Resistance Strategies: Exploring Hybrid Networks in the Shadow of Repression.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the study of repression within social movement research. The literature has significantly focused on how repression influences processes of civil society mobilization and, consequently, the ability of collective actors to respond strategically. However, in analyzing the dynamics of contentious politics, scholars have discussed the biunivocal relationship between repression and movements. On the one hand, these studies emphasized the centrality of context in limiting their scope of action (Tilly & Tarrow 2015), while on the other hand, underlining their strategic capacity to address challenges and resolve their own dilemmas (Jasper 2004). Besides, with respect to the latter agency-based approach, the strategic use of digital media has been rather framed with reference to the analytical categories of repertoire of action and tactics.

This article is an attempt to reconcile both perspectives under the lens of the processual-relationism approach. Considering digital media as intrinsic elements of the organizing (Diani 2015), rather than mere digital tools, it proposes to rethink their use as potential actors that can enhance social capital and chart new pathways for the expansion of the interorganizational social structure in support of collective efforts. By doing so, the dynamics of interactions between different actors, operating within the same field of action, can determine different turning points in the political process, which emerge as a result of the choices adopted by civil society organizations taking into account variations both the degree of repression adopted by the state and the availability of their resources. In this vein, adopting a processual perspective (Bosi & Malthaner 2023) can allow us to classify the different hybrid trajectories of mobilization in this new historical phase, pervaded by the massive use of digital platforms.