Catching youth's drift: Understanding collective action among a web 2.0 driven generation

This communication explores the complex relationship between the increased use of social media and how a younger generation gives meaning to collective action and chooses to convey social change. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with young adults (20-35 years old) in 2008-2010, we look beyond typical characterizations of a technology savvy generation, while trying to understand how the Web 2.0 may alter it’s everyday understanding of social and political participation. According to many, innovative uses of ICTs by transnational movements and cyberactivists has allowed for the emergence of new repertoires of actions, as illustrated by new networking strategies developed in recent international events: from the Kasbah protest to Occupy Wall Street. Recent studies even suggest “online activism” have profoundly transformed the very meanings and definitions associated with “collective action”, “community” and “social change”. Yet, surprisingly, very little attention has been given to the analyzing of these meanings. Therefore, this communication aims to transcend the barriers that usually divide organizational and political opportunity perspectives, by taking into account the role played by social media in the circulation and diffusion of interpretations, meanings and collective actions. Arguing for a flexible multidisciplinary approach, the theoretical groundwork suggested underlines the relational dimensions involved in the sharing of experiences and the diffusion of frames through “interpretative networks”. It also taps into constructivism and an older “collective behavior” definition, by drawing insights from Blumer’s (1969) cultural drifts theory. Finally, we suggest the need to rethink what we analyze and define as engagement, participation and social change. As informational and relational paradigms quickly transform, new theories and methodologies should pay crucial attention to the ways in which young actors choose to bring shifts in collective ways of thinking, acting and perceiving – on, or off the Web.