XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 15-21, 2018)

808

Collective Action in the Digital Age

RC48 Social Movements, Collective Actions and Social Change (host committee)

Language: Spanish and English

With the arrival of Digital Communication Technologies era we are witnessing the enlargement of public sphere, characterized by a transformation of visibility of our private lives and individualisation of where we draw borders of our intimacy. In 60s, the slogan "the personal is political" made fortune as the axis of feminist movement mobilisation. Nowadays, this slogan could be reframed into "the personal is public". As a result, the political positions and thoughts are increasingly often disseminated through this newly created digital layer of public sphere. However, in the cyber space the dissemination capacity is not egalitarian, with the networked structure of online social relations giving relevance to certain agents or internet "stars" who are able to influence or create public discourses, often contributing to the ideological polarisation of our societies. This new scenario overlaps a global tendency of declining electoral participation and erosion of traditional political ideologies.

In this context, many social movements have seen an opportunity to renew the repertoire of collective action and activism by embracing the digital and social media tools. This development opens a new field of social movements analysis regarding, amongst others, the transformation of effects and impacts of collective action, the transformation of individual engagement and social movements strategies, the transition of social movement organizations into online structures or the creation of emotions and states of mind through online social media. The session aims at collecting reflections, research results and case studies that can bring some light to this field of analysis.