‘Hegemony’ and Theorizing Order Society consists of a political order which rules through law and force, and a civil society which rules through consent. For Gramsci, such consent was the basis of ‘culture’ in which a dominant ideology or world view prevailed. Gramsci use the term cultural hegemony to describe dominant ideologies to which we give our tacit consent. Breaking this cultural hegemony was the key to social change.

‘Discipline’ and Theorizing Order Modern society requires new forms of control over citizen-subjects to create order. Older more brute forms of control were no viable in forcing modern subjects to conform. The new forms of control were more subtle and seemingly less harsh. Such new forms of control were inspired by techniques used in modern prisons to make prisoners submit to rules of conduct. These techniques of domination diffused to other modern institutions in which we become regimented subjects. Foucault called this process “discipline.”

Order, Consent and Social Movements Key Questions How do people come to understand their consent to order as somehow intolerable? How do people come to act collectively to change what they believe to be intolerable?

Communication in Collective Action

Communication and Social Movements How is communication situated in modelling protest and social movements? What is the relationship of media to collective activity? How do we understand communication and the notion of social “ties” between people? What are the different arguments about media, social ties and collective action?

Gamson The Movement / Media Transaction What does Gamson mean by the “movement / media transaction?”

Gamson The Movement / Media Transaction Conventional media? Social media?

Gamson The Movement / Media Transaction Validation Mobilization / Expansion

Gladwell / Strong Ties What makes people participants in activism? [Degree of personal connection between individuals and movement – STRONG TIES.

Gladwell / Weak Ties What kinds of connections does social media promote? Social media promotes weak ties between individuals. Weak Ties promote networks; strong ties promote hierarchies.

Repertoires / Ties What does Gladwell argue are the types of repertoires necessary for social movement? What type of ties are necessary to promote such repertoires

Shirky What does Shirky argue about social media and social change?

Shirky What does Shirky argue about social media and social change? “social media have become coordinating tools for nearly all of the worlds political movements,…” (p. 30) “…changes in the life of a country, including pro-democratic regime change, follow rather than precede the development of a strong public sphere.” (p. 32)

Corrigall-Brown / Freeman How do people come to understand their consent to order as somehow intolerable? How do people come to act collectively to change what they believe to be intolerable?